On October 3, 2025, Olha Kobylianska Chernivtsi Academic Regional Ukrainian Music and Drama Theatre, under the patronage of UNESCO and Europa Nostra, hosted the world premiere of the theatrical production of Dmytro Bortnianskyi’s Opera “Creont”, the manuscript of which was considered to be lost for almost 250 years.
The return of “Creont” is a significant event not only for Ukraine, but also for the world musical culture, because it confirms the contribution of the Ukrainian composer, who worked in the days of Mozart and Haydn, to European musical classics.
The Opera “Creont” was the first significant piece of music by Dmytro Bortnianskyi, written by him in Venice in 1776 at the age of 25. Staged at the Teatro San Benedetto in Venice, this staging immediately received numerous positive reviews. It was expected in European capitals. However the opera, which ended with the overthrow of tyranny by the people, could not be staged on the theatre stages of the absolute monarchies of the Habsburgs or Bourbons or the “autocratic” russian empire. At this time Voltaire, Diderot, Rousseau formed the manifesto of freedom and democracy, and the Great French Revolution was ahead. Bortnyanskyi’s “Creont” can be considered a musical piece of such a manifesto.
In 2023, in the Ajuda Library in Lisbon, the “Creont’s” score was accidentally found by Olha Shumilina, a professor at Lviv National Music Academy, Doctor of Art Criticism. After that, the meticulous work of a team of specialists to study and digitalize the musical material of the masterpiece began.
“The opera, as a global masterpiece in the public domain, received a new sound owing to a written arrangement for a modern performance, for which UANIPIO registered copyright in the autumn of 2024,” says Olena Orliuk, Director of the Ukrainian National Office for Intellectual Property and Innovations (UANIPIO/IP Office). “And today’s unsurpassed performance on the theater stage only confirmed the phenomenon of Bortnyanskyi and once again gave the right to claim the Ukrainian cultural heritage as an integral component of a multifaceted European culture.”
Natably, on November 11, 2024, in the Hennadii Udovenko Diplomatic Academy of Ukraine at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine in Kyiv “Creont” returned as a cultural heritage of Ukraine. The concert performance of the masterpiece brought together a wide range of Ukrainian and foreign cultural figures, politicians, diplomats, etc.
However, the performance of a theatrical production in Chernivtsi has become not only a national, but also a world cultural event. After all, the opera was performed on the stage of the only Ukrainian baroque theatre. The interior architecture of the Chernivtsi Theatre in its acoustic and aesthetic parameters corresponds to the authentic performance in San Benedetto, where the premiere took place, and is optimally suited for the staging of an opera of the XVIII century.
The implementation of the project with the support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Chernivtsi Oblast Council, Chernivtsi Oblast Military Administration and Chernivtsi City Council, owing to philanthropists and sponsors of Chernivtsi and Kyiv, as well as with the direct assistance of the communities of Bukovina and the city of Chernivtsi, has also become an unprecedented phenomenon for Ukraine in the context of the ongoing russian federation war of aggression against Ukraine.
It was also unique that the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) provided official patronage to the world premiere of a theatrical staging in Chernivtsi as the project “The return to the world of Dmytro Bortnianskyi’s first Opera “Creont”. Its author, as well as the conductor of the world premiere in a concert performance in Kyiv in 2024, and the world premiere of a theatrical staging in Chernivtsi in October 2025, was Herman Makarenko, a long-term UNESCO Artist for peace and head of the UNESCO Department, conductor of the National Opera of Ukraine, People’s Artist of Ukraine.
“Dmytro Bortnianskyi’s music is a real musical treasure that Ukraine is ready to share with other peoples and states. That is why we have started and are completing the publication of a whole set of sheet music from the Opera “Creont”,” says Herman Makarenko. “Reproducing the score of this masterpiece in a modern format is important not only for Ukraine. We are entrusted with a responsible and honorable mission to convey to the world the gift of Dmytro Bortnianskyi, embodied in the score.”
Currently, the studio recording of Ukrainian Dmytro Bortnianskyi’s Opera “Creont” is available on the online streaming platforms Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music, Deezer.
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