Nocturne (Lysenko)

Nocturne is an opera in one act by the Ukrainian composer Mykola Lysenko written in 1912 and first performed in Kyiv soon after composer`s death.

Libreto to this opera wrote Liudmyla Starytska-Cherniakhivska (1868–1941), the daughter of Mikhailo Starytsky (1840–1904), who was Lysenko`s friend. The same as in the previous opera Eneid", Lysenko retreated from patriotic themes and folklore and chose a modern plot, in which a folk song and romantic song contrast to each other as representations of the past and modern. As a characteristic motive for the old world, the composer chose the salon song "Vremia Nevozvratnoe", which sings his mother Olga Eeremiyevna Lutsenkova.[1] According to Sigrid Neef, "this opera geniusly reflects the position of the intellectual between the bourgeois revolution defeated and the socialist revolution".[2]

The opera entered the repertoire of Ukrainian theaters (for example, in 1927 it was first placed in Odessa), and in the 1930s it was broadcast on the radio in Lviv.[3] Opera rarely falls into the repertoire of theaters, but performed in opera studios of musical educational institutions, in particular conservatory in Kyiv[4] and Lviv.[5]