With war at home looming, a Ukrainian conductor arrives at the Met
Ukrainian conductor Oksana Lyniv was preparing to perform Puccini’s “Turandot” at the Metropolitan Opera this month when she saw the news: a Russian drone had hit a building in Odessa, not far from her in-laws’ home.
She called her family to make sure they were safe. But images of the attack, which included the victims of a young mother and children, lingered in her mind. As she conducted that evening, she felt the pain of war more acutely, she said, praying to herself as Liù, a selfless servant, died in the opera’s final act and the chorus fell silent.
“At that moment I saw all the suffering of the war,” she said. “How do you explain such sadness? How do you explain who should live and who should die?
Since the invasion, Lyniv, 46, the first Ukrainian conductor to perform at the Met, has used her platform to denounce the Russian government. She has also set out to promote Ukrainian culture, champion works by Ukrainian composers and tour Europe with the Youth Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine, an ensemble she founded in 2016.
The war has raised difficult questions for artists and cultural institutions. Russian artists are under pressure to speak out against President Vladimir V. Putin. Ukrainians have also faced questions, including whether they should perform Russian works or appear alongside Russian artists.
Lyniv, who now lives in Dusseldorf, Germany, sometimes felt caught in the middle. She protested last month when a festival in Vienna announced plans to combine her performance with a concert led by conductor Teodor Currentzis, who has come under scrutiny for his connections to Russia. (The festival canceled his performance.)
She also drew criticism in Ukraine for continuing to perform Russian music and collaborate with Russian artists, such as soprano Elena Pankratova, who sings the title role in the Met’s “Turandot,” which Lyniv conducts through April 19.
Lyniv defended her work saying: “We can’t be against each other just because of nationalities” and added that it was important for great composers to be heard.
“The masterpieces of Tchaikovsky, Stravinsky and Prokofiev – these are not Putin’s property,” she said. “We cannot allow politicians to abuse the music and the arts. Tchaikovsky would be against this war, I am sure.’
The choreographer Alexei Ratmansky, who grew up in Kiev and recently created a ballet about the war, met Lyniv after seeing her passionate posts on social media, where she wrote memories of young victims and posted photos of bombed buildings.
“She has an unwavering inner strength,” he said. “She knows what she’s doing, and she’s very determined. It’s just beautiful to observe such a full-fledged artist and character.”
Lyniv, who trained in the opera houses of Ukraine and later with Kirill Petrenko at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, has been praised for the sensitivity of her conducting.
She has also emerged as something of a pioneer in a field that is still very male-dominated. In 2021, she conducted “Der Fliegende Holländer” at the Bayreuth Festival in Germany, becoming the first woman to conduct there in its 145-year history. And in 2022, she took over as music director of the Teatro Comunale in Bologna, Italy, the first woman to hold that role.
Lyniv received a warm welcome at the Met, whose leaders have been critical of the war and have made efforts to promote Ukrainian artists and culture. Her portrait now hangs in a gallery alongside a dozen other Ukrainian artists who have performed at the Met, starting with the mezzo-soprano Ina Bourskaya, who made her debut in Bizet’s “Carmen” in 1923.
Peter Gelb, general manager of the Met, said Lyniv had brought energy and focus to the house’s beloved production of ‘Turandot’.
“She’s very clear about what she wants,” he said. “There is always a danger that a work that has been performed so often becomes outdated. But these performances feel fresh and alive.”
Born into a family of musicians in Brody, a city in western Ukraine, Lyniv grew up playing the piano, flute and violin, and singing in choirs. By the time she was four, she knew she wanted to be a musician.
After conducting a school orchestra at the age of 16, a teacher told her that even if she was not Arturo Toscanini, the famous maestro, she could have a good career.
She enrolled to direct studies at an academy in Lviv, and was the only woman in the department. Her family questioned her choice and said that conducting was not a good profession for women. Some colleagues warned that her career would be limited to youth ensembles and choirs.
“But I haven’t heard any orchestral musicians say, ‘We can’t play with you because you’re a woman,’” she said. “So I thought, OK, I’ll keep going, and just try to think in small steps.”
In 2004, at the age of 26, she entered the world stage when she placed third at the Gustav Mahler Conducting Competition in Bamberg, Germany. (Gustavo Dudamel, now a superstar conductor, took first place that year.)
After the competition, she enrolled at the Hochschule für Musik Carl Maria von Weber in Dresden to hone her skills. Ekkehard Klemm, her teacher there, said she came as a “gemstone that still needed to be polished.”
“I could see that she had enormous talent, an unstoppable will and a lot of energy and creativity,” he said, adding: “She combines her art with the challenges of the times – that is the greatest treasure of her talent. ”
She took a job as a conductor at the Odesa Opera and won commissions at European opera houses, including the Graz Opera in Austria, where she was chief conductor from 2017 to 2020.
Then came her Bayreuth debut. “The fact that I am a woman,” she told Deutsche Welle at the time, “does not make the score any easier or more difficult.”
The festival invited her in 2022, but also last summer, when she was joined by Nathalie Stutzmann, who directs the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. The couple had theirs photo taken in a room full of portraits of conductors who have appeared in Bayreuth, smiling in front of a sea of male faces.
Lyniv’s success at Bayreuth, Stutzmann said, “at least proved that the mentality had changed in a good way.”
“The fact that we both made it,” she added, “also means it’s not that risky to invite a woman there.”
At the Met, Lyniv has approached “Turandot” as a scholar, poring over scores, photographs of the 1926 premiere, and texts about Puccini.
Soprano Aleksandra Kurzak, who sings the role of Liù, said that while it was clear that Lyniv “is connected to Ukraine with her heart and soul,” she focused on the music.
“You feel very safe when she’s down,” she said. “She gives a positive energy and her gestures are very precise.”
After her Met debut last month, Lyniv sent a video of the extended applause for “Turandot” to her parents in Ukraine. She visited them last Christmas, on her first trip home since the war began. She watched her father conduct Christmas carols at a church in Brody and ate her mother’s sweet varenyky, dumplings filled with berries, a favorite dish.
On the phone after that first night at the Met, she told her parents that her dream was to take them to New York.
“I hope there will come a day when the war will end,” she said. “I hope life can get back to normal.”
Anna Tsybko contributed to the reporting.