The kyiv Opera at the forefront of the “cultural war” with Moscow, the story of our special correspondent

The total war launched by Vladimir Putin on February 24, 2022 has raged for almost three years in Ukraine. There are hundreds of deaths every day on the front, sometimes thousands. Entire cities lie, gutted under Russian bombs. In kyiv, unlike the Mariupol theater, the Ukrainian National Opera has survived. Between two air alerts, on the third floor of the neo-Renaissance style building, the star dancers perform arabesques and throws on the parquet floor of a rehearsal room, accompanied on the piano by tunes of The Snow Queen. On the fourth floor, the singers rehearse The Traviata under the direction of the director. The artists share a conviction: they do not offer the public exhausted by the conflict a simple enchanted interlude. In their own way, they participate in the war waged against them by the master of the Kremlin, by fighting on the cultural front.

« During World War II, Winston Churchill…