Improving Your Life Through Immigration Since 1974
A book by Andy J. Semotiuk
Brief Details About This Book:
Solomea Krushelnytska, was hailed as the world's leading dramatic soprano during the Golden Age of opera at the turn of the 20th century. Born in 1872 into the family of a Ukrainian Catholic priest and his wife with eight children in a small village in Western Ukraine, she studied opera first in Lviv, and later in Milan, Vienna, and Paris. She battled to rise to fame and to perform with opera legends like Giacomo Puccini, Arturo Toscanini, and Enrico Caruso until she reached superstardom.
Along with many other achievements, such as premiering the roles of Salome and Elktra in Italy with Arturo Toscanini, few people know that after the infamous failure of Madame Butterfly's debut at La Scala in 1904, Puccini turned to Solomea to help him rescue that opera. Working together they succeeded, and it remains one of the most popular operas still today. She also took the stage in other leading roles in major opera houses in Europe, South America, North America and Northern Africa. Throughout her career, she shared the fruits of her success with her family members.
Towards the end of her career, she moved back to Western Ukraine on the eve of World War II. Her days of resounding applause, star-struck crowds, and critical acclaim suddenly disappeared. Her beautiful voice was drowned out by the gunfire of Soviet and Nazi armies. After a lifetime of glitterati, she was stuck near the center of one of the most dangerous places on earth. She was divested of her wealth first by the Soviets, then by the Nazis, and then prevented from leaving the Soviet Union. Her life was no longer about greatness, but instead, was reduced to struggling to survive. Yet reverence for her talent likely helped her escape most of the ultraviolence that rampaged through her city at that time. She kept the author's mother, aunt, and his grandparents safe during the war by sheltering them in her apartment. She spent her final years in Lviv, the same place where her rise to fame and fortune had begun.
Told from the perspective of her grand nephew Andriy Semotiuk, with intimate details related to his family's immigrant experience never before shared, her rags-to-riches life story is an amazing odyssey, a triumph of the human spirit, an incredible testament to her dedication to art, and an inspiration to people everywhere.
Your payment will be processed through Law Pay visa the myworkvisa site owned by Andy J. Semotiuk and you will be sent a receipt.
Your payment will be processed through Law Pay visa the myworkvisa site owned by Andy J. Semotiuk and you will be sent a receipt.
Solomea Krushelnytska, was hailed as the world's leading dramatic soprano during the Golden Age of opera at the turn of the 20th century. Born in 1872 into the family of a Ukrainian Catholic priest and his wife with eight children in a small village in Western Ukraine, she studied opera first in Lviv, and later in Milan, Vienna, and Paris. She battled to rise to fame and to perform with opera legends like Giacomo Puccini, Arturo Toscanini, and Enrico Caruso until she reached superstardom.
Along with many other achievements, such as premiering the roles of Salome and Elktra in Italy with Arturo Toscanini, few people know that after the infamous failure of Madame Butterfly's debut at La Scala in 1904, Puccini turned to Solomea to help him rescue that opera. Working together they succeeded, and it remains one of the most popular operas still today. She also took the stage in other leading roles in major opera houses in Europe, South America, North America and Northern Africa. Throughout her career, she shared the fruits of her success with her family members.
Towards the end of her career, she moved back to Western Ukraine on the eve of World War II. Her days of resounding applause, star-struck crowds, and critical acclaim suddenly disappeared. Her beautiful voice was drowned out by the gunfire of Soviet and Nazi armies. After a lifetime of glitterati, she was stuck near the center of one of the most dangerous places on earth. She was divested of her wealth first by the Soviets, then by the Nazis, and then prevented from leaving the Soviet Union. Her life was no longer about greatness, but instead, was reduced to struggling to survive. Yet reverence for her talent likely helped her escape most of the ultraviolence that rampaged through her city at that time. She kept the author's mother, aunt, and his grandparents safe during the war by sheltering them in her apartment. She spent her final years in Lviv, the same place where her rise to fame and fortune had begun.
Told from the perspective of her grand nephew Andriy Semotiuk, with intimate details related to his family's immigrant experience never before shared, her rags-to-riches life story is an amazing odyssey, a triumph of the human spirit, an incredible testament to her dedication to art, and an inspiration to people everywhere.
Be one of the first to acquire your copy of this authoritative biography.
If you are ordering in the United States:
$ 35.00 U.S. Cost of the book.
$ 9.95 Add: shipping and handling
$ 45 U.S. Total (rounded)
If you are ordering in Canada:
$ 45.00 Canadian Cost of book
$ 5.95 Add: shipping and handling
$ 5.85 Add: HST
$ 55 Canadian Total (rounded)
If you are ordering from outside of North America:
$ 35.00 U.S. Cost of book
$ 14.95 U.S. Add: shipping and handling
$ 50 U.S. Total (rounded)
(Mexico use U.S. prices)
Please keep in mind how much you will be paying calculated by the number of books you want to be multiplied by the cost in the country you are ordering from. Then click below.
Should you want to have the book sent to a different page than the billing address, please also email us indicating where you want us to send the book by emailing Andy@myworkvisa.com with your instructions.
Your payment will be processed through Law Pay visa the myworkvisa site owned by Andy J. Semotiuk and you will be sent a receipt.
Book Reviews
David Smukler
Paul Hunka
Collette Berg
Mykhailo Kobryn
Oksana Lyniv
As a professor of theater, a voice coach who has worked with major theaters and drama schools in Canada, the United Kingdom, the United States, and the Netherlands, and someone who has worked with the Royal Opera House Covent Garden and the English Opera Group, I found Mr. Semotiuk's biography of Solomea Krushelnytska as an opera star insightful, inspiring, and fascinating. It is wonderful that he has taken the effort to remind the opera world of one of its great female talents who reigned in the golden age of opera along with other greats like Enrico Caruso, Arturo Toscanini, and Giacomo Puccini. We are guided through her childhood, her adolescent struggles, her journey to her international career, her having to deal with the destructive impact of the Italian Fascists, and then the devastating impact of the German/Russian war. This is a deep and captivating story.
Paul Hunka
As an opera singer who has sung in many of the most prestigious opera houses of the world, including in Paris, Vienna, Munich, Florence, Amsterdam, Madrid, Moscow, London, Salzburg, Rome, Berlin, and Toronto; with some of the greatest conductors including Claudio Abbado, Jeffrey Tate, Semion Bychkov, and Zubin Mehta; involving Bass-Baritone roles in German, French, Italian and Russian repertoires, and myself being of Ukrainian descent, I feel a strong affinity to Solomea Krushelnytska, Ukraine's greatest opera star. She also performed in some of the great opera houses of her day in Europe, the Middle East, and North and South America, with opera legends like Giacomo Puccini, Arthur Toscanini, and Enrico Caruso, singing in roles as a dramatic soprano in some eight languages. She was truly one of the legends of opera and well worth our attention. I recommend this book as an authoritative account of Krushelnytska's life for anyone interested in music and in the opera world.
Collette Berg
As an Adjunct Professor at the University of British Columbia where I teach stage management in opera and theatre, I had a special interest in Andriy Semotiuk's book. Semotiuk gives us an authentic glimpse into the operatic world and tells the powerful life story of one of the great sopranos of opera’s golden age. Not only is this book rich with research, but the story is also deeply personal for Semotiuk, making it engaging for the reader from cover to cover.
Mykhailo Kobryn
As the Director of the Solomia Krushelnytska Musical Memorial Museum in Lviv, Ukraine I am well aware of the story of Solomia's life and the hardships she endured to achieve international fame as Ukraine's leading opera star. Andriy Semotiuk's book is an authoritative account of Solomia's life and her role as the world's leading female opera star in the first decade of the 20th century during the golden years of opera. Our museum helped Semotiuk at every step of his journey in writing this book and we are proud of the accomplishment.
Oksana Lyniv
As the first female conductor at the Bayreuther Wagner opera festival; the first female conductor to be named music director of an Italian opera house, namely the Teatro Comunale di Bologna; someone who has conducted many of Puccini's operas, including Turandot at the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma; and as a Ukrainian woman leader, I have a special interest in and an affinity for Solomea Krushelnytska, Ukraine's greatest opera star and marvelous interpreter of German and Italian operas. Krushelnytska’s outstanding artistic achievement is a great example of the Ukrainian contribution to world culture and serves as a significant model for me personally.
Andriy Semotiuk has written an extraordinary book laying out Krushelnytska's life story as she rose from humble beginnings to become a leading star on the opera stages of Europe, the Middle East, and North and South America. Currently, at a time when Ukraine as a state is struggling to be recognized and must, especially culturally, manifest itself at the international level, the book is a much-anticipated English-language narrative about this outstanding Ukrainian artist and personality. I hope that by reading it, many people around the world will discover this great Ukrainian artist and her image as a singer and an outstanding woman will become an example for younger generations. This is a wonderful book, definitely worthy of time and reflection.
Be one of the first to acquire your copy of this authoritative biography.
If you are ordering in the United States:
$ 35.00 U.S. Cost of the book.
$ 9.95 Add: shipping and handling
$ 45 U.S. Total (rounded)
If you are ordering in Canada:
$ 45.00 Canadian Cost of book
$ 5.95 Add: shipping and handling
$ 5.85 Add: HST
$ 55 Canadian Total (rounded)
If you are ordering from outside of North America:
$ 35.00 U.S. Cost of book
$ 14.95 U.S. Add: shipping and handling
$ 50 U.S. Total (rounded)
(Mexico use U.S. prices)
Please keep in mind how much you will be paying calculated by the number of books you want to be multiplied by the cost in the country you are ordering from. Then click below.
Should you want to have the book sent to a different page than the billing address, please also email us indicating where you want us to send the book by emailing Andy@myworkvisa.com with your instructions.
Your payment will be processed through Law Pay visa the myworkvisa site owned by Andy J. Semotiuk and you will be sent a receipt.
