'Olga Basystiuk is a bright flower in a Ukrainian singers' wreath. Her voice is very tender and feminine, and it says a lot without words. Its rich timbre palette is amazing. There is something enigmatic and very personal about it.'
No one becomes a prima donna. It is not a profession that you can train for or study. It is not a job that you go to five days a week. It is a life that one is born into. Just ask Ukrainian Olga Basystiuk. This classical singer is no longer well known outside Ukraine. She doesn’t reap multimillion contracts or fend off paparazzi. But for more than 25 years, Basystiuk was the unsurpassable queen of belle canto in Ukraine.
‘Olga Basystiuk is a bright flower in a Ukrainian singers’ wreath. Her voice is very tender and feminine, and it says a lot without words. Its rich timbre palette is amazing. There is something enigmatic and very personal about it,’ once wrote National Opera Director Anatoly Mokrenko in the newspaper Radyanska Ukraina.
After long negotiations over the phone, Olga Basystiuk finally – reluctantly – agreed to be interviewed on one condition: She would not be photographed. Clearly Basystiuk doesn’t like to talk to journalists about her life and career.
At first discouragement tainted her words. She is convinced that she would be better off if she didn’t live in an era of change and disorder.
‘Maybe this is just fate. I made a promise to God that I would stay [in Ukraine] although I had an invitation from the Bolshoi Theater long before I became well-known here,’ Basystiuk said. ‘Maybe it was my own fault that I couldn’t find orientation. But what they’ve done to me in Ukraine is nonsense.’
Despite her pessimistic speech, Basystiuk is full of confidence and energy. We met in a cafe where Basystiuk ordered strong coffee for both of us – three times – before I could say a word to the waiter. Her eyes were shining bright as she talked about her triumphal international debut.
Basystiuk was 21 years old when she won a golden medal and the grand-prix of the International Vocalists Contest in Rio de Janeiro for singing Villa-Lobos’ ‘Brazilian Bachiana.’
‘When Olga Basystiuk sang, the wind died away, the grass hushed and petals began to quiver,’ wrote a music critic in the Brazilian newspaper O Globo after her performance.
Praise came from all directions. After the performance, the widow of Villa-Lobos hugged Basystiuk and said that she wished her husband could have heard the song.
”Bachiana’ is extremely difficult to sing, and it’s a good test for a vocal school,’ she said. After the contest her interpretation of ‘Bachiana’ became a model.
Basystiuk was born in a peasant family in the village of Polyany in Podillya where half of the village had the same name – Basystiuk. She can hardly remember when she started singing.
‘It was my only desire,’ she said. ‘Nobody ever advised me what I should do with my life. Rural kids had to find their way themselves,’ Basystiuk said.
Basystiuk is very grateful to her mother who helped her find her direction. Basystiuk’s father died in a car accident when she was just 11, and her mother, Maria Basystiuk, made every effort to help her daughter. Her mother especially helped in raising Olga Basystiuk’s son, Taras, who is now 13.
When she was only 16, Basystiuk entered the Mykola Lysenko Musical Academy in Lviv, although at the time she didn’t have much musical education. Basystiuk learned some notes when a musical school was opened in her village, but she didn’t continue her studies because
| Basysiuk with her son Taras, now 13. |
her mother couldn’t afford to buy a piano.
In Lviv, her vocal professor, Ludmyla Zhylkina, helped polish Olga’s beautiful soprano and explained to her the secrets of vocal skills. She convinced Basystiuk that she shouldn’t try to copy other singers because she had her own extraordinary voice.
She was lucky to have such an opportunity to study.
‘I am very grateful to the old regime because I could get an education. I doubt that now I could leave my village and study,’ Basystiuk said.
But during her first years in conservatory, Basystiuk had trouble. She couldn’t understand what her professors wanted. ‘I considered myself to be the second Oksana Petrusenko, the famous folk and opera singer. But it turned out that I still had a lot to learn – like how to stand and sing for hours without a single motion,’ she recalls.
Still, Basityuk’s rise to the musical pinnacle was rapid and blazing.
‘A voice of such exceptional beauty can be encountered one in many, many years’ was the conclusion of the State Examination Commission when Olga graduated from the conservatory. She was often compared with Monserat Caballe and Ukrainian singer Solomia Krushelnytska who gained world fame in the 19th century.
After graduating from the conservatory and her success in Rio de Janeiro Basystiuk got an invitation to sing at the Goluboi Ogonyok show, which made Basystiuk famous all over the former Soviet Union. Goluboi Ogonyok was the program that was always aired on New Year’s night, and it featured the best Soviet artists.
In 1995 Olga Basystiuk was the first recipient of the Yaroslav Mudriy Order, the highest state award of Ukraine for her contribution into Ukrainian culture. She also was a laureate of the Shevchenko Award which recognizes her talent and skills. While the honors are nice, they haven’t boosted her career much.
During Soviet times, Olga Basystiuk performed many concerts in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Riga, Tbilisi as well as in Kyiv, Odessa and Lviv. Now she rarely tours. ‘There used to be a Goskontsert organization that arranged all tours. Now it’s only about money, and I have to organize a tour myself,’ she says.
Basystiuk doesn’t have an agent because modern agencies are rarely interested in anything except pop music these days. So Basystiuk currently is looking for sponsors to release two CDs ‘World Classics Masterpieces’ and ‘Slavic Church Music’ in her rendition and organ accompaniment, which were recorded at Komora studio in Kyiv.
Olga Basystiuk is now a soloist of the House of Organ Music where she performs more than 10 concerts a year. Although it’s prestigious, the monetary rewards are slim and the taxes high.
‘I am a full-house singer, and I’ve been always proud that I can pack theaters to capacity. Why wouldn’t they pay me so I can live a decent life?’ she asked.
Basystiuk is offended that Ukrainian banks and various funds would sponsor the concerts of foreign classical singers rather than support local singers.
Despite certain frustration Basystiuk is full of hope for the future. She plans to sing Bach and Mozart with an orchestra and see the world and sing in places she hasn’t been. She is not afraid of any stage or any audience. Her voice is the best proof of her high class.
The next concerts of Olga Basystiuk will take place at the House of Organ Music on July 1 and July 30, 7 p.m.
