Opanas Slastion
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Opanas Georgievych (Heorhiiovych) SLASTION ( Slast'on, Slasten), (1855 - 1933), was born in the Ukrainian port town of Berdyans'k on the Berdyans'k Gulf of the Sea of Azov. He studied at the Imperial Academy of Arts in Saint Petersburg, Russia, and worked as a teacher at the Arts-and-Crafts School (later renamed as State Ceramics Vocational School) in Myrhorod, Ukraine. Being a very gifted person, he perfected his versatile talents in singing, bandura playing, ethnography, journalism, education, design, and architecture. Opanas Slastion was a true Ukrainian Encyclopaedist. His lifetime spans the XIXth and the XXth centuries of the Ukrainian history from the cultural blossom which followed after Taras Shevchenko's time to the terrors of the notorious famine Holodomor during the reign of Stalin.
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[edit] Ukraine at the turn of the 19-20th centuries
And here is a helpful glimpse of the history of the Ukraine before that. By the mid 18th century the seat and the court of the Hetman of the Ukraine had been moved to Saint Petersburg, the capital of the Imperial Russia. This move was soon followed by the liquidation of the Ukrainian autonomy by tsarist government. By the end of 18th century these and other political changes led to the disintegration of the Ukrainian Hetmanate and widespread cultural decline in the Ukrainian territories divided between the Austrian Empire, Poland, and Russia . Nevertheless, the Hetman's court effectively merged with the Russian Imperial court, thus creating opportunities for some Ukrainians to have their talents recognized in the Imperial capital and in the Western Europe. Many of the gifted Ukrainian performers joined court choirs, theatre, opera and ballet troupes, and the Ukrainian artists were attracted to the newly established (1758) Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg. In the 19th century among these Ukrainian artists was the most known today Ukrainian poet and writer Taras Shevchenko (1814 - 1861) whose writings, etchings and paintings dedicated to the Ukrainian ethnographic themes (genre scenes and portraits) greatly influenced Opanas Slastion who became the first illustrator of Shevchenko's 'Kobzar' (the illustrations to poema "Haidamaky"). As the painter, Slastion is credited with depicting series of Cossack and kobzar portraits, and scenes of Ukrainian country life. One can get the impression about his work from the illustrated academic publication by the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences \1\.
[edit] Slastion and the kobzars
O.Slastion was one of the most active propagators of kobzars' artistry. Actually, he himself was the first non-blinds performer of modern times. Kobzar Ivan Kuchuhura Kucherenko stayed in Myrhorod in order to refine his performance under Opanas Slastion. Danylo Pika, one of the founders of the Poltava Bandurist Capella (who became its conductor), initially learned to play the bandura from Opanas Slastion in Myrhorod. Later in his life, in early 1930's, O. Slastion designed the shape of the standard Kyiv bandura (the familiar to us modern shape of the instrument). Some other instruments of bandura family (such as those made by Ivan Skliar, for example) were also modelled on the designs of Opanas Slastion.
[edit] Slastion the ethnographer
He also was among the leading Ukrainian folklorists and ethnographers of his time. The following is a far from being full description of the activities of Opanas Slastion in these fields. In 1875 Opanas Slastion, then a student at the Petersburg Academy of Arts, and a budding folklorist, spent his holidays in Ukraine and got the chance to know the artistry of kobzar Nekhovaizub. In 1876 P. Martynovych and his colleague Opanas Slastion travelled to Lokhvytsia and recorded the duma parody by kobzar Ivan Kravchenko. In 1887 O. Slastion made an engraving of kobzar P. Siroshtan. In 1905 Slastion painted a portrait of kobzar Pavlo Hashchenko and noted that Hashchenko knew 4 dumy. In 1906 Opanas Slastion met kobzar Zhovniansky, recorded his performances of dumy and painted his portrait.
In 1908 in Yalta technically savvy O.Slastion helped Lesia Ukrainka and her husband Klyment Kvitka to make live recordings (on phonograph cylinders) of the dumas performed by the blind virtuoso Hnat Honcharenko (circa 1837 - circa 1917), one of the most famous kobzars of the time. These recordings were transcribed by Filaret Kolessa who later published them in his collection Melodiyi ukrayins'kykh narodnykh dum (The Melodies of the Ukrainian Folk Dumas) \ 3\. It is known that O.Slastion corresponded with another well-known blind kobzar, Tereshko Parkhomenko (1872 - 1910). In 1909 Opanas Slastion made recordings of the repertoire of kobzar Hovtan, including the duma 'The Widow and Her Three Sons'.
Selections from Opanas Slastion's repertoire originally recorded on wax cylinders can be found on the record released as a dedication to Lesia Ukrainka \2\.
As an architect, Opanas Slastion was one of the founding fathers of the Ukrainian style in architecture.
[edit] References
- Portrety ukrains'kykh kobzariv (Portraits of the Ukrainian Kobzars).Slastion, Opanas. AN URSR.-Kyiv,1961
- CR - Dumy moyi - Surma ... Kobzar Opanas Slastion. R - Melodiya - D 029429-30 '100 richchia Lesi Ukrainky - (1909), Oleh Sozansky (Lviv)
- Melodiyi ukrayins'kykh narodnykh dum (The Melodies of Ukrainian Folk Dumas), 2 vol., 1910; reprinted in 1969.
The above article was compiled by G.N. Slasten.
