Ukrainian Vocal School of the 1950s–1970s in the Personal Memoir Writings: The Sociocultural and Artistic Aspects

The paper attempts to consider the personal writings of the figures of 1950s–1970s Ukrainian vocal art from the standpoint of contemporary art research. Personal writings of Borys Hmyria, Bohdan Hnyd, Lilia Lobanova, Yevhenia Miroshnychenko, Kostiantyn Ohnievoi, and Klavdia Radchenko reveal cultural and historical processes of the era. The inclusion of personal writings allows to avoid schematizing while portraying the iconic cultural figures, it facilitates the immersion into the spiritual, cultural, and historical contexts of their personal life stages, comprehension of their motivation for certain acts, clarifies the individual characteristics of the artists upon some time distance, as well astheir role on the context of the development of culture. The study of the personal texts of the artists from the same creative environment and institution—Kyiv Opera—enables one to draw a general perspective of the creative process within the leading opera company of the time, to observe the role of their creativity in the context of development of Ukrainian vocal art. By highlighting their life stages and creative development, the complex of their individual traits that at the same time is characteristic of their circle becomes evident. The lead singers of the Kyiv Opera of the 1950s–1970s in their writings pose a perplexing question to the researcher: whether the era shapes the artist orthe artists change their times with their professional performance. This existential and philosophic rhetoric of the personal writings by Borys Hmyria, Bohdan Hnyd, Lilia Lobanova, Yevhenia Miroshnychenko, Kostiantyn Ohnievoi, and Klavdia Radchenko became the basis for getting an insight into their creativity, studying the real fabric of the cultural era, and overall cultural history of Ukraine