Talk:Opera in Ukraine/GA1

GA Review[edit]

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Reviewer: Mike Christie (talk · contribs) 11:30, 20 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

I'll review this. Mike Christie (talk - contribs - library) 11:30, 20 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Sources seem reliable, as far as I can tell. File:Maria Zankovetska.jpg is sourced to a webpage that doesn't indicate when the photo was initially published. I'm not going to hold up GA for this, but this would probably come up as an issue at FAC. There are one or two others in a similar situation. Note also that there are one or two more images where the source link is dead; I'll take those on faith as correctly indicating publication.

~~"The first known opera to be written by an Ukrainian composer": perhaps better as "known to be written"? And it should be "a Ukrainian".~~

Sentence amended. Amitchell125 (talk) 19:05, 21 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

~~"In the second half of the 18th century, Dmytro Bortnyansky wrote three operas in Italian and three operas in French." We don't give dates; is it possible these predate Demofont?~~

I've amended the text, and added a note that helps readers to see that Bortnyansky's operas were written later. Amitchell125 (talk) 19:35, 21 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

~~"German operas were staged in Lviv from 1774 to 1872; from 1780 to 1939. Polish operas was performed there from 1780": looks like some editing debris.~~

Now sorted. Amitchell125 (talk) 19:39, 21 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

"They were performed on two levels—serious acts occurred at the upper level, with the characters performing in Church Slavonic, Polish, Russian or Latin; between the serious acts, characters (who were ordinary people) used the local language at the lower level." I'm not clear what "level" means here? Two stages? Or just a reference to different levels of artistic endeavour?

The performance took place on two stages. Text amended to clarify this. Amitchell125 (talk) 19:58, 21 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

"In contrast with elsewhere in Europe, where the genre went out of fashion, Ukrainian vaudeville remained popular during the 19th century." This seems an odd thing to say. I think of vaudeville as a specifically 19th century phenomenon, spilling over a little into the 20th century, and the Wikipedia article on it agrees with me.

Looked at the Ukrainian language sources again, and it appears that the popularity of the genre declined earlier in Russia than elsewhere in Europe, including Ukraine. Text amended to reflect this. Amitchell125 (talk) 19:24, 22 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

~~"Sadovsky's theatre, although it had a small troupe": we haven't yet mentioned Sadovsky.~~

Text moved, this resolves the problem. Amitchell125 (talk) 20:14, 21 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

~~"The first operas based on Ukrainian texts by the composer Petro Sokalsky." There's no verb in this sentence.~~

Done. Amitchell125 (talk) 19:43, 21 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

"His historical opera Mazepa (1857–1859) depicts the fate of Ivan Mazepa a Cossack hetman, was based on Alexander Pushkin's poem Poltava, but for practical and censorship reasons it is not performed. Other than the chorus numbers—which were influenced by Ukrainian folk tunes—the opera written in Italian traditional style; it also contains dramatic and musical shortcomings." What practical reasons? And the "dramatic and musical shortcomings" is also an odd thing to say without giving details. And why "is" not performed; surely no censorship still applies? And the first part is grammatically tortured: "was based" has no subject. The next paragraph needs some copyediting too.

All sorted, apart from the "dramatic and musical shortcomings" of Mazepa, which appear to be due to a weak libretto and overambition demands on the part of the composer over the staging, but I'm not entirely sure yet. Checking a few more sources. Amitchell125 (talk) 18:57, 22 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

All done. Amitchell125 (talk) 06:06, 23 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Did you save the edit? I don't see an edit since you changed the vaudeville section, and it says "It contained dramatic and musical shortcomings, and for practical and censorship reasons it was not performed" which is what I was asking about. Mike Christie (talk - contribs - library) 11:24, 23 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Now done, not sure what happened! Amitchell125 (talk) 11:53, 23 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

~~"a model of romantic-comic opera taken rural Ukrainian life": ?~~

Sorted. Amitchell125 (talk) 08:10, 22 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

~~"works that did not allow pre-revolutionary staging": I don't know what this means.~~

Er, neither do I (who wrote this stuff?). Sentence amended. Amitchell125 (talk) 20:27, 21 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

"organically combines contemporary musical expressions (such as leitmotifs) with Ukrainian folk tunes": I don't understand the reference to leitmotifs; a leitmotif is just a recurring musical phrase, not specifically a "contemporary musical expression", which is itself a vague term.

Agreed, sentence simplified. Amitchell125 (talk) 09:02, 22 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

~~There are a couple of uncited sentences in the "Opera houses" section.~~

Sorted (mostly uncited and off-topic text added since the nomination).Amitchell125 (talk) 07:50, 22 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

-- Mike Christie (talk - contribs - library) 14:46, 20 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

I've struck the points dealt with so far. Mike Christie (talk - contribs - library) 10:36, 22 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Pass. Mike Christie (talk - contribs - library) 12:13, 23 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]