Denys Sichynskyi - Roksolyana (opera)

[Christopher]

I have posted in the downloads section a 1991 recording of the 1908 opera Roksolyana by Ukrainian composer Denys Volodymyrovych Sichynskyi (1865-1909), orchestrated by French-Ukrainian composer Marian Kouzan (1925-2005).

The opera is about Roxelana, the chief consort and legal wife of Ottoman sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, mother of his successor Selim II, and the first haseki sultan of the Ottoman Empire. She was born into an orthodox peasant family in Ruthenia (modern-day Ukraine) in c.1505, and was captured by Crimean Tatars durung a slave raid and taken to the Imperial harem, where she rose to become the concubine and then wife of Suleiman and one of the most powerful and influential women in Ottoman history. (She is regarded as something of a heroine in modern-day Ukraine.) (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roxelana)

From the Ukrainian-language wikipedia page about Kouzan:

"A major event in the musical life of Ukrainians in Canada was the staging of Denis Sichinsky's opera "Roksolana" by the Ukrainian Opera Society of Canada on October 20, 1991, at the prestigious Roy Thomson Hall, thanks to Ukrainian émigré conductor Volodymyr Kolesnyk . The production was dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the settlement of Ukrainians in Canada. The new edition and orchestration of the opera were commissioned by the Ukrainian Opera Society of Canada and were performed in concert.
The Mykola Lysenko Choir, the Polyphony Children's Choir, and soloists from Ukraine , the USA , and Canada sang . The symphony orchestra provided musical accompaniment. Conductor was Volodymyr Kolesnyk. The main roles were performed by Svitlana Sekh (Roksolana), Hanna Kolesnyk (Fedora), Serhiy Gomon (Suleiman II), Yarema Tsisaruk (Ibrahim), Leonid Skirko (The Clown), Oleksandr Savchenko (Abdul-Baku), Bohdan Chiplinsky (Danylo), Andriy Soroka (Alkhai-Khan), and Lyuba Kozak (in the prologue). The premiere became a world triumph of Ukrainian art in Canada.
Traces of the "Canadian" score were lost, as conductor Volodymyr Kolesnyk died in Toronto in 1995 , and ten years later Marian Kuzan passed away. But after many years of searching, art historian Oleksandra Turyanska finally managed to find it in the United States . Having brought this priceless score from there, she has been trying to lobby for a production of Denis Sichinsky's opera "Roksolana" in Ukraine for a long time, so far without success. "

Sichynskyi - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denys_Sichynsky

Kouzan - https://uk.wikipedia.org/wiki/Кузан_Мар'ян_Степанович (you'll need google-translate)