The GAIA-24. Opera del Mondo, an opera showcasing the detonation of the Kakhovka Dam, is set to be staged in Kyiv. This performance is planned for May 10 at the Zhovtnevyi Palace. Composers Illia Razumeiko and Roman Hryhoriv crafted this musical-dramatic work.
The opera’s title refers to the Gaia hypothesis – the assumption articulated by English scientist James Lovelock that Earth and its biosphere constitute a living superorganism. The event description states, “When the Earth yields a bountiful harvest, one should anticipate a great war. When seas dry up, rivers change their courses, and forests become uninhabitable due to radiation – the empire is on the verge of collapse. When the end of the world arrives, the earth and sky merge into a single entity. This is how Gaia, Gea, Terra, Maga, Mother Gaia speaks to us.”
The hypothesis also envisions Earth’s self-regulation, inspiring the composition. The opera consists of three days: “Songs of Mother Earth,” “Cabaret Metastasis,” and “Dance for Mother Earth.”
Video materials for the GAIA-24 opera were filmed last October on the southern and eastern shores of Khortytsia Island.
“The sabotage of the Kakhovka Dam is one of the most prominent environmental crimes committed by Russian colonial regimes. Alongside the regeneration of the Chornobyl forest, 2,000 square kilometers of Dnipro soil, liberated from seventy-year captivity of an artificial water reservoir, are gradually returning to their natural state. What can be seen now from the high Dnipro cliffs on the right bank, simultaneously witnessing the burning theater of war and the regeneration of the Cossack Amazon? The slow victory of nature, the swift defeat of humanity,” as described in the event details. The presentation is held in partnership with the National Union of Composers of Ukraine and the National Reserve “Khortytsia.”
