Vasyl Slipak

"Listen to anyone in the street and he’ll tell you what to do. Our people are wise."

"Ukraine can become a successful country and a major player on the political stage if we start heeding the voices of the people."

"Responsibility has increased at times. We have no right to be in depression. We must pull ourselves out at any cost. We have a unique chance and we have no moral right to lose it. We have no right to lose Ukraine!"

"On December 8th and 10th in the Lviv Organ Recital Hall, the choir and orchestra of the Lviv Higher Music Institute M.V.Lysenko under the direction of Heorhyj Pavlyj performed Henry Purcell's opera, "Dido and Aeneas," in commemoration of the 300th anniversary of the composer's death. However, among the soloists, Vasyl Slipak (countertenor, by the way, the only in Ukraine) charmed audiences with his expressive manner of singing."

"But that all changed in 2014, when Russia invaded the Ukraine. Slipak left the opera and joined as a volunteer with the free Ukrainian forces, fighting in the eastern Ukraine, carrying a belt-fed machine gun and adopting the nom de guerre "Meph" based on his highly praised renditions of the aria "Mephistopheles" from the opera "Faust." He adopted a traditional Ukrainian hairstyle, similar to a Mohawk, and served at various positions along the front lines in a maze of Russian minefields and trenches. Along the way, he became a folk hero to the Ukrainian people. It can truly be said that while the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, and Ukraine became a separate country, its real independence dates from Maidan Square, and Wassyl Slipak is a national hero for giving up an incredible career and the luxury of celebrity and fame to help make that possible."

"He was a brilliant singer and a brilliant person. Vasyl Slipak could never stay aside the injustice. When he decided to go to Ukraine, I tried to persuade him to remain in France, just willing to defend him from potential threat. But he insisted Ukraine needed him more than French opera."

"[He's] more than a colleague, more than a friend. I feel him like a brother. A man who loved every culture, you know, an open minded man."

"Finally he decided to go to the frontlines because he needed to feel useful and to defend his country — it was so important for him. It's about the culture. It's not really about politics. It's about the freedom of his country."

"He never stopped to sing, never. It's about resistance. It's not about to be a soldier. He is a singer who decided to defend his country — that's all."

"I feel he chose the name Meph because this is the possibility to say. I'm a singer and I'm here to fight and this is a symbol. The possibility to give the people a question: Why is a singer here, why?"

"I am proud to be a brother of such a person. Now all I can is hope that Ukrainians will make right conclusions and will move on, as my brother wished they should have done."

"Let's bow our heads, citizens. A great Ukrainian was killed today while defending our land and all of us... Wassyl Slipak, globally renowned opera singer, who had lived and worked in France for 19 years, in the Paris opera, but abandoned his career and returned to defend Ukraine when Russian aggression started, was killed at the front line near Donetsk as a Right Sector fighter. Volunteer soldier Wassyl Slipak is an example of a patriot citizen. Waasyl Slipak died as a soldier. Books will be written about him, streets named after him; concerts will be held for him, and students will be told about him in schools and conservatoires... Rest in peace, dear Meph, you laid your life for each of us, we will not forget your sacrifice for Ukraine. We will not be half-hearted."

"Since Russia started its aggressive actions against Ukraine he quit his European career and returned to Ukraine (as a volunteer soldier) to defend his homeland. He died in the ranks of the nationalist group Right Sector at the frontline in the Donetsk region. His nom de guerre was Myth – a shortened version from Mephistopheles (the Faust opera). He was not a professional soldier, he was a singer…"

"Ukraine this year celebrated 25 years of independence, but it was real independence only after the Maidan, when a real state started to form. Here we have an example of a person who left his career to fight. New heroes of the new Ukraine are being born."

"Mr. Slipak was born in the western city of Lviv on Dec. 20, 1974. A musical prodigy as a child, he rose quickly to fame performing in France in the late 1990s. By 2011, he was at the top of his field, winning the prize for best male performer at the Armel Opera Competition and Festival in Szeged, Hungary, for his rendering of the Toreador Song from the opera Carmen.He adopted a traditional Ukrainian hairstyle, similar to a Mohawk, and served at various positions along the front line — a maze of trenches and minefields that surrounds separatist territory. Mr. Slipak, who had won fame in France for his renditions of the aria of Mephistopheles from the opera «Faust», adopted the nom de guerre Meph."

"One of the worst abominations of this filthy war is that the Russian world is losing its lumpen population, while Ukraine is forced to lose a whole cross-section of society. The «Russian World» is losing car wash cleaners. Ukraine is losing opera singers, journalists, IT specialists, businessmen… Russia is grinding up the Ukrainian gene pool. It is doing to Ukraine what it has done for centuries to itself. The surname of Slipak I have heard for the first time today, but the very fact of the loss of this life – for me this is a tragedy. Don’t ask for whom the bell tolls… This should be a separate item of charges during the Hague trial. Not just a crime against humanity. A crime against the human gene pool. Against the human race. Against culture. Against science. Against development. A crime against the planet. A crime against the future. «Irreparable damage to the future of mankind». That is how that paragraph should probably read. At such moments, I feel particularly sharp guilt for the fact that there is nothing I can do to stop this. There is no way I can affect this… I tried. I honestly did. But there are more of them. Millions. I’m sorry."

"The international jury of the Festival and the Opera Competition in Szeged composed of: Raymond DUFFAUT – the chairman of the jury, Andrea Rost, Esther Lehoczky, Henry Little, Luca Targetti and Walter Kobéra decided that “The Emperor of Atlantis” by Viktor Ullmann, a performance directed by Beata Redo-Dobber with Tomasz Tokarczyk as a director of music, was the best of five performances presented between 6 and 14 October in Szeged. According to the jury’s verdict, Wassyl Slipak, playing the role of the Death (Der Tod) in “The Emperor of Atlantis” was awarded the prize for the best soloist. The verdict was announced during the official gala at the Theatre in Szeged on 15 October."

"He was Energy, filled with optimism. No matter what happened, no matter how hard things got – he always smiled, joked and looked up to the sky. He kept moving forward. Two meters high, with a straight back, and always speaking the truth. He lived through what he did. He didn’t just sing – he was a hero of the stage. And he fought the same way, not talking about the war itself. He loved his friends and was fierce with his enemies. Ukraine flowed through his veins. That was his typical Galician-Slipak-Omelyan persistency – believing that he was the one who could change the world. Infinitely outgoing, he was always ready to give you everything he had without a thought. He was the type of guy that would nonchalantly come visit you for a day that would turn into a month, and then just as easily invite you over to his place for another month or two. The stage was his calling. His Hollywood. He was on that path since childhood. Dudaryk (Men’s Choir), the French Grand Prix, the Paris Opera – these aren’t just his achievements, but also, in our mind, the achievements of our family and of all of Ukraine. I can still hear his rendition of “When the two parted” while we were his guests in Sardinia. That was the last time when our big family was together. The Maidan changed him. He was always ashamed, to some extent, that he wasn’t on that smoke-filled square. He wrote, called, and actively organized help for our cause from France. After the first war, he came back a changed man. Even stronger, more persistent and more focused on the important things. He died like the true Cossack that he wanted to be – that he was – with a weapon in his hands. Fighting. There is nothing harder than burying your loved ones. I don’t know how it is up there for you, Vasya. It might have been better if you stayed at the opera, and taught everyone on Facebook how to better control the world and to overcome the Moskals. Rest in peace, Brother! Rest in peace, Wassyl Slipak!"

"Then, we sang «Requiem» by W. A. Mozart. This piece requires quite a large team of musicians – 50 people in the orchestra and the same number in the choir. But there are also some passages for the soloist like «Tuba Mirum». So, when Wassyl started to sing this excerpt himself, I suddenly realized that he made the 250 meter-long hall resonate his voice. It is something that fifty of us managed to do only all in unison. Now, as a specialist, I can say that he got his rare timbre not by accident. His oval face with a long nose and elongated neck are typical signs of a bass voice that he developed later. But at the same time, he sang countertenor up to 28 years because his voice transformation happened extremely late. In other words, Wassyl managed to combine in himself two incompatible voices and perform both of them on a big stage. Call it what you want – God’s gift or a joke of nature, but it was amazing. At that time we did not see each other for three years. After that pause, I met Wassyl again and did not recognize him. He turned from a skinny young man into a courageous giant – big, strong and serious. But his internal changes were even more impressive. He became a principled patriot, he did not seem to tolerate things which were OK for him earlier when it came about Ukraine. But the largest change happened in his voice, because he began to sing bass."

"I had heaps of work those days, it was very intensive and seemed to me endless. When I felt so desperate that I was about to give it all up, Wassyl was the only person who supported me: ‘Don’t worry, we will be doing everything together and we will succeed, he told. It was so simple, sincere, and convincing that I couldn’t help believing it. Since then our collaboration began. He was extremely useful for Ukraine here, in France. He was a true intellectual, he spoke seven languages. After Natalka Pasternak [Ukrainian community leader in France – Ed.] had passed away, he was the only person who had potential to unite us, to lobby Ukrainian interests on an international level… But he had a need to be at the forefront, where modern Ukrainian history was being written. So he abandoned work, stopped looking for contracts and sang only occasionally, so that he could send some money to Ukraine."

"Amid the thud of artillery and rattle of gunfire, Vasyl Slipak’s deep, resonant voice in the trenches of eastern Ukraine was a warm reminder of humanity’s less barbaric traits. The professional baritone had left his native Ukraine in the 1990s to settle in France, where he regularly sang at the Paris Opera. But after war erupted in 2014, he decided to return home and join a volunteer battalion to fight Russian-backed separatists on the country’s eastern front."

"We saw him off with applause. Lviv, meet the Cossack. It's a pain..."

"There are strong people in the world, who stand up for ideas by means of their talent. They are artists or craftsmen, writers or farmers, who are proud of their history, their past, present, and future. They switch from one art to another, forgetting that there is no otherworldliness on Earth and that human stupidity is a very complicated art which can only be appraised in the course of time and in silence. The same also applies to Vasyl Slipak – we in the West call an exalted voice like his the ‘voice from the Don’ because of its profundity and strength. This time it is about his last cry of freedom. This opus is not aimed at glorifying those who are ‘for’ or ‘against.’ I want to explain by means of this opus that, whatever the case, people must not die in the 21st century, sacrificing themselves on the altar of the god of war. The truth is hidden deep in the heart, and while peace protects it, war destroys it. So let me remember Vasyl Slipak as a friend who had no enemies and whose superb voice carried love for humanity. (2017)"

"I told about Vasyl to French composer Pierre Thilloy, my good acquaintance, and offered him to write a small piece. He creates music which is easy to listen to, and he agreed immediately and said he would like to visit the premiere.(2017)"

"I would like to say that many French people from various walks of life hardly knew anything about Ukraine before the events on Maidan. Thanks to Vasyl Slipak, an opera singer, they became interested in your country, they watched televised reports. There also was an extensive publication about him in France’s most popular daily Le Monde, which awoke a wide response. It was some seven or eight years ago. We were acquainted by my friend, an interesting composer Yevhen Halperin (his father comes from Kyiv), a friend of Vasyl. They lived in the same house in Paris, but on different floors. At a party at Halperin’s place he said, ‘This guy has a unique voice, just listen.’ I was impressed by Vasyl’s talent and offered him to take part in our concerts. We performed Requiems by Verdi and Mozart back then, later we had some 10 to 15 programs together. We had successful opera gala evenings, and we were planning to perform Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, but it wasn’t to be. (2017)"

"He was really successful, he had very many concerts in Paris. In music circles everyone knew him. I believe that in about five years he would have become a hugely famous singer, because he was getting more and more invitations as an artist. I never saw him in a bad mood, he radiated positive emotions even if things were not going best. Meanwhile, it was not always easy for him, there were various situations concerning his career or money. When we were working on concert programs, he acted very professionally. We had a great relationship as colleagues. We knew and sensed each other well. Also, sometimes we had very personal conversations. (2017)"

"Vasyl was supposed to become my vocal adviser in my future project. For three years Slipak was a soloist at the Grand Opera. He got solo parts, but he also wanted to have concert practice, that is why he chose a sort of freelance. Mind you, when the war in the east of Ukraine broke out, his vocal career was on the rise. Characteristically, Vasyl did not give up his career, he would be active as a volunteer, then he would return from Ukraine to France to give concerts and appear in performances, and then again he would go to Ukraine, which he loved above all. And then again more concerts, and again back to the front. (2017)"

"You know, in his last six months Vasyl had changed a lot. Many tried to talk him out of going to the war, but he was adamant. All his money and all his energy he gave to the cause of the new Ukraine. It was his motivation in life. What a shame that a sharpshooter’s bullet took the life of terrific vocalist and patriot. Our duty is to remember Vasyl Slipak. I want to join my Ukrainian colleagues to discuss some future art projects. We already had a meeting with Volodymyr Syvokhip, director of the Lviv Philharmonic Society, and we plan to hold a Vasyl Slipak Open International Memorial Music Marathon in Lviv from June 29 till July 1. (2017)"

"Despite having a successful artistic career (Slipak lived in France for the last 19 years of his life and worked as a soloist at the Paris Opera), he did not stay aloof to the hardships that our country was going through when the war started. He managed to juggle volunteer work and performing in plays and concerts at first, brought humanitarian aid himself, and in summer 2015, he put a successful career on hold and went to defend the country in the ranks of the Right Sector volunteer battalion. In particular, he fought the forces of the so-called ‘Donetsk People’s Republic’ in Pisky... Slipak was a patriot, an excellent singer, and an example to all Ukrainians. (2017)"

"Vasyl’s unique voice extremely harmoniously combined with his physique. He was a tall man of attractive appearance and unfailing courtesy, and it all prompted adequate response from the audience. Above all, he emphasized schooling, culture and high technique of singing! Our country has lost a talented artist who sacrificed his international career to defend the nation for which he gave his life. “My task is to make sure that Vasyl is not forgotten, and therefore we will definitely hold a memorial festival at the Lviv Philharmonic Society from June 29 to July 1. (2017)"

"Mother once said our grandfather Vasyl, after whom my brother was named, had sung very well and been a very interesting person in general. So it is believed that Vasyl inherited his talent. He supposedly had a unique voice.(2017)"

"Because he used to sing all the time and something was to be done with this. Vasyl was already 12, and I told parents that if the boy did not study seriously, he would waste his talent. Dudaryk was a very high standard at the time. Although the brother was formally too ‘old’ to qualify, he adapted quickly and easily became part of the team. Yes. Then he became a soloist, sang in concerts, particularly, with such celebrities as Dmytro Hnatiuk, Nina Matviienko, and other stars. Choir director Mykola Katsal was doing his utmost for each of the children. The choir provided not only a musical, but also a general education, and the children received true development. Vasyl became well known still at Dudaryk after singing solo in Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana. Then was Pierrot’s Deathly Loops by Oleksandr Kozarenko. The composer had written something futuristic and could not finish his opus. But he heard Vasyl’s voice when the latter was rehearsing in the Lviv Conservatoire’s classroom. Oleksandr came in and understood that he was composing for this very singer. The premiere was staged first in Lviv and then at festivals in Kyiv and Odesa. Thereafter, no major national festivals in Ukraine were held without Vasyl.(2017)"

"Even more! He had a unique talent for languages and did not have to learn any. He never did any courses! When he came back from France, he spoke French. He would quickly learn the language of any country he came to – Polish, Spanish, German, Russian… This came very easily to him. He never spent as much time to learn a language as, for example, I did. I envied my brother in this case. Moreover, he not only spoke nut also wrote. The French praised his French very much. His ear for music must have helped him. Besides, he had a good natural memory. Hence were his broad communication and a career growth.(2017)"

"You know, he learned continuously! He took lessons even at age 42. He did it meticulously, without being ashamed or considering himself a star that can rest on his laurels. He had a need for self-improvement.(2017)"

"He worked very actively in the last year of his life. Everybody says he was at the peak of his career in 2016. He had an enormous number of concerts to give from September 2015 to May 2016.(2017)"

"Frankly speaking, he did not say much to us about the front. I could guess about many things but don’t know exactly. He said he was rendering humanitarian aid and supported, as a volunteer, people with various needs. But it is clear that it was not the case. He didn’t want to discuss with me the details of his trips and comment on his attitude to the sides of the conflict in eastern Ukraine. He used to say: ‘I am where my friends, the people I trust, are.’ Only chevrons could reveal where he went to.(2017)"

"They are saying now that Vasyl Slipak was a Ukrainian patriot, a nationalist… He undoubtedly was, but not in the sense that dominates in our society! I’ve never seen him show a prejudicial attitude to other peoples. It would have been absurd to hear this from his mouth. A European person, he performed both in Europe and in Africa and received a warm welcome everywhere.(2017)"

"About a month before his last trip to the front, all his friends noticed that he had changed very much – he stopped talking about the events in Ukraine, became quiet and even-tempered. He decided on what he was to do.(2017)"

"I think it was a prescribed road of sorts. The things that had occurred since his childhood were some coincidences, but he kept on walking. It’s the illustration of a 42-year-long life, sort of an encyclopedia. Vasyl was not concerned about his career, he accepted things as befits a man, he was calm about the challenges of fate, well-balanced, and polite. Sometimes he could be tough in defending his position. But, in my view, everything was painted somewhere above. It’s easier to say that it was God’s will.(2017)"

"Many people were wondering what a brilliant opera singer was doing in the war in Donbas. It was his personal example of self-devotion to his country. Forty-odd years old Vasyl Slipak was known throughout Europe as an opera singer, he played leading roles in many perfomances, could have had tremendous future, however when the war broke out at homeland, he could not but step in ... The role of Mephistopheles in the opera «Faust» of Charles Gounod was Vasyl Slipak’s favourite, that’s why his nickname Myth was in tune with it. Vasyl Slipak’s life may have been short, but as full of heroism as mythology. He showed the audience a rare and exceptional singing art. His vocal talent was called a wonder of nature, and many teachers wished to have Vasyl in their class. When journalists found out that there was an opera singer at the front line, the news about him started spreading far and wide. Vasyl Slipak did not turn down interviews. He tried to explain to people his position, to support those who lost faith, and to draw in some help for the fighters.(2017)"

"Vasyl Slipak is a lighthouse of the Ukrainian nation. Through his spiritual light, he pointed to the whole path, the path of goodness, devotion, sacrifice, and patriotism. Although he was forcibly extinguished, Ukrainians should go further and not change the road.(2017)"

"Vasyl Slipak showed by his example an incredible will of Ukrainians to defend their native land. As a volunteer fighter, he demonstrated an example of patriotism and self-sacrifice to many, particularly our young people.(2018)"

"I am going to tell you a story. The story of a person for whom being listened to became the sense of his life. That's because that man had divine voice. He was called the best baritone and countertenor of the world. His voice sounded in Carnegie Hall here in New York, in Notre-Dame de Paris, Covent Garden Opera in London, and Grand Opera in Paris. Every one of you could have listened to his incredible singing, but, unfortunately, there is a thing that will not allow you to do so again. I looks like this and I will show you. That is. 12.7 millimeters, which not only ended his career - it stopped his life. By the way, it costs only ten U.S. dollars. And this is, unfortunately, the price of a human life on our planet. A man I've just told you about was Vasyl Slipak. He was a Ukrainian and soloist of the Paris National Opera who was murdered in Donbas, defending Ukraine against Russian aggression. (2019)"