18 Facts About Solomiya Krushelnytska

Solomiya Krushelnytska is credited with rescuing Puccini's Madama Butterfly from its failed debut at La Scala.

Solomiya Krushelnytska was born in 1872, in the village of Bielawince, Galicia, Austria-Hungary.

Solomiya Krushelnytska received the basics of musical training at the Ternopil Classical Gymnasium, where she took external exams.

In 1883, at the Shevchenko Concert in Ternopil, Solomiya Krushelnytska, who sang in the choir of the Ukrainska Besida society, made her first public performance.

Solomiya Krushelnytska met the theater for the first time in Ternopil.

In 1891, Solomiya Krushelnytska entered the Lviv Conservatory of the Galician Music Society.

Solomiya Krushelnytska followed her 1893 professional debut with additional performances at the Lviv Opera.

Solomiya Krushelnytska would go on to perform in Odesa, Warsaw, St Petersburg, the Paris Grand Opera, Naples, Cairo and Alexandria, and Rome.

The opera had been booed by the audience at its premiere in Milan's La Scala, but three months later in Brescia, a revised version of the work, with Solomiya Krushelnytska singing the leading role, was a major success.

Solomiya Krushelnytska maintained active correspondence with friends and acquaintances, covering such issues as the fate of her native Ukraine, problems of culture, recently read books.

Solomiya Krushelnytska could learn a part in a new opera in two days, and develop the character of a role in another three or four.

Solomiya Krushelnytska performed in other theatres across Europe, Egypt, Algeria, Argentina, Brazil, Chile and others.

In 1910, Solomiya Krushelnytska married Italian attorney and the mayor of Viareggio, Alfredo Cesare Augusto Riccioni.

Solomiya Krushelnytska was a fervent promoter of Ukrainian folk songs and works by Ukrainian composers.

The home of Solomiya Krushelnytska, was seized by the authorities, leaving her only one living quarters on the second floor to share with her sister, Hanna.

For much of this period, Solomiya Krushelnytska remained confined to her house, due to a broken leg.

Solomiya Krushelnytska would survive the years of ethnic cleansing her city would endure, until the return of Soviet troops in 1944 would transition her into the final stage of her life, as an artist trapped behind the Iron Curtain.

Solomiya Krushelnytska died on November 16,1952, and was buried at Lviv's Lychakiv Cemetery, across from the gravesite of her friend, Ivan Franko.