Project
The virtual gallery creation project initiated by the Kharkiv National Academic Opera and Ballet Theater named after M.V. Lysenko, in partnership with the Kyiv Museum of Theater, Music and Cinema Arts of Ukraine, the Kharkiv Art Museum and the City Specialized Music and Theater Library with the financial support of the Ukrainian Cultural Foundation, is the first virtual theater museum in Ukraine. As early as at the initial stage of its existence, in October 2025, about six thousand exhibits will be presented here. These are photos from different years, sketches, costumes, programs, posters, etc.
The project is designed to protect the unique archival collection of KhNATOB from the risks associated with the war, because Kharkiv is being constantly under enemy fire. In cooperation with museum curators of Kyiv and Kharkiv, work is underway on cataloging the most valuable exhibits, qualified attribution of archival materials and their digitization. We are doing all this in order to prevent the loss of information about the development of Ukrainian music and theater culture, to ensure the promotion of Ukrainian opera and ballet art in the world, and to attract researchers to a thorough study of our collection.
Work is currently underway to place the most valuable part of the collection on the virtual gallery website. Special attention in the digital collection will be paid to national operas and ballets. After all, some all-Ukrainian and sometimes world premieres of works by Ukrainian composers took place in Kharkiv (for example, the opera "Taras Bulba" by M. Lysenko, the first Ukrainian ballet "Pan Kanyovsky" by M. Verykivskyi, and others).
Soon, in October 2025, our theater - the First Ukrainian Opera and Ballet Theater - will celebrate the 100th anniversary of its foundation, the 150th anniversary of the creation of permanent opera companies in the city, and the 245th anniversary of the first musical and theater production in the city. On the eve of these important dates, we should rethink the various stages of the development of the Theater. And the basis of any analytical research is facts, primary sources, documents. The visitors will be able to get acquainted with them on the website of the virtual gallery
But it was not only the museum collection of KhNATOB that has become the basis of the gallery. It also presents a lot of interesting exhibits stored in the funds of our partners, the Kyiv Museum of Theater, Music and Cinema Arts of Ukraine and the Kharkiv Art Museum, as well as in private collections, in order to create the widest possible panorama of the development of opera and ballet art in Kharkiv.
