About the work
Der Saporoger an der Donau (Ukrainian: Запорожець за Дунаєм, "Zaporozhets za Dunayem") is a comic opera in three acts with spoken dialogue, for which Semen Hulak-Artemovsky wrote both the music and the libretto himself. He composed the work in 1861/62 and sang the lead role of Karas at its premiere on April 26, 1863, at the Mariinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg. It is considered the first complete Ukrainian opera.
Plot
After the destruction of the Zaporizhian Sich by the forces of Catherine II in 1775, Cossacks have settled beyond the Danube in what was then Ottoman territory. The drink-loving Karas and his resolute wife Odarka are pressured to marry their adopted daughter Oksana to a Turk; the Cossacks use the occasion to escape and return to their Ukrainian homeland.
Cultural significance
Audiences demanded encores of the dances at the premiere, and the following year Moscow's Bolshoi Theatre took up the opera. Tsarist bans on the Ukrainian language kept it off the stage from 1863 to 1884; since its revival it has remained one of the most frequently performed works in the Ukrainian operatic repertoire.