Vasyl Slipak Quotes

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…

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)

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!

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.

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.

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)

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.

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)

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.

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

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 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)

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

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)

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.