Vasyl Slipak Quotes

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.

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…

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)

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!

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 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.

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)

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

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)

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.

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.

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.