Kyiv Hosts Premiere of Opera About Abducted Ukrainian Children
The National Opera of Ukraine premiered excerpts of 'Mothers of Kherson,' an opera about Russian abduction of Ukrainian children. The performance moved audiences, including affected families and top officials, to tears and catharsis.
In the gilded halls of the National Opera of Ukraine in Kyiv, excerpts of the opera 'Mothers of Kherson' premiered last week. The work addresses the ongoing tragedy of Ukrainian children kidnapped by Russian occupiers.
Originally intended to focus on the 2013–14 Maidan protests, American librettist George Brant shifted focus in 2023 after news of child abductions broke. The opera became a tool of cultural diplomacy, with First Lady Olena Zelenska, Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko, and Culture Minister Tetyana Berezhna in attendance. The most poignant audience members were families from formerly occupied territories: mothers who had recovered their teens from Crimea or elsewhere, and those still fighting to bring their children home.
The performance ended with a chorus promising love and protection, prompting tears, a standing ovation, and flowers thrown onto the stage—a powerful catharsis.
Many abducted children were sent to summer camps in Russian-occupied Crimea, with caregivers told they would be safer. Russian authorities often blocked their return. After Ukraine liberated large areas in autumn 2022, parents and children found themselves separated by the front line. NGOs like Save Ukraine helped families undertake dangerous journeys via Poland, Belarus, and Russia.
According to the Bring Kids Back initiative, over 20,000 children have been deported or forcibly transferred to Russia, where they may receive new names, Russian citizenship, or be adopted. Maria Lvova-Belova, Russia's children's commissioner and a character in the opera, is wanted by the International Criminal Court, as is Vladimir Putin.
The opera's story begins in occupied Kherson, where an elderly woman sings of filling a Russian soldier's pockets with sunflower seeds—a scene adapted from a real encounter filmed early in the full-scale invasion.
Librettist Brant and producer Sasha Andrusyk worked closely with Save Ukraine to ensure accuracy. Composer Maxim Kolomiiets said the opera was scrutinized and revised repeatedly. The musical language draws on southern Ukrainian folk songs to give voice to the women of Kherson.
The full opera will premiere in Warsaw this autumn and at the Metropolitan Opera in New York in spring 2028. In Kyiv, it was performed in Ukrainian translation; elsewhere, it will be sung in the original English.
