Just in: International opera singer is killed in Ukraine fighting

Just in: International opera singer is killed in Ukraine fighting

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norman lebrecht

June 29, 2016

Ukrainian media are reporting the death of Vasily Slipak, 42, a baritone who returned from a flourishing career in Paris to fight in a volunteers’ brigade against Russian-backed separatists in the Donbass.

‘Vasily Slipak, Ukrainian opera singer, who left the French Opera in order to protect Ukraine, was killed in the East of Ukraine,’ reports an official source.

He was, as you can hear, a fine singer.

A graduate of Lviv state Conservatory, Vasily won a competition at Clermont and decided to settle in France, where he received many engagements. But the outbreak of revolution and war in his home country drew him to vlunteer, in his late 30s, for a fighting unit on the frontline.

vasily slipak

UPDATE: First tribute from Zoryana Kushpler at Vienna Opera: Сьогодні в АТО загинув мій однокурсник, талановита людина-Василь Сліпак… Серце стиснулося від цієї жахливої звістки. Багато хто дізнався про Василя, коли він вже був в АТО, а я його знала ось таким веселим, талановитим, єнергійним молодим, дуже гарним собою хлопцем.
Спочивай з Богом, Васильку…. Мої най щиріші співчуття родині

Comments

  • Dave T says:

    It will come as news to many that there is still fighting going on in eastern Ukraine. This conflict has fallen far off the front pages.

  • Rosanne Goldman says:

    What possessed him to go and fight? So sad. So tragic

  • Frida says:

    He wasn’t killed as an opera singer ( he was a really good singer!)… He was a member of pro-Nazi Wright Wing Group… He chose to change his bright musical profession to become a militant… Sorry for his ‘bad’ decision.. RIP

  • esfir ross says:

    A promising opera singer turn Ukrainen ISIS. RIP

  • Julien says:

    For all the people who didn’ t know at all Vasily till yesterday, and use words like nazi or isis, the best thing you have to do is to shut your mouth, and to stop to write bullshit. You don’t know anything about him, except what you find on the net. Pathetic, stop it, please.
    People who have met him during his life are today so sad, we are crying, we don’t need to read this bullshit today.

    • Marianne Koopman says:

      I am sorry for your loss. Today is a sad day for you and all his other friends. Would you like to tell us more about him?

    • Max Sud says:

      But who would cry about 10000 innocent victims of Ukrainian army and ultra nazi military groups? Who whould cry about children in Donetsk and Horlivka suffering everyday bombings?

      Your friend joined the Right Sector, illegal ultra nazi group. UN reports state numerous atrocities done by such militants. He knew exactly where he was going, he took arms in his hands. So the choice has been all his.

  • Paul Stetsenko says:

    Demons run when a good man goes to war.
    Memory Eternal.

  • Max Sud says:

    He joined the ultra nazi Right Sector militia. He entered Donetsk land with a gun in his hand.

    Google “right sector war crimes” and you will know which way this ex-singer went. And gone.

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