The Opera Where a Sultan Lets the Cossacks Go Home: Zaporozhets Beyond the Danube

In 1863, a comic opera had its first staging at the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg. Titled Zaporozhets Beyond the Danube (Запорожець за Дунаєм), it tells the story of Cossacks driven from the Zaporizhian Sich who settled under Ottoman rule. Its composer was Semen Hulak-Artemovsky (Семен Гулак-Артемовський), a baritone who sang at this theater, and at the premiere he himself sang the lead role, Karas.

What follows draws, as of September 2026, on the Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine (IEU) from the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies (CIUS), the Encyclopedia of Ukrainian History (ЕІУ) compiled by the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine’s Institute of History, the Encyclopedia of Modern Ukraine (ЕСУ), and the program notes of the National Opera of Ukraine (Kyiv), which continues to stage this work. Where sources disagree, both are given.

A Composer Who Sang at the Theater

According to IEU and ЕІУ, Hulak-Artemovsky was born on February 16 (4th old style), 1813, in Horodyshche, in what is now Cherkasy oblast, and died in Moscow on April 17 (5th old style), 1873. ЕІУ states that he was born into a priest’s family, graduated from the Kyiv seminary, and sang in choirs, including at St. Sophia’s Cathedral. In 1837, the composer Mikhail Glinka, then gathering singers for the court choir, took him to St. Petersburg.

He later trained his voice further, including in Italy, and per ЕІУ was a soloist at the Imperial Opera in St. Petersburg from 1842 to 1864, sang at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow in 1864–1865, and retired from the stage in 1865. He played more than 50 roles (IEU, ЕІУ), including Ruslan in Glinka’s Ruslan and Lyudmila. IEU describes him as the nephew of the poet Petro Hulak-Artemovsky, and as a close friend of Taras Shevchenko. ЕІУ states that he became close with Shevchenko in 1838 and dedicated the song “A Maple Stands over the Water” (Стоїть явір над водою) to him.

He composed few works. ЕІУ lists the divertissement A Ukrainian Wedding (1851) and the vaudeville The Night of Ivan Kupala (1852), among others. Of these, only Zaporozhets Beyond the Danube remains in performance today.

Timeline: From the Premiere to the Ukrainian Stage and Film

On the gap until 1884, the National Opera’s program notes explain that after the Ems Ukase of 1876, stage works were not among the items formally banned, but censors removed this opera from the list of approved works. The Ems Ukase itself is covered in the article on the Ems Ukase and the University of Tokyo, and the situation of composer Mykola Lysenko’s opera in the same period is covered in the article on Lysenko. Krushelnytska’s 1900 performance is touched on in the article on Krushelnytska.

Who Wrote the Libretto?

Sources describe the libretto’s author differently.

• ЕІУ’s entry on the composer (2004): names the historian Mykola Kostomarov as the librettist
• ЕІУ’s entry “Cossack themes in Ukrainian and world music”: states that the composer himself wrote the libretto and sang the lead role at the early performances (1863–1864)
• IEU (1988): states that the composer “wrote” the opera, without separately naming a librettist
• The National Opera of Ukraine’s program information: “Libretto: Semen Hulak-Artemovsky”

Two entries within ЕІУ itself even disagree. Whether Kostomarov was involved in some way, and if so whether that was suggesting the plot or writing the libretto, cannot be determined from the sources checked for this article.

The Plot, and the Sich Beyond the Danube

According to the National Opera’s program notes, the setting is the early 19th century, on the banks of the Danube, then Turkish territory. The Cossack Ivan Karas, together with his companions, longs to return home. The bickering between him and his sharp-tongued wife Odarka forms the comic core of the piece. A disguised Sultan appears and probes the Cossacks’ feelings. Karas’s adopted daughter Oksana and her sweetheart Andrii try to flee and are caught, but at the end the Sultan’s decree is read out, allowing the Cossacks to return home, and pardoning the two lovers as well.

The story has a real group behind it. IEU’s entry “Danubian Sich” (1984) states that after the destruction of the Zaporizhian Sich in 1775, Cossacks who fled to Turkish territory settled in Dobruja, at the mouth of the Danube. Some moved for a time to Austrian territory, but returned to Dobruja in 1811–1812 and formed an organization modeled on the original Sich, with 38 kurins (companies) and an elected leader. The Sich up to 1775 is covered in the article on 220 years of the Sich.

The actual ending, however, differs from the opera. According to IEU, during the Russo-Turkish War of 1828, the leader Yosyp Hladky defected to the Russian side with about 1,500 men, and Turkey destroyed this Sich. The plot in which the Sultan lets the Cossacks go home is the opera’s own invention.

“Zaporozhets” Names a Person

The title’s “Zaporozhets” (запорожець) is not a place name; it refers to a person, meaning “a Zaporizhian Cossack.” Although the word derives from the place name Zaporizhzhia (Запоріжжя), it is not used to refer to today’s residents of the city or oblast of Zaporizhzhia. IEU translates the title into English as “Zaporozhian Cossack beyond the Danube.” The group depicted in the opera is known in Ukrainian as the “Zadunaiska Sich” (Задунайська Січ, the Sich beyond the Danube).

Can It Be Called “the First Ukrainian Opera”?

This work is sometimes introduced as “the first Ukrainian opera.” The encyclopedias checked for this article do not say so.

IEU’s entry “Opera” (1993) lists the earliest operas by Ukrainian-born composers as 18th-century works such as Maksym Berezovsky’s Demofoonte (1773) and Dmytro Bortniansky’s Creonte (1776), both to Italian librettos. IEU then calls Zaporozhets Beyond the Danube one of the “notable Ukrainian operas” of the 19th century, stating that its music is strongly influenced by Ukrainian folk song. ЕІУ describes it as a work “regarded as a model” that joined Cossack cultural tradition with the creativity of Ukrainian artists.

If “first opera by a Ukrainian composer” is meant, it does not hold given the 18th-century works. No source checked for this article calls it “the first opera with a Ukrainian-language libretto.”

Those Who Have Carried On the Role of Karas

IEU states that this opera became one of the most frequently performed Ukrainian operas since its premiere, staged by theaters both within Ukraine and in Ukrainian communities abroad. It names performers of roles in the work, including Mykola Sadovsky, Panas Saksahansky, Marko Kropyvnytsky, Ivan Patorzhynsky, and Mariya Zankovetska. ЕІУ names Patorzhynsky, from a considerably later period, as a singer known for the role of Karas.

The film adaptation came in the 1930s. According to ЕСУ, the sculptor and film director Ivan Kavaleridze, after making Natalka Poltavka into a film in 1936, filmed this opera in 1937. IEU dates this film to 1938. The preservation of Ukrainian film is covered in the article on the Dovzhenko Centre.