Musicians and performers
Mariya Zankovetska
August 4, 1854 — October 4, 1934
- Actress
The great tragic actress of the Ukrainian “Theatre of Coryphaei”. She played in Sadovsky’s Kyiv theatre and spent her last years at 121 Velyka Vasylkivska Street, now her museum.
Biography
Mariya Adasovska, known on stage as Zankovetska, was born on 4 August 1854 in the village of Zanky in the Chernihiv region. She became the leading star of the “Theatre of Coryphaei” – the company of Kropyvnytsky, Starytsky, Sadovsky and Saksahansky – and her heroines in plays such as Naimychka (The Servant Girl) became classics of the Ukrainian stage.
From 1907 she acted in Mykola Sadovsky’s company, which that year settled in Kyiv’s Trinity People’s House and became the city’s first permanent Ukrainian theatre. After many years in Nizhyn she lived in Kyiv from 1918, at 121 Velyka Vasylkivska Street. That year Hetman Pavlo Skoropadsky granted her a lifelong state pension, and in 1923 she was among the first to receive the title of People’s Artist.
Zankovetska died in Kyiv on 4 October 1934 and is buried in Baikove Cemetery. Her flat on Velyka Vasylkivska Street became a memorial museum (founded in 1960; after a fire in 1979 it was restored and reopened in 1989). A monument to the actress by Halyna Kalchenko was erected in the City Garden in 1974.
Kyiv in their life
- Trinity People’s House (53/3 Velyka Vasylkivska St, now the Operetta Theatre) – acted in Sadovsky’s theatre here from 1907.
- 121 Velyka Vasylkivska Street – her home in 1918–1934 (with breaks); now a memorial museum, part of the Museum of Theatre, Music and Cinema.
- City Garden – monument (1974, sculptor Halyna Kalchenko).
- Baikove Cemetery – her grave.
