[5] In her memoirs, Solomiya's niece Daria/Odarka Bandriwska writes that as a child, the future diva came to learn a fair number of Ukrainian folk songs from the residents of the various villages in which her family had lived.

The soprano had the opportunity to watch the play of dramatic actors Filomena Lopatynska, Antonina Osipovycheva, Stepan Yanovych, Andriy Muzhyk-Stechynsky, Mykhailo Olshansky, Karolina Klishevska.

On the advice of Gemma Bellincioni, who witnessed Solomiya's talents in Lviv that summer, the young Krushelnytska would travel to Italy in the fall of 1893 to pursue further vocal studies.

The opera had been booed by the audience at its premiere in Milan's La Scala, but three months later in Brescia, a revised version of the work, with Krushelnytska singing the leading role, was a major success.

She maintained active correspondence with friends and acquaintances, covering such issues as the fate of her native Ukraine, problems of culture, recently read books.

[10] In 1920, at the height of her career, she left the opera world, and three years later started concert tours, performing in Western Europe, Canada and the USA.

Built and designed by Jakub Kroch in 1884, the large building had several floors of living space, initially occupied by members of Krushelnytska's immediate family.

Solomiya's brother-in-law Karl Bandriwsky was asked to oversee the management of the building once apartments began be rented out following the departure of her siblings after marriage.

With a facade featuring heavy rustication decorated with ornamental statuary of lyrical muses by Leonard Marconi,[12] the building became known as Lviv's Stonehouse of Music (Ukrainian: Музикальнa кам’яниця),[11] a haven for intellectuals, visiting artists and impresarios engaged at the nearby opera house.

In August 1939, after the death of her husband, Krushelnytska left Italy and returned to her home in Lviv, which during the interbellum period had become an important stronghold of the Second Polish Republic.

Tragically, she would remain trapped in this city for the rest of her life, when only a few weeks following her arrival, Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union colluded to invade Poland and divide its territory between them in September 1939.

The city would suffer under 10 days of shelling by Luftwaffe bombers, German panzer strikes and Red Army cavalry raids, incurring the loss of several thousand lives and the destruction of many historic buildings, including the complete leveling of the Church of the Holy Spirit [uk] one block away from the Krushelnytska residence.

Solomiya would survive the years of ethnic cleansing her city would endure, until the return of Soviet troops in 1944 would transition her into the final stage of her life, as an artist trapped behind the Iron Curtain.

"Solomiya Krushelnytska" (directed by I. Mudrak, Lviv, "Mist", 1994); prepared a TV show from the series "Names" (2004); Footnotes References Sources