Bravo! Music at reopened Kyiv opera replaces noise of Russian artillery

Three months after the invasion, the capital's grand old venue stages an emotional comeback

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The lights dimmed, a hush came over the auditorium and the orchestra struck up the first notes of the overture. This ritual has taken place thousands of times at Kyiv's grand opera house over the past century, but the performance on Saturday afternoon was something out of the ordinary.

In a city that over the past three months became used to wailing air-raid sirens and the thuds of artillery from the suburbs, the audience was instead treated to the frothy melodies of Rossini's The Barber of Seville.