Donets, Mykhailo [Donec’, Myxajlo], b 23 January 1883 in Kyiv, d 10 September 1941 in Kyiv. Renowned opera singer (bass) and theatrical figure. From 1905 to 1913 he sang with the S. Zimin Opera Company in Moscow, later becoming a soloist with the Opera of the Ukrainian Soviet Republic in Kyiv (see Kyiv Theater of Opera and Ballet) (1919). From 1923 to 1927 he was a soloist and active organizer of Ukrainian opera in Kharkiv. After 1927 he worked in Kyiv without interruption. He was shot by the Soviet authorities in 1941 for refusing to evacuate before the German advance.

Donets combined a powerful voice with theatrical talent. In the Ukrainian heroic repertoire, he created the monumental roles of Taras Bulba in Mykola Lysenko's opera of the same name, Zakhar Berkut in Borys Liatoshynsky's Zolotyi obruch (Golden Hoop), and Karas in Semen Hulak-Artemovsky's Zaporozhets’ za Dunaiem (Zaporozhian Cossack beyond the Danube). His roles in world repertoire included Coppélius, Dapertutto, and Miracle in J. Offenbach's Tales of Hoffmann, Don Basilio in G. Rossini's Barber of Seville, Lothario in A. Thomas's Mignon, and Nicalantha in L. Delibes's Lakmé. He taught at the Kyiv Conservatory. His recollections of the theater were published in Vechirnii Kyïv in 1936.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Do 25-littia artystychnoï diial’nosty M.I. Dontsia. Zbirnyk stattei (Kyiv 1933)
Stefanovych, M. Mykhailo Ivanovych Donets’ (Kyiv 1965)

V. Revutsky