Proof – if it were still needed – that opera and classical music are political arts, the war in Ukraine caused deep splits within the international musical world. Just as Russia’s invasion of its neighbor finally exposed a complex web of trade relations and energy supply issues, it sheds light on aspects of the music industry that had hitherto been conveniently overlooked. These are complicated issues, not always free from the whiffs of hypocrisy or the danger of Russophobia, but those who have been prominent supporters of Putin are rightly feeling the chill now. In terms of opera, the most prominent of the sanctioned are conductor Valery Gergiev and soprano Anna Netrebko.

The major opera houses of the world have all reacted in their own way. The Metropolitan Opera in New York was one of the first to organize – a month ago – a fundraising gala. On Good Friday, the Royal Opera House opened its doors to large crowds, raising funds for the Disasters Emergency Committee for those displaced by war. In typically well-chosen words, ROH music director Antonio Pappano said “the whole Royal Opera House family” is coming together, not to denigrate Russian culture but to embrace the Ukrainian people.

Fittingly, the first notes heard here were those of the Ukrainian national anthem, its haunting music now making 19th-century composer and priest Mykhailo Verbytsky world famous. Leading this and sharing pit duties with Pappano, Ukraine’s Oksana Lyniv was an inspiring presence. The program, ranging from consolation to confrontation, was presented in the house’s La traviata setting, lit and draped in Ukrainian blue and yellow. Symbolically, two members of the Jette Parker Young Artists Programme, a Ukrainian (Kseniia Nikolaieva) and a Russian (Egor Zhuravskii) have been included in the line-up.

Nikolaieva, a rich-toned mezzo who brought warmth to everything she sang, shone in a heartbreaking lullaby by Yevhen Stankovych and an unaccompanied lament by Leopold Yaschenko. The Ukrainian contingent also included excellent baritones Yuriy Yurchuk and Andrei Kymach (2019 BBC Cardiff Singer of the World winner). The sung texts included lyrics by national poet Taras Shevchenko. Working superbly with these singers, pianist Susanna Stranders was also joined by (Russian) conductor Sergey Levitin for an impassioned piece of Ukrainian film music. The choir, under the direction of William Spaulding, sang Mykola Lyssenko’s Prayer for Ukraine.

This Ukrainian music at the heart of the program was framed by a well-chosen selection of operatic favorites featuring Pretty Yende, Xabier Anduaga, Freddie De Tommaso and Natalya Romaniw – the British-Ukrainian soprano turning Madama Butterfly’s Un bel dì into an aria of hope. Lesser known here but showing why he’ll be jumping next month as Samson, tenor SeokJong Baek has given himself a wonderful glimpse of himself in Nessun dorma. Verdi’s final sequence, never an apolitical composer, ended – of course – with Nabucco’s hymn Hebrew Slave Chorus, prayerfully sending thoughts to an oppressed land.