Preservation of operas with open plots in art collections of libraries: the case of Ukrainian Opera Aperta.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the preservation of opera aperta in art collections of libraries. Design/methodology/approach: The paper builds case studies of Ukrainian operas during the war which used of differing practices and styles, but used the approach of art-activism and art-therapy for pointed important social question about the war and trauma. Findings: The study finds that preservation challenges can be rated from very difficult in operas without any libretto, which included only a dialogical plot and a few stable fragments (like “Sirens”). Low rate of complexity preserving has operas with many stable fragment and museums/other cultural heritage institutions of their universe, like “Chornobyldorf”. Further research of Ukrainian open operas should sort out the unfinished issues of legislative regulation of copyright in Ukraine and to encourage authors to publish and share with libraries more materials about operas (access without reuse without the consent of the author to prevent re-traumatization of viewers by careless handling of the topic with trauma). Practical implications: The findings of this research suggest new ways for libraries and other memory institutions how to preserve of open operas.