20 Hryven Semen Hulak-Artemovsky

Semen Hulak-Artemovsky (1813–1873) was a Ukrainian baritone who rose to prominence at the Imperial Bolshoi Theatre in St. Petersburg and later Moscow, performing lead roles in the Russian premiere of works by Glinka. He is also credited with composing the first Ukrainian-language opera, Zaporozhets za Dunayem ("A Cossack Beyond the Danube"), premiered in 1863 — a work that remained in the Ukrainian repertoire through the Soviet period despite its politically complicated subject matter involving Cossack exile under Ottoman rule.