“Sex and the City” Star Sarah Jessica Parker Attends Performance in New York Featuring Ukrainian Actors

Ukrainian soprano Liudmyla Monastyrska and conductor Oksana Lyniv took part in the Metropolitan Opera’s final performance of the season in New York, attended by actress Sarah Jessica Parker and her husband Matthew Broderick.

The event was reported by Svitlana Melnyk, wife of Ukraine's Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Andrii Melnyk via Facebook on June 8.

Giacomo Puccini’s opera Turandot was staged at the Metropolitan Opera on June 6, with Monastyrska performing the title role of Princess Turandot and Lyniv conducting the orchestra.

The role carries particular significance for Monastyrska. In 2022, she made her Metropolitan Opera debut as Turandot after the theatre ended its collaboration with Russian soprano Anna Netrebko.

Following the season's final performance, members of the Ukrainian delegation met with Parker and Broderick, who had attended the production.

“We found ourselves sharing a director's box with the legendary Sex and the City star Sarah Jessica Parker and the incomparable Hollywood actor Matthew Broderick. We spent every intermission talking together and were genuinely impressed by how strongly they support Ukraine and how closely they follow developments surrounding our country,” Svitlana Melnyk wrote.

After the performance, Parker and Broderick visited the artists backstage, where they congratulated Monastyrska, French tenor Roberto Alagna, who performed the role of Calaf, and Lyniv.

According to Melnyk, the guests discussed art, Ukraine, and the role of culture in international dialogue in an informal atmosphere.

She emphasised that Ukrainian artists continue to serve as important cultural ambassadors for the country, representing Ukraine on leading international stages and drawing global attention to Ukrainian culture and contemporary events.

“These are precisely the people who serve as our premier cultural diplomats. Every day, they promote Ukraine in places where political arguments sometimes fail—through music, talent, emotion, and simply through a beauty that is recognised around the world,” she said.

Commenting on the performance, Parker wrote: “An astonishing and unforgettable evening of big talent (the kind that bring tears) beauty and a great and much needed reminder of the magic happening at The Metropolitan Opera House. The pageantry of it all. Costumes, lighting, the astounding layers of artists populating that magnificent stage, all so wonderfully committed to Zeffirelli’s original production and to Puccini’s soaring story. And. The orchestra!!!! In all its majesty!”

Sarah Jessica Parker and Ukraine

At the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, Sarah Jessica Parker voiced her support for Ukraine.

The star posted on her Instagram page an image of the Ukrainian flag and asked her audience how to help those affected. She also tagged charitable organisations UNICEF USA and Médecins Sans Frontières.

“If anyone has information on how to help the hospitals that are caring for NICU patients that had to be moved out of the critical care units and into make shift centers of care, please let me know,” Parker wrote.

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In 2023, it was announced that the actress would executive produce Front Row, a documentary by director Miriam Guttmann exploring the experiences of Ukrainian ballet performers displaced by war. The film follows members of the newly formed United Ukrainian Ballet, a company established by Ukrainian dancers living abroad.

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