The Bolshoi Theater in Moscow has announced the withdrawal of its poster from the performances scheduled for May by two directors who left Russia and who publicly communicated their opposition to the Russian offensive in Ukraine.
In a message posted on Telegram on Monday evening, the theater announced that the ballet Nureyev and the opera Don Pasqualerespectively directed by Kirill Serebrennikov and Timoféï Kouliabine, would be replaced by other shows for the six performances scheduled for the May holidays.
The reasons for this change are not known. Joined by AFP, the Bolshoi did not comment immediately.
Respected director and filmmaker Kirill Serebrennikov harshly criticized the Russian invasion of Ukraine and left his country in March over a matter of “conscience”. He is now based in Berlin.
He told AFP that he was not surprised by the Bolshoi’s decision. “This ballet deals with man’s aspiration to freedom. The freedom to create and the freedom to live”, underlined the director in written comments.
” Of our time, Nureyev is inappropriate and impossible on the Bolshoi stage. They are afraid of unnecessary associations and uncomfortable performers,” he said, seeing the cancellation of performances as a throwback to the Soviet era.
“Cancellation of Russian culture in Europe, you say? In Russia, they themselves cancel the culture, ”lamented Kirill Serebrennikov.
Known for his daring creations and his support for LGBT + people, the artist was sentenced in 2020 for embezzlement to a three-year suspended prison sentence, with a ban on leaving Russia. He was finally able to leave legally, after a remission in this case deemed politicized by his supporters.
His ballet on Rudolf Nureyev, a prodigious dancer who had fled the USSR for Europe, has triumphed at the Bolshoi since the end of 2017. And this, despite references to the sexual orientation of the hero in a context of increased conservatism by the authorities.
Replaced by Martial Piece
The ballet was replaced by Spartacus, a very martial piece. At the beginning of April, the theater had presented this historic ballet in support of the Russian military operation in Ukraine, the income from the show being given to the families of the Russian soldiers killed in this offensive launched at the end of February.
Timoféï Kouliabine, an innovative young director working in particular in Novosibirsk, has also left Russia for Europe and published several messages critical of the conflict on social networks.
In the wake of the start of the offensive, on February 24, several great Bolshoi dancers left the institution, including prima ballerina Olga Smirnova and several foreigners.
Tugan Sokhiev, musical director of the Bolshoi, also resigned from his post as well as his responsibilities at the Capitole theater in Toulouse, in the south of France, saying he was under pressure to take a stand in the face of events.
The Metropolitan Opera in New York has put an end to co-productions and the Bolshoi Ballet’s long-awaited annual foreign tour.