Russian President Vladimir Putin has suggested to Valery Gergiev, artistic director of the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg, to consider recreating a joint management of the Bolshoi and Mariinsky Theaters. This major maneuver, unveiled on March 25 on the Russian site of the Tass agency, follows the resignation of the musical director of the Bolshoi, Tugan Sokhiev, and the presence of its general manager, Vladimir Ourine, on the list of signatories of a letter asking to spare human lives in Ukraine.
While the siege of the city of Mariupol was in acute phase, carrying its share of images of devastation, like many places of the invaded Ukraine, the recreation of a general administration of the Russian lyrical theaters was one of the great concerns of Vladimir Putin.
Tass reports the statement made by the Russian President during a meeting with the winners of the Prizes for Culture and the Arts: “The main competitor of the Mariinsky Theater on the national level is the Bolshoi. It’s understandable, and it’s a good thing that we have the opportunity to compare our major world-class institutions. However, you know that at one time, the Directorate of Imperial Theaters made it possible to manage the best companies and to develop them, if not in the same way, at least to support them so that they complement each other as well as possible. Putin then directly addressed the leader: “Valery Abissalovitch [Gergiev], We have already talked about that. What do you think of the idea of recreating General Management? I’m not saying it’s some kind of decision…” “It may be time to think about how to coordinate efforts,” replied Valery Gergiev.
The main competitor of the Mariinsky Theater on the national level is the Bolshoi. It’s understandable, and it’s a good thing that we have the opportunity to compare our major world-class institutions.
In fact, Tass informs us that the conductor had previously met three times in the past two weeks with Olga Lyubimova, Russian Minister of Culture, referring to the “dozens of extraordinary singers, some of whom, today, lost their contracts.
The great nostalgia
As shown on other occasions in Antoine Vitkine’s documentary Putin’s Revengebroadcast on France Télévisions on March 27, the Putinian formula “I’m not saying that it’s a kind of decision…” is a form of rhetoric that hardly conceals the fact that the fate has already been cast.
The reference to the Imperial Theaters is also consistent with the idea of reconnecting with the past of a “great Russia” which historically appeals to sources well before the USSR. We are talking here of a return to the days of Catherine II, when the six imperial theaters in Saint Petersburg and Moscow had a monopoly on performances and levied a tax on all other paid entertainment in the two cities, on which they had a right of inspection. The abolition of this monopoly only dates from Alexander III in 1882.
In the modern version, centralized management would be all the more sprawling as the influence of institutions spreads beyond their centers. On March 24, Tass specified that the construction in Kaliningrad of a satellite theater of the Muscovite Bolshoi was progressing according to plans. The Mariinsky already has decentralized stages in Vladikavkaz and Vladivostok and has a railway to radiate around. Other theaters are being built in Sevastopol and Vladivostok.
Gergiev’s rise in the 1990s in St. Petersburg came largely at the expense of the Bolshoi in Moscow, a traditionalist and outdated scene that has only regained some luster in the last 20 years, while Gergiev was given a second theater and a concert hall.
His very likely takeover of the Bolshoi is facilitated by the resignation, dated March 6, of musical director Tugan Sokhiev. The latter had at the same time given up his post at the Toulouse orchestra. Wrapping himself in his condition as an artist, he had not mentioned Vladimir Poutine, but had been scathing against the mayor of Toulouse, who had asked him to take a stand against the invasion of Ukraine.
Gergiev’s arrival in Moscow will also seal the fate of Vladimir Ourin, director general of the Bolshoi, one of the 17 important actors of the Russian cultural scene who signed a letter on February 26 concluding in these terms: “We call on all those on whom it depends, all parties to the conflict, to cease armed action and to sit down at the negotiating table. We call for the preservation of the highest value — human life. Gergiev, who had not countersigned this missive, was always the only master on board the institutions he directed, in direct contact with the upper echelons of power.