Even at the height of the Cold War, Russian artists performed regularly in the West. But with the war in Ukraine, Europe is not about to see companies like the Bolshoi again or a collection on the scale of the Morozov exhibition in Paris.
In less than a week, the cascading deprogramming of Russian artists and companies in Western theaters has raised the specter of cultural isolation.
“Even at the height of the Cold War, cultural exchanges between Russian, American and European artists continued. Of course, there were always tensions, but it was possible,” Peter Gelb, director of the Metropolitan Opera in New York, told AFP.
“No possibility”
“What is happening today is different, it goes beyond the Cold War, it is a real war,” says Mr. Gelb, who was in Moscow to discuss a co-production with the Bolshoi a few days before. the invasion of Ukraine.
Peter Gelb, 69, knows what he’s talking about. In the 1980s, this American, then a young agent of the legendary pianist Vladimir Horowitz, had organized his great return to Russia and filmed the concert of cellist Mstislav Rostropovitch, who also returned during perestroika.
Tours of Soviet artists in the West began in the 1950s, especially those of ballet companies, eminently Russian art and ” soft power quintessentially Soviet. Trips during which the artists were under surveillance and which have gone down in history: that of the Bolshoi in London in 1956, with Galina Oulanova, or the first tour of the Kirov (renamed Mariinsky) in Paris in 1961, during which a certain Rudolf Nureyev defected.
The Americans were not left out: the American Ballet Theater performed for the first time in Moscow in 1960, followed two years later by the New York City Ballet, in the midst of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Despite the tensions, the company completed its tour.
After the collapse of the USSR in 1991, exchanges intensified, with Russian prima ballerinas becoming “stars” in other companies, such as Svetlana Zakharova, the “tsarina” of dance, both prima ballerina at the Bolshoi and the Ballet de la Scala in Milan (Italy).
Once unimaginable nominations had become possible, such as that of David Hallberg, the first American prima ballerina of the Bolshoi in 2011.
However, underlines Mr. Gelb, “in the current context of brutality against innocent citizens, there is no possibility of making exchanges like those during the cold war”. The Met thus ceased its collaboration with the Bolshoi.
The institution will also boycott all pro-Putin artists, a decision also taken by the Paris Opera and other halls.
Bolshoi Ballet visits scheduled to Madrid in May and London this summer have been cancelled.
The Russian choreographer Alexei Ratmansky, a time director of this Ballet before making a career abroad, gave up two new productions for this company and that of the Mariinsky. And the Frenchman Laurent Hilaire slammed the door of the Stanislavski Ballet in Moscow, which he has been directing for five years.
Lightning fell especially on two superstars considered close to the regime: the conductor Valery Gergiev and the soprano Anna Netrebko, international queen of opera. Mr. Gergiev was declared persona non grata in many rooms and by his own agent, and “the Netrebko” canceled several of his engagements, in particular at the Met.
“Three quarters of their activity”
“What will be, in the coming months, the territory that will remain for Russian artists who are not invited to the American and European continents? China has yet to show signs of recovery [à cause de la COVID-19]. They will remain their own country, ”says Laurent Bayle, former director general of the Philharmonie de Paris, to AFP. “Three quarters of their activities are called into question. »
If this war “were to end with the occupation of a country, it is certain that no one would risk an invitation to Russian artists” who had not distanced themselves from Putin, continues Mr. Bayle.
While not all artists are lumped together — some, like UK-based conductor Vasily Petrenko, having announced the suspension of their activities in Russia — the situation is more complex in the case of subsidized institutions.
“You cannot detach the Bolshoi and the Mariinsky from the authorities. They have public funding and, in the eyes of the citizens of the world, talking about the Bolshoi and talking about the Russian state are the same thing,” according to Mr. Bayle.