Change of program at the Bolshoi. In a message posted on Telegram, the prestigious Moscow theater announced on Monday that the ballet Nureyev by Kirill Serebrennikov and the opera Don Pasquale by Timoféï Kouliabine were to be replaced by two other shows for the six performances scheduled for the May holidays.
The reasons for this change are not known, the Bolshoi not having yet commented on this decision, but one can legitimately think that the hostility of the two directors to the war in Ukraine is not foreign to this decision.
A filmmaker selected at Cannes
Director and filmmaker in competition this year in Cannes with Tchaikovsky’s WifeKirill Serebrennikov claimed at the end of April that he had to leave Russia for Berlin for reasons of “conscience” while harshly criticizing the Russian offensive in Ukraine. Known for his daring creations, 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.
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. The ballet was replaced by Spartacus, a more virile and martial piece. At the beginning of April, the theater had already presented this ballet in support of the Russian military operation in Ukraine, with all the income from the show given to the families of the Russian soldiers killed in this offensive launched at the end of February.
The Bolshoi, theater of Russian propaganda
Timoféï Kouliabine for his part, 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 leading Bolshoi dancers jumped ship. Among them are the star dancer 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, saying he was under pressure to take a stand in the face of events. And the New York Met put an end to co-productions and the Bolshoi Ballet’s long-awaited annual foreign tour.