(Moscow) The Russian government on Friday appointed a supporter of President Vladimir Putin, conductor Valery Guergiev, to the post of director of the Bolshoi, in the midst of an accelerated pace of the cultural sector in Russia since the attack on Ukraine .
Russian Prime Minister “Mikhail Mishustin signed the decision on the appointment of Valery Gergiev to the post of general director of the Bolshoi Theater for a period of five years,” the government said on Telegram.
The 70-year-old maestro and longtime supporter of the Russian president was boycotted last year by Western orchestras for failing to denounce the offensive against Kyiv.
Already director of the Mariïnsky Theater in Saint Petersburg since 1996, the city where Vladimir Putin made his political debut in the early 1990s, Valeri Gerguiev will now have to direct the country’s two main stages.
The Russian president suggested in March 2022 to merge the management of the two prestigious theaters, as was the case before the 1917 revolution.
Mr. Gergiev’s proximity to the head of the Kremlin, notably during the annexation of Crimea, as well as his participation in concerts in the separatist region of South Ossetia and in Palmyra with the Syrian army, have already caused controversy.
In March 2022, the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra decided to fire him because he had not denounced the attack on Ukraine. Several orchestras and festivals in Europe and the United States had canceled their engagements with the musician.
Until now, he has still not made any political statement on the conflict. He now performs mainly in Russia, although he toured China earlier this year.
His appointment comes as NGOs and media denounce a cultural purge in Russia with the demotion, dismissal or flight abroad of artists who have criticized the government and not publicly supported it.
Others, like the director Evguénia Berkovitch, the playwright Svetlana Petriïtchouk and Alexandra Skotchilenko, sentenced in mid-November to seven years of imprisonment for anti-war action, were thrown in prison.
Conversely, the government encourages, finances and highlights artists and cultural productions supporting its offensive against neighboring Ukraine and its increasingly conservative discourse.
Valeri Guerguiev replaces Vladimir Ourin at the Bolshoi, who at the start of the February 2022 offensive signed an open letter from artists and cultural actors calling on “all parties” to stop the fighting in Ukraine.
Mr. Ourin has headed the Moscow theater since 2013 and has taken a public stance in favor of the Kremlin on several occasions.
In September, in an interview with the pro-government newspaper Rossiïskaya Gazeta, Vladimir Ourin admitted that the Bolshoi had “removed from the poster” the names of “show creators” who had criticized the conflict.
In the spring, the theater withdrew the ballet Nureyev by the artist Kirill Serebrennikov from its repertoire, on the pretext that it had fallen foul of a tightening of the law banning LGBTQ “propaganda” in Russia.
The ballet was based on the life of classical dance genius Rudolf Nureyev (1938-1993), who never made a secret of his homosexuality. The show was a great success during its premiere in Moscow in 2017.
Kirill Serebrennikov, himself an LGBTQ advocate and opponent of the conflict in Ukraine, left Russia shortly after the launch of the February 24, 2022 offensive, like many other artists and intellectuals.
A Bolshoi star dancer, Olga Smirnova, also fled the country in 2022 to denounce the offensive in Ukraine.
