The Washington Post - USA (2022-03-27)

A14 EZ RE THE WASHINGTON POST.SUNDAY, MARCH 27 , 2022

war in ukraine

BY SARAH L. KAUFMAN

Ten days after a star ballerina’s
departure from the Bolshoi Ballet
and her public denouncement of
Russia’s war in Ukraine, Russian
President Vladimir Putin raised
the possibility of sweeping chang-
es at the country’s top perform-
ing-arts institutions.
According to the Russian state-
controlled news agency Ta ss, Pu-
tin advised conductor Valery Ger-
giev, a noted Putin loyalist, “to
think about” founding a joint
management of Moscow’s
Bolshoi Theatre and its St. Peters-
burg rival, the Mariinsky Theatre,
which Gergiev now leads.
The report comes as the Mos-
cow-born Gergiev’s support for
Putin and refusal to denounce
Russia’s invasion has led to wide-
spread cancellations of Gergiev’s
concert appearances outside Rus-
sia, including at Carnegie Hall,
and his dismissal from various
orchestras and festivals. The star
maestro was fired from the Mu-
nich Philharmonic orchestra this
month after that city’s mayor
issued him an ultimatum to reject
the invasion and Gergiev re-
mained silent.
Meanwhile, Putin has seen a
hemorrhaging of talent from the
country’s leading ballet compa-
nies.
European dancers hired by the
Bolshoi and Mariinsky have left
their jobs in protest, including
the Mariinsky’s English principal
dancer, Xander Parish, and the
Bolshoi’s Italian principal, Jacopo
Tissi.
But the biggest blow came
March 16, when Bolshoi principal
ballerina Olga Smirnova quit to
join the Dutch National Ballet,

after posting criticism of the war

on the messaging service Tele-

gram.

Amid this artistic turmoil at

the long-standing jewels of Rus-

sian culture, Putin met Friday

with laureates in the arts. It was

during this meeting that Putin

spoke to Gergiev about uniting

leadership of the Bolshoi and

Mariinsky, Tass reported.

“How do you feel about the

idea of re-creating a common

directorate?” Putin reportedly

asked Gergiev, referring to the

system that existed in imperial

Russia before the 191 7 revolution,

when a single director oversaw

the opera, ballet and theater com-

panies in St. Petersburg and Mos-

cow, as well as their schools.

According to Ta ss, Putin added,

“I’m not saying that this is some

kind of decision, just so that there

isn’t any unnecessary talk.”

Gergiev reportedly noted that

the Bolshoi and the Mariinsky

theaters “are two of the most

powerful musical and musical

theater traditions on Earth.” Per-

haps it is time, Gergiev reportedly

said, “to think about how to coor-

dinate efforts.”

As f or Putin’s i dea of a common

directorate, Gergiev added, “it

seems to me that, perhaps, this

can have far-reaching and full-

fledged favorable opportunities,”

according to Ta ss.

Simon Morrison, a music pro-

fessor at Princeton University

and the author of the Russian

ballet history “Bolshoi Confiden-

tial,” said the exchange reported

in Ta ss amounts to laying the

groundwork for uniting the

Bolshoi and Mariinsky under

Gergiev. Putin’s proposal is retri-

bution against Bolshoi head

After a ballerina’s

bite, Putin moves

to punish Bolshoi

He suggests rival house take over leadership after

performer’s denouncement of war in Ukraine

Vladimir Urin, he added.

“Putin is punishing Vladimir

Urin for not being loyal enough,”

Morrison said in an interview

Friday. In addition to allowing

Bolshoi star Smirnova to leave,

Urin signed an antiwar letter,

along with other cultural leaders.

Reached for comment Friday,

Bolshoi spokeswoman Katerina

Novikova said in an email, “What

is published here by Ta ss agency

is that Mr. Putin suggested Valery

Gergiev to think over the idea of

united direction the way it was”

with the imperial theaters, “and

we don’t comment on it.”

Morrison described Urin as a

no-nonsense director with the

skills and authority to manage “a

messy bureaucracy.” In 2017, he

allowed a ballet about the Rus-

sian ballet defector Rudolf

Nureyev to be performed. The

ballet, Morrison said, “had strong

homosexual elements, and Putin

is very anti-LGBTQ. It was a very

liberal move for Russia, the kind

of provocative thing that Urin,

with his stature, was able to get

away with.”

Now, it seems, that time might

be over. Urin may not be replaced

right away, Morrison said. He

may be allowed to remain at the

Bolshoi for the rest of the spring

season. But it could happen more

quickly: Putin’s suggestion of

Gergiev’s installation at the

Bolshoi may be enough to lead

Urin to resign, raising the possi-

bility, Morrison said, that “this

will de facto take place.”

Jeanne Whalen contributed to this

report.

IAN GAVAN/GETTY IMAGES

Dancers with the Bolshoi Ballet during a performance of “Swan Lake” in 2013 in London. Russia has seen a hemorrhaging of talent from

leading ballet companies since the country launched its invasion of Ukraine.

MICHAL DOLEZAL/CTK/ASSOCIATED PRESS

Conductor Valery Gergiev, a noted loyalist to Russian President

Vladimir Putin, has refused to denounce the invasion and has been

shunned by most of the world.

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