<The title of the article and the text are translated into English automatically, they will be edited in the future>
It seems that the Bolshoi Theater is entering a period of personnel confusion. At the beginning of winter, the main choreographer Alexei Ratmansky left him, and the middle of July was marked by the announcement of the resignation of the chief conductor and musical director Alexander Vedernikov. The theater coped with the loss of Ratmansky by creating a "triumvirate" of choreographers, but how to dispose of the vacancy of the chief conductor?
Vedernikov spoke in detail about his decision to leave Bolshoy in an interview with the Expert magazine. The material turned out to be wonderful: the maestro spoke in detail, frankly and intelligently about the situation in the theater, bringing out a lot of things that could only be guessed otherwise. It seems to Vedernikov that not only the GABT, but also the opera house in Russia as a whole need radical reforms: "Opera, in my opinion, today should either not have a permanent cast of soloists at all, or have a very small one - and focus on people who are best able to do this or that in the world." The Bolshoi Theatre itself is "archaic" and inflexible: "There are a lot of people, the structure is self-sufficient, if something is going to be dispersed, then the Big One is the last. And if it doesn't drip on us, why will we complicate our lives?"
In fact, the theater has neither a public relations department nor a marketing department, there are no season tickets, "there is no system in which a ticket to the Bolshoi Theater would serve as an invitation to visit Russia, which would be an excellent way to expand the geography of the public," the maestro states, explaining what self-sufficiency and stagnation of the GABT are expressed in.
In the words of the chief conductor, fatigue from the traditional conflict between the creative "engines" of the theater and its administrators clearly sounds: "The main vice of the Bolshoi Theater system is that it is a bureaucratic system. The bureaucrat is the first person in it. With a normal separation of powers, it may be necessary: that the first person should be the one who signs financial papers, communicates with the powerful of this world. But when this bureaucrat is jointly and severally responsible under the charter, including for creative issues, he has a lot of temptations."
In eight years, we have managed to make the theater a little more open. We managed to rejuvenate the choir and orchestra — often with the help of rather unpopular measures, we had to go to the courts. But now they are in good standing - and they play and sing really well. It was possible to return the Bolshoi Theatre to the proper level of world touring.
Alexander Vedernikov on his successes
The strange "lack of separation" of management in the theater was the reason for Alexei Ratmansky's departure: he preferred to engage only in choreography, rather than the administrative management of the troupe, which ate up two thirds of his working time. In the situation with Vedernikov, everything looks a little different: the maestro was gradually losing the powers that he had under the contract. In the end, fatigue from the theatrical cycle "reforms-stagnation" and from the implicit conflict with the administration, as well as the endless epic with the repair of the main building forced Vedernikov to leave. He has not yet decided on his plans: while he is taking a break, he would like to work in Russia in general, but he has a preliminary agreement with two Scandinavian teams (interview with RIA Novosti).
Anatoly Iksanov, director of GABT, traditionally managed to put a good face on a bad game and spoke very diplomatically: "I have the kindest attitude towards him, there have never been any conflicts, either direct or indirect. But, apparently, as a result of eight years of joint work, our views diverged" (quote from Kommersant). Iksanov was aware of Vedernikov's impending departure and expects to work with several outstanding conductors of different generations in the coming years, in particular, with Alexander Lazarev, who led the GABT Orchestra for eight years, and Vasily Sinaisky, whose track record includes both the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra and the GASO. In addition, he is very interested in young stars — Theodor Currentzis, Vladimir Yurovsky and Vasily Petrenko.
The advantage of the current Mariinsky is that its leader is a musician. The disadvantage is that it is a very extensive system that does anything but play properly in St. Petersburg. But passion is very big - and the events are big. Such a... normal caliphate. And the system and mechanism are actually archaic both here and there.
Alexander Vedernikov on the Mariinsky Theatre
All this, of course, is wonderful, but it is completely unclear what to do with the musical leadership of the theater, which lay on Vedernikov's shoulders. In an interview with Kommersant, Iksanov calmly assures that "we will not rush, and it is not necessary to fight now to take up this position urgently. It will be vacant for a while, it's okay. With such a set of guest conductors, which I have named, the quality will not suffer, but only the opposite." Vedernikov is only skeptical about this policy: "Such a structure as the Bolshoi Theatre certainly needs a single creative master. No matter how well the orchestra plays and the choir sings at the moment, everything can very easily go away, because it is an object of constant supervision and training by the musical management."
In the ballet company, a similar crisis was resolved with the help of a complex structure in which Yuri Grigorovich is responsible for Soviet classics, artistic director Yuri Burlaka is engaged in administrative work and resumes the pre-revolutionary repertoire, and Alexey Ratmansky as a guest choreographer puts on modern ballets. It is possible that the administration of the Bolshoi Theater will create something similar, a kind of "coalition government" for the opera company. This fits perfectly into the general extensive policy of the theater. Vedernikov's pessimism does not allow us to count on the fact that the Bolshoi will suddenly have a wildly energetic reformer who will make the giant machine of the theater move more quickly.
Source.
It seems that the Bolshoi Theater is entering a period of personnel confusion. At the beginning of winter, the main choreographer Alexei Ratmansky left him, and the middle of July was marked by the announcement of the resignation of the chief conductor and musical director Alexander Vedernikov. The theater coped with the loss of Ratmansky by creating a "triumvirate" of choreographers, but how to dispose of the vacancy of the chief conductor?
Vedernikov spoke in detail about his decision to leave Bolshoy in an interview with the Expert magazine. The material turned out to be wonderful: the maestro spoke in detail, frankly and intelligently about the situation in the theater, bringing out a lot of things that could only be guessed otherwise. It seems to Vedernikov that not only the GABT, but also the opera house in Russia as a whole need radical reforms: "Opera, in my opinion, today should either not have a permanent cast of soloists at all, or have a very small one - and focus on people who are best able to do this or that in the world." The Bolshoi Theatre itself is "archaic" and inflexible: "There are a lot of people, the structure is self-sufficient, if something is going to be dispersed, then the Big One is the last. And if it doesn't drip on us, why will we complicate our lives?"
In fact, the theater has neither a public relations department nor a marketing department, there are no season tickets, "there is no system in which a ticket to the Bolshoi Theater would serve as an invitation to visit Russia, which would be an excellent way to expand the geography of the public," the maestro states, explaining what self-sufficiency and stagnation of the GABT are expressed in.
In the words of the chief conductor, fatigue from the traditional conflict between the creative "engines" of the theater and its administrators clearly sounds: "The main vice of the Bolshoi Theater system is that it is a bureaucratic system. The bureaucrat is the first person in it. With a normal separation of powers, it may be necessary: that the first person should be the one who signs financial papers, communicates with the powerful of this world. But when this bureaucrat is jointly and severally responsible under the charter, including for creative issues, he has a lot of temptations."
In eight years, we have managed to make the theater a little more open. We managed to rejuvenate the choir and orchestra — often with the help of rather unpopular measures, we had to go to the courts. But now they are in good standing - and they play and sing really well. It was possible to return the Bolshoi Theatre to the proper level of world touring.
Alexander Vedernikov on his successes
The strange "lack of separation" of management in the theater was the reason for Alexei Ratmansky's departure: he preferred to engage only in choreography, rather than the administrative management of the troupe, which ate up two thirds of his working time. In the situation with Vedernikov, everything looks a little different: the maestro was gradually losing the powers that he had under the contract. In the end, fatigue from the theatrical cycle "reforms-stagnation" and from the implicit conflict with the administration, as well as the endless epic with the repair of the main building forced Vedernikov to leave. He has not yet decided on his plans: while he is taking a break, he would like to work in Russia in general, but he has a preliminary agreement with two Scandinavian teams (interview with RIA Novosti).
Anatoly Iksanov, director of GABT, traditionally managed to put a good face on a bad game and spoke very diplomatically: "I have the kindest attitude towards him, there have never been any conflicts, either direct or indirect. But, apparently, as a result of eight years of joint work, our views diverged" (quote from Kommersant). Iksanov was aware of Vedernikov's impending departure and expects to work with several outstanding conductors of different generations in the coming years, in particular, with Alexander Lazarev, who led the GABT Orchestra for eight years, and Vasily Sinaisky, whose track record includes both the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra and the GASO. In addition, he is very interested in young stars — Theodor Currentzis, Vladimir Yurovsky and Vasily Petrenko.
The advantage of the current Mariinsky is that its leader is a musician. The disadvantage is that it is a very extensive system that does anything but play properly in St. Petersburg. But passion is very big - and the events are big. Such a... normal caliphate. And the system and mechanism are actually archaic both here and there.
Alexander Vedernikov on the Mariinsky Theatre
All this, of course, is wonderful, but it is completely unclear what to do with the musical leadership of the theater, which lay on Vedernikov's shoulders. In an interview with Kommersant, Iksanov calmly assures that "we will not rush, and it is not necessary to fight now to take up this position urgently. It will be vacant for a while, it's okay. With such a set of guest conductors, which I have named, the quality will not suffer, but only the opposite." Vedernikov is only skeptical about this policy: "Such a structure as the Bolshoi Theatre certainly needs a single creative master. No matter how well the orchestra plays and the choir sings at the moment, everything can very easily go away, because it is an object of constant supervision and training by the musical management."
In the ballet company, a similar crisis was resolved with the help of a complex structure in which Yuri Grigorovich is responsible for Soviet classics, artistic director Yuri Burlaka is engaged in administrative work and resumes the pre-revolutionary repertoire, and Alexey Ratmansky as a guest choreographer puts on modern ballets. It is possible that the administration of the Bolshoi Theater will create something similar, a kind of "coalition government" for the opera company. This fits perfectly into the general extensive policy of the theater. Vedernikov's pessimism does not allow us to count on the fact that the Bolshoi will suddenly have a wildly energetic reformer who will make the giant machine of the theater move more quickly.
Source.
Bow to the maestro. Alexander Vedernikov leaves the Bolshoi Theatre
Lenta.Ru, July 14, 2009
