silvy Posted August 29, 2003 Share Posted August 29, 2003 Could someone please tell me about Fadeechev¿s tenure as director of the Bolshoi, and as to why he was fired?? thanks!!!!! silvy Link to comment
Alexandra Posted August 29, 2003 Share Posted August 29, 2003 I hope Marc will see this and respond, as he interviewed Fadeyechev several times and saw the company a lot during his tenure. As I remember it -- and I may be misremembering -- he resigned rather than carry out the orders of a new director. I thought there were some threads on this, but they seem to have disappeared, unfortunately. Link to comment
rg Posted August 29, 2003 Share Posted August 29, 2003 to be sure marc would be the one w/the hard facts, but for some soft-facts from a big admirer of a.fadeyechev's let me see if i can recall. he was balletmaster under the general directorship of vasiliev. he brought his father in to help mount the most recent bolshoi staging of lavrovsky's 'romeo and juliet' and he, alexei f. staged the co's then recent after-gorsky 'don quixote' during his tenure. i THINK he resigned in the wake of vasiliev's being sacked in good part over the outrage expressed by some music folk, most notably the conductor w/ a name like rodzhesnensky - but i am no doubt butchering it badly, who found the vasiliev/fadeyechev administration's 'fille du pharaon' appalling, largely because of its pugni score. the, a.f. went off i think to do what might be called free-lance balletmastering but i could be far off the mark here as well as above. in any case, as alexandra wisely noted marc h. would know the full story. Link to comment
Marc Haegeman Posted August 29, 2003 Share Posted August 29, 2003 A bit of recent Russian history B). In the Summer of 2000, following the dismissal of Vladimir Vasiliev, Gennady Rozhdestvensky and Anatoli Iksanov had been appointed General Artistic Director and General Director of the Theatre respectively. Alexei Fadeyechev remained AD of the ballet company, yet because the new management seemed bent on tearing down what had been built in the last years (scheduled premieres and tours were cancelled, recently acquired ballets were being ditched, etc.), Fadeyechev decided to speak to the press about it. A few days after his press conference in October 2000 Iksanov cancelled Fadeyechev's contract. In any case, like Alexandra said, the differences were too outspoken and hadn't he been fired, Fadeyechev would probably have resigned some time later. It was all a rather dismal episode. Alexei Fadeyechev had been leading the ballet company since 1998 and as we all could appreciate the artistic progress that was made during his tenure was truly significant. As Robert mentioned there was indeed a lot to do about the score of "Fille du Pharaon". Maestro Rozhdestvensky for one didn't think much of it and allegedly decided to dump the ballet because of that. Of course, this one fact is only part of a much more general feeling of discontent from the opera people in the Bolshoi who must have felt sidelined by the ballet-minded Vasiliev. Link to comment
Alexandra Posted August 29, 2003 Share Posted August 29, 2003 Ah, so it was poor Pugni's fault I'd forgotten that -- of course you're right, Marc. His contract was cancelled. Thanks to both of you for the update. Any word on what AF will be doing next season? Link to comment
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