volcanohunter

By resigning his posts as chief conductor of the Bolshoi Theater and the Capitole de Toulouse, Tugan Sokhiev can avoid commenting on the invasion. Sokhiev hardly ever conducted ballet performances, but worked a great deal with the Bolshoi Opera.

With Cirio and Hernandez departing, I imagine there will be a position opening up, although I hope priority will be given to promotions from within the company. 

I do not know what route Xander Parish took out of Russia, but I remember that a number of years ago he acquired Russian citizenship. Assuming it's still running, there is a train between Saint Petersburg and Helsinki that is open only to Russian and Finnish nationals.

I still haven't mastered the intricacies of traveling with two passports, and mine aren't nearly as disparate as British and Russian. But I imagine there must be a way of establishing that, yes, I can board this train because I am Russian, and no, I don't need a Finnish visa because I am also British.

At the moment it is still possible to leave the country via Turkey or the Gulf states, a long detour for anyone attempting to fly westward. But these avenues may not be available indefinitely, and people risk being trapped in Russia, with no access to foreign bank accounts, and their local earnings depreciating in value.

We do sort of have a thread:

It turns out he was actually 95.

Clement Crisp has died at the age of 90.

The Munich Philharmonic has fired Gergiev.

The Verbier Festival asked him to resign, which he has, and performances by the Mariinsky Orchestra in Paris have been canceled.

Not from today, but Karita Mattila, who refused ever to work with Gergiev back in 2014, probably feels vindicated.

It's not just in the United States. The screening of Swan Lake, which is a repeat from 2020, has been postponed internationally by Pathé Live. It hasn't yet gone so far as to postpone the live broadcast of The Pharaoh's Daughter on May 1, but right now it's difficult to imagine how it could be done even technically. The equipment is trucked in from France for each broadcast.

The company hasn't visited New York since 1989, when it was still London Festival Ballet. (Back then it was Napoli, Ashton's Romeo and Juliet and Lynn Seymour's comeback in the one-act Anastasia.)

This is how the gorgeous opera house in Odessa is being shored up.

Thankfully, there is no indication that the opera house has sustained any damage.

13 hours ago, aurora said:

Was it in relation to the Bolshoi's London season being cancelled?

It's too late to save that tour, but the Bolshoi Theater now does many co-productions with other opera houses, and with many of them saying that they are cutting ties with pro-Putin artists, Urin is probably trying to save some of those agreements. In the past Urin has signed pro-Putin statements, and this spared his subordinates (chief conductor, AD of the ballet company...) from having to do the same. Perhaps now those signatures are coming back to haunt him.

In response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Laurent Hilaire has resigned as AD of the Stanislavsky and is leaving Russia immediately. 

https://www.francetvinfo.fr/sports/danse/laurent-hilaire-le-directeur-francais-de-la-troupe-de-ballet-du-theatre-stanislavski-a-moscou-annonce-sa-demission_4984161.html

1 hour ago, California said:

Judging from his postings, Ratmansky worked with this company long ago as a principal dancer and his wife Tatiana is from Ukraine.

Yes, although born in Leningrad, Ratmansky's family moved to Kyiv at some point early in his childhood, before he was shipped off to study at the Moscow Academy. He danced in Kyiv from 1986 to 1994 (I first saw him during a Canadian tour in 1991 doing beautiful Bournonville), then with the Royal Winnipeg Ballet in 1994-95, after which he returned to the National Ballet of Ukraine, before joining the Royal Danish Ballet in 1997. He was a principal there until becoming director of the Bolshoi in 2004. His wife danced with all of those companies as well.

This may be slightly distressing for people who thought they had tickets to Bonelli's final performance. He will dance his final Siegfried a week from today.

The Bolshoi acknowledges that The Art of the Fugue has been postponed because of "current events." The Bolshoi "hopes" that the project can still be realized, and Ratmansky "hopes" the time will come when he can return to Moscow to finish the ballet. 

But honestly, when looking for replacement repertoire for those dates, the Bolshoi could have come up with something slightly less fossilized than Don Quixote and Spartacus.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CaZfLlrLsPu/ 

P.S. Oh, and in the comments Nikolai Tsiskaridze accuses Ratmansky of being ungrateful.

Gergiev has been such a loyal and effective apologist for the regime for so long, no matter what the issue, that I'm going to assume he agrees with the party line entirely. And his career hasn't just flourished, he has become by far the most powerful figure in the Russian arts. Want a dedicated concert hall? No problem. A second theater? Sure. Appropriate a couple of opera houses in other cities? Okay. So no sympathy over his rock and hard place. The man is ruthless.

As for Ratmansky, if the political atmosphere is so uncomfortable, perhaps he'd be better off not working with Russian companies. There's plenty of work for him elsewhere, and he'd probably never feel pressure to make moral compromises.

As a dual citizen he can also travel to Russia more easily than most.

I honestly don't expect an explanation on Fugue from him or the company. For him to speak in black-and-white terms would bar him access to the Bolshoi for the foreseeable future. And the Bolshoi sure isn't going to give dissident views a platform, not as "the country's main stage," with all that implies. But people will draw their own conclusions from timing and laconic social media posts.

Yes, Gergiev is essentially Putin's official conductor, and Matsuev is basically his official pianist. If someone's going to perform classical music on Red Square on a national holiday, it's them.

Apparently Gergiev was booed yesterday at La Scala, and Milan's mayor is demanding he distance himself from Putin or be fired.

(The article was posted before the Carnegie Hall decision.)

https://operawire.com/valery-gergiev-under-fire-at-the-teatro-alla-scala/

Today the Bolshoi suspended sales for the premiere of Ratmansky's The Art of the Fugue, which is scheduled for the end of March. An announcement about the fate of the ballet hasn't yet been made, about whether Ratmansky is abandoning the project, and whether this is in response to the events of today. He is open about his pro-Ukrainian views.

A performance of The Bright Stream went ahead as scheduled today.

1 hour ago, pherank said:

I'm not sure it matters that they are friends with Facebook executive Nick Clegg (or, Sir Nicholas Clegg). But I guess that's supposed to demonstrate that Rojo and Hernandez are in with the movers and shakers of the Bay Area, and London. 

I suspect that British readers still think of Clegg primarily as the former leader of the Liberal Democrats and former Deputy Prime Minister in David Cameron's cabinet. Journalists bring up associations with people currently or previously in power almost as a matter of course, because yes, it does imply access to the movers and shakers.

I hope Camargo's engagement will be a sort of "test drive" leading to a more permanent engagement and not a return to ABT's revolving door of guest stars, even if right now there is a pressing need to work around Whiteside's injury.

As the dance boom began to fade, the Joffrey Ballet tried a dual New York/Los Angeles residency, but ultimately it didn't stick.

A Resilient Man, a documentary film about how the Royal Ballet's Steven McRae came back from a snapped Achilles, has until Friday to reach its fundraising goal on Kickstarter.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/a-resilient-man-film/a-resilient-man