dirac Posted February 27, 2022 Share Posted February 27, 2022 Valery Gergiev is fired by his management agency. Quote Gergiev is the music director of the Mariinsky Theatre and the chief conductor of the Munich Philharmonic. He is close to Putin and has expressed support for Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014. Related. Quote Today I have informed Maestro Valery Gergiev that he is no longer a client of Felsner Artists. In the light of the criminal war waged by the Russian regime against the democratic and independent nation of Ukraine, and against the European open society as a whole, it has become impossible for us, and clearly unwelcome, to defend the interests of Maestro Gergiev, one of the greatest conductors of all time, a visionary artist loved and admired by many of us, who will not, or cannot, publicly end his long-expressed support for a regime that has come to commit such crimes. Carnegie Hall appearance canceled, amid other cancellations. Quote Concert appearances by Russian conductor Valery Gergiev, a close associate of Russian President Vladimir Putin who had been scheduled to lead the Vienna Philharmonic in three performances this weekend, are not taking place at Carnegie Hall as originally scheduled. The Manhattan venue’s announcement of Gergiev’s replacement, by Canadian Yannick Nézet-Séguin, music director at the Metropolitan Opera, was followed by the replacement of Russian pianist Denis Matsuev. (Matsuev, who had been scheduled to perform under Gergiev, was replaced by pianist Seong-Jin Cho.) Both Gergiev and Matsuev had publicly endorsed Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea, signing an open letter after Russia’s Ministry of Culture called on artists and intellectuals to support the annexation. Link to comment
dirac Posted February 27, 2022 Author Share Posted February 27, 2022 The Garage Museum of Contemporary Arts in Moscow halts all exhibitions. Quote The Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, in Moscow’s Gorky Park, had upcoming exhibitions by Lydia Masterkova, Anne Imhof, Helen Marten, and Saodat Ismailova planned. The museum’s statement, which also appears on the its website, indicates that the institution will fulfill its “obligations to the artists whose projects are being postponed and who have worked with us with trust and enthusiasm.” The Masterkova exhibition was slated to open on March 16, and the Imhof show, the first in Russia for the celebrated artist who won the Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale in 2017, was due to open on April 5. Link to comment
dirac Posted February 27, 2022 Author Share Posted February 27, 2022 Museums in Ukraine try to protect their collections. Quote The director of the Odessa Fine Arts Museum told the New York Times that it was doing the only thing it could do, i.e. move items to the basement. And, at the end of Thursday, reports the Art Newspaper, the organisers of the Ukrainian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale announced that they had stopped preparations for their exhibition of the artist Pavlo Makov. Related. Link to comment
nanushka Posted February 27, 2022 Share Posted February 27, 2022 Thanks for these updates, @dirac. I'm especially glad to see Gergiev finally facing consequences for his support. Link to comment
Quiggin Posted February 27, 2022 Share Posted February 27, 2022 (edited) Is Gergiev indeed "one of the greatest conductors of all time"? Yes, thanks for keeping us up on this, dirac. Edited February 27, 2022 by Quiggin Link to comment
nanushka Posted February 27, 2022 Share Posted February 27, 2022 Ratmansky too has left his current gig at the Bolshoi, according to the Times. Quote Alexei Ratmansky, With Family in Kyiv, Leaves His Ballet in Moscow The New York-based choreographer, who was working on a new ballet for the Bolshoi, said he doubted he would return to Russia to work “if Putin is still president.” The choreographer Alexei Ratmansky, the former artistic director of the Bolshoi Ballet who is now artist in residence at American Ballet Theater, was preparing a new ballet at the Bolshoi in Moscow when President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia made his announcement, early Thursday morning, that he had launched an invasion of neighboring Ukraine. Mr. Ratmansky, who grew up in Kyiv and danced there early in his career, immediately decided to leave Moscow, and with the help of the Bolshoi, made arrangements to travel home to New York via Warsaw, along with the rest of his international creative team. Link to comment
Balanchinomane Posted February 28, 2022 Share Posted February 28, 2022 Fathom Events has cancelled the upcoming Bolshoi in Cinema broadcasts of Swan Lake and The Pharaoh’s Daughter. Link to comment
volcanohunter Posted March 1, 2022 Share Posted March 1, 2022 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. Link to comment
volcanohunter Posted March 1, 2022 Share Posted March 1, 2022 (edited) 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. Edited March 1, 2022 by volcanohunter Link to comment
pherank Posted March 2, 2022 Share Posted March 2, 2022 This is a good article about various Russian artists and their attempts to balance patriotism and artistry: Putin’s Maestro, and the Limits of Cultural Exchange in Wartime The Russian conductor Valery Gergiev and the diva Anna Netrebko have lost engagements because of their ties to Putin, as geopolitics and music collide once again. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/02/arts/music/ukraine-putin-valery-gergiev-anna-netrebko.html Link to comment
abatt Posted March 3, 2022 Share Posted March 3, 2022 Netrebko will not appear at the Met Opera this season or next season: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/03/arts/music/anna-netrebko-met-opera-ukraine.html Link to comment
Quiggin Posted March 5, 2022 Share Posted March 5, 2022 LitHub Open Source has a good podcast overview on the situation, bringing in George Kennan's assessment of the Cold War and Gorbachev's point of view. The title is misleading. https://lithub.com/putin-doesnt-understand-the-first-thing-about-ukraine-masha-gessen-on-the-week-old-war/ Link to comment
pherank Posted March 5, 2022 Share Posted March 5, 2022 A couple of Russia/Ukraine and the Arts-related NY Times articles... Too Close to Putin? Institutions Vet Artists, Uncomfortably. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has led arts organizations to reconsider who performs, forcing them to confront questions about free speech and policing political views. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/05/arts/music/russian-artists-putin.html To Boycott Russians, or Not? In Film and Beyond, That’s the Question. A Russian moviemaker with Ukrainian roots and relatives in Kyiv denounced the war. The Glasgow Film Festival dropped his film anyway. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/04/movies/film-boycott-russia-ukraine.html Link to comment
pherank Posted March 5, 2022 Share Posted March 5, 2022 (edited) The last independent Russian news outlet, TV Rain, has been shut down, and so in their final broadcast they showed the Dance of the Little Swans from Swan Lake: "Swan Lake was a symbolic choice for the network, and has been historically used by Russian networks to signify turmoil and political unrest. As NPR reported last year, the ballet was shown on a loop by Soviet state television in 1991, when the failed coup of Mikhail Gorbachev spurred the beginning of the end of the Soviet Union." --People.com It's not all bad news - the RT America News program has been closed down. That was always cringe-worthy. Edited March 5, 2022 by pherank Link to comment
pherank Posted March 6, 2022 Share Posted March 6, 2022 Alastair Macaulay just posted this story about a Ukrainian ballet teacher using Zoom classes to distract her students from the carnage (see 2nd photo/screenshot on the posting): "This story was posted five days ago about the Kyiv ballet teacher Yaroslava Vilkhova - herself a beautiful woman, and here beautifully dressed in traditional attire. I wonder now where she and her students now are: in Kyiv or in refuge elsewhere? (My thanks to my old friend Vanessa Wilde for this.) The name Yaroslavna (with an N) has an almost mythic resonance to anyone who knows Borodin’s opera “Prince Igor”: Prince Igor is Prince of the early mediaeval Kyiv, then the capital of Rus and subsequently of Muscovy. In Acts II and III, Igor and his son are captured by the Polovtsians (whose dances are the most famous part of the opera). Yaroslavna opens Act IV with a hauntingly eloquent lament for the husband who has been long absent..." https://www.instagram.com/p/CavL_vLgIlG/ Link to comment
volcanohunter Posted March 7, 2022 Share Posted March 7, 2022 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. Link to comment
volcanohunter Posted March 7, 2022 Share Posted March 7, 2022 On 3/5/2022 at 7:00 PM, pherank said: The name Yaroslavna (with an N) has an almost mythic resonance to anyone who knows Borodin’s opera “Prince Igor”: Prince Igor is Prince of the early mediaeval Kyiv, then the capital of Rus and subsequently of Muscovy. Oh Lord. When Macaulay gets into these historical "explanations" he only manages to embarrass himself. Link to comment
aurora Posted March 7, 2022 Share Posted March 7, 2022 Jacopo Tissi has left the Bolshoi due to the war on Ukraine https://www.instagram.com/p/CazpLVsg-vp/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link Link to comment
canbelto Posted March 8, 2022 Share Posted March 8, 2022 So has Xander Parish (left the Mariinsky) Link to comment
pherank Posted March 8, 2022 Share Posted March 8, 2022 13 hours ago, volcanohunter said: 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. It's called "duck and hide". 13 hours ago, volcanohunter said: Oh Lord. When Macaulay gets into these historical "explanations" he only manages to embarrass himself. But it wouldn't be Macaulay without those goofy asides. 😉 And it keeps everything "about ballet" in the end. 7 minutes ago, canbelto said: So has Xander Parish (left the Mariinsky) Here is your answer: "Dear friends & followers, tonight I was supposed to be performing Giselle at the Mariinsky Theatre but instead, due to the awful crisis I have taken the difficult decision to leave Russia, at least until peace comes. My heart goes out to the people of Ukraine, near and far, including @kate_chebykina pictured with me here in @jivoy_dance’s “I’m not Scared”. I am so grateful to the Mariinsky Theatre who, thanks to Yuri Fateev, took me in 12 years ago and gave me a career in classical ballet I could only have dreamed about. I am grateful to the wonderful ordinary Russian people, the majority of whom have treated me with such kindness. I pray that peace will come and the wounds will be healed by God’s grace. Thank you to all of you who have been sending me messages over the past few days and sorry for not having had the time to reply 🙏🏻" https://www.instagram.com/p/Caxj21HOqGK/ Link to comment
pherank Posted March 9, 2022 Share Posted March 9, 2022 (edited) Ukrainian Dancers Find Shelter Abroad as War Rages at Home Opera houses and theaters in European cities are offering to help fleeing or stranded ballet dancers, even as many are still stuck in Ukraine. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/08/arts/dance/kyiv-city-ballet-russia-war.html Edited March 9, 2022 by pherank Link to comment
California Posted March 10, 2022 Share Posted March 10, 2022 A lovely feature on NBC about Ukraine dancers fighting in the war: Link to comment
volcanohunter Posted March 10, 2022 Share Posted March 10, 2022 Adrian Blake Mitchell on resigning from the Mikhailovsky, leaving Russia in a hurry and biting his tongue until he was out. https://www.instagram.com/p/Ca2w211gwAN Link to comment
volcanohunter Posted March 10, 2022 Share Posted March 10, 2022 Alina Cojocaru and Ivan Putrov are organizing a fundraising gala on March 19 at the London Coliseum to benefit the Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal. Other dancers scheduled to appear include Marianela Nuñez, Mathieu Ganio, Katja Khaniukova, Isaac Hernández, Francesco Gabriele Frola, Emma Hawes, Federico Bonelli, Fumi Kaneko, Natalia Osipova, Mayara Magri and Reece Clarke. Everyone, including musicians and the venue, are donating their services. https://londoncoliseum.org/whats-on/dance-for-ukraine/ Link to comment
California Posted March 10, 2022 Share Posted March 10, 2022 6 minutes ago, volcanohunter said: Alina Cojocaru and Ivan Putrov are organizing a fundraising gala on March 19 at the London Coliseum to benefit the Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal. Other dancers scheduled to appear include Marianela Nuñez, Mathieu Ganio, Katja Khaniukova, Isaac Hernández, Francesco Gabriele Frola, Emma Hawes, Federico Bonelli, Fumi Kaneko, Natalia Osipova, Mayara Magri and Reece Clarke. Everyone, including musicians and the venue, are donating their services. https://londoncoliseum.org/whats-on/dance-for-ukraine/ I wish they could figure out how to do a live stream of this fund-raising gala -- they could raise a LOT more money. Link to comment
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