Valery Gergiev taking over at the Bolshoi?

[Ian Macmillan]

From X/Twitter, for what it's worth - I've not found anything to corroborate the story.   If true, presumably he'd leave The Mariinsky? 

[Guest oncnp]

A bit more.... 

Valery Gergiev to Become General Director of Bolshoi Theatre - OperaWire OperaWire

 

Russian rumours: Gergiev in Moscow raid - Slippedisc

Edited November 16, 2023 by oncnp

[alison]

"He will replace Vladimir Urin, who has led the Bolshoi for ten years and ‘will leave of his own free will’."

 

Hmm ...

[capybara]

It is going to be very interesting indeed to see how this will ‘play out’ for the Bolshoi Ballet.

Yuri Fateyev has only ever had the title of Acting Director at the Mariinsky, presumably because Gergiev was in overall control. However, at the Bolshoi, Makhar Vaziev does not appear to occupy a subservient role of that kind.

[Sabine0308]

2 hours ago, alison said:

"He will replace Vladimir Urin, who has led the Bolshoi for ten years and ‘will leave of his own free will’."

 

Hmm ...

That statement sounds weird, to put it nicely.

[Pas de Quatre]

There is a piece in The Times here is the link, but it may be paywall protected.Times Article Gergiev

[FionaM]

My understanding is that Gergiev retains both positions.  Head of both theatres.  Seeing as he was forced out of multiple music director and conducting roles around the world after February 2022, I’m sure he can manage both jobs.

 

This idea was proposed by Putin over a year ago. 
 

The timing of now may well have to do with the Bolshoi box office shambles for ballets, which reached crazy levels over tickets for this year’s Nutcracker shows.  Ticket gangs have been acquiring blocks of tickets and then selling them at above face value.  (Same the world over).  This year they charged 15,000 rubies £150 for places in the queue … probably to buy tickets that already didn’t exist.  
 

Good luck to Gergiev in solving that problem!

 

Let’s hope he doesn’t treat Bolshoi ballet as a minor sideline like he seems to with Mariinsky.   How is it that Fateyev is perpetual acting director ???

 

 

Edited November 16, 2023 by FionaM
Spelling of names

[Sabine0308]

I don't think he would be able to do both theatres justice. A younger person would have a hard time, and Gergiev is 70. I fear for the Mariinsky. The only things that might protect it is the fact that there would an outcry in Russia if someone touches this iconic theatre, especially the ballet company. And that Putin is from St. Petersburg. But what would that actually mean, to "unify Bolshoi and Mariinsky"?

[MAB]

1 hour ago, FionaM said:

Seeing as he was forced out of multiple music director and conducting roles around the world after February 2022,

 

Forced out?  Not  how most people would describe it.

[Guest oncnp]

and thoughts from the Times dance critic (paywalled but probably in tomorrow's links with share token)

 

The Bolshoi Ballet doesn’t need any of Gergiev’s glamour — it has plenty of its own (thetimes.co.uk)

[FionaM]

1 hour ago, Sabine0308 said:

But what would that actually mean, to "unify Bolshoi and Mariinsky"?

I wonder.  Maybe it only means more joint collaborations, artists appearing in both (conductors, singers ballet stars) etc.  Could mean joint administration.  Eg. one ballet head for both.  
 

Will be interesting to see 🤔

[Emeralds]

This sounds like one of those figurehead appointments- rather like the ones where they appoint and pay retired industry figures to the board of a big company but they don't actually do any day to day work or decisions- it's just for prestige and occasionally they might get asked to make a phone call or have lunch with some contacts to secure a contract, network and build a higher profile, etc. (Obviously some people in these roles are more active than others.)

 

Gergiev in his previous appointments was infamous for a few things:

1) Not being very diligent about rehearsing 

2) Over-committing himself to projects ("I'm in" seems to have been his modus operandi) without much thought as to how he would actually do justice to the artists and audiences he had said yes to

3) Apparently the director of Mariinsky Ballet but leaving  all the actual director work ro Yuri Fateyev and other less high profile admin staff. 

 

BUT if there was a ballet with music by Prokofiev, Stravinsky, Glazunov, Shostakovich and (rarer) Tchaikovsky, he will conduct those because they are "proper, serious" music- nobody else gets a look in. He's not interested in ballets like Giselle or Don Quixote. The "other" conductors can do those, and if they want to conduct Stravinsky (Firebird), Shostakovich (Concerto DSCH) etc they can do it on international tours. Gergiev doesn't do schlepping around on international flights unless he is the headline star.

 

I doubt he is likely to be interfering in the casting of Odette/Odile or dictating how many performances of Nutcracker they will put on, or taking over most of Vladimir Urin's duties, which will probably go to some unnamed person in some new position (or they might even re-hire Mr Urin to do his old job with a different name). He's not the least bit interested in such stuff.

 

The guy needs something to occupy himself with, I guess, since he's not really interested in day to day duties that other directors and conductors like Antonio Pappano and Simon Rattle actually do. He's already succeeded - for better or worse- in turning the Mariinsky Theatre and its orchestra into the "Mariinsky Philharmonic and Concert Hall" with a ballet company and opera troupe attached to it. I suspect Makhar Vaziev isn't too bothered as long as VG is called head of Bolshoi Theatre rather than head of Bolshoi Ballet. 

[Amelia]

On 18/11/2023 at 10:31, Emeralds said:

I suspect Makhar Vaziev isn't too bothered as long as VG is called head of Bolshoi Theatre rather than head of Bolshoi Ballet. 

 

On the contrary, Makharbek Vaziev might be very much bothered by the fact that he will again fall under the subordination of Gergiev with whom he broke up under rather conflicting circumstances. In 2008, Vaziev resigned from Mariinsky after being the manager of the ballet company for 13 years. He was unhappy that this title did not correspond to his actual activities as artistic director of the ballet. During the time of his management, the company acquired a fundamentally new repertoire “face”: the Mariinsky troupe mastered both the latest styles of the 20th and 21st centuries - the choreography of Balanchine, Forsythe - and the “restoration” of academic classics. For several years Vasiev was waiting for recognition of his merits, but he never became the official artistic director of the ballet. Hence he submitted his resignation (in Russian it is called leaving at his own request).
As we know, instead of him Yuri Fateyev was appointed to the position of acting (!) manager of the ballet troupe and he remains in this post up to this day. There can be only one Artistic Director under directorship of Gergiev - Himself.
In his interviews following Vaziev’s resignation, Gergiev gave a not very flattering assessment of Vaziev as a leader. Vaziev most probably didn’t forget it.

[Amelia]

Vladimir Urin announced his resignation as Director General of the Bolshoi Theater
https://iz.ru/1613760/video/vladimir-urin-obiavil-ob-ukhode-s-posta-gendirektora-bolshogo-teatra

 

[Ondine]

Guardian today, no paywall:

 

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/dec/01/putin-loyalist-valery-gergiev-installed-as-director-of-bolshoi-theatre

 

Putin loyalist Valery Gergiev installed as director of Bolshoi theatre

Star conductor becomes latest Kremlin supporter to lead a major Russian cultural institution