Surgery

Rock Opera "Jesus Christ Superstar" in the production of the St. Petersburg Theater was banned for showing in Pskov. So decided the local diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church. Can such a ban can be considered reasonable and legitimate? They say Artemy Troitsky, Yuri Shevchuk, Vladimir Sorokin, Irina Otiev, Arthur Gasparyan.

Artemy Troitsky , musical critic:

Firstly, the opera "Jesus Christ Superstar" is really very good. I believe that this is generally the only work of composer Andrew Lloyd-Uabber. Everything else that he wrote after Jesus Christ is a fairly faded and mediocre story: all these "cats", "ghost of the opera", etc. And in Jesus Christ, he apparently laid out his entire talent, so this work is very worthy.

As for the content of this opera, it largely resembles the story of Leonid Andreev "Judas Zariot". There we are talking about the fact that Judas is actually not a vile and greedy traitor, but a sincere fan of Christ. I would say that there is nothing anti -Christian, heretical in the content of this opera. And I still have not heard so that from the church there were any attacks on this musical in our country or in other countries. I think here most likely we are not even about the tasty, but about paranoia.

Our Russian Orthodox Church has long been trying to appropriate the functions that in Soviet times performed by the department of ideology and propaganda of the CPSU Central Committee. They want to impose their Orthodox paw on decisions that it is spiritual, which is soulless, what is Russian and non -Russian, etc. So in this case, we are dealing with the spring exacerbation of this very CPSU-Ideological Syndrome of the Russian Orthodox Church. I don’t think that some other dioceses will follow the example of Pskov, since there is “Jesus Christ” in two or three places throughout the country. In general, the decision is absolutely obscurable and senile.

Yuri Shevchuk , leader of the DDT group:

I know this problem from the inside. There are two branches at the Institute of the Russian Orthodox Church. Young priests - I am familiar with many of them - they adhere to liberal views, they are for the church to be closer to people, more precisely. And the second branch is an orthodox that simply does not tolerate anything new, do not allow any modernization, even easy, they stand in a strict position of traditions.

I do not think that the supreme church power will approve this idea - it’s just fighting in the places of the priest. The church always has different opinions about events, cultural values. What is it anti -Christian, this opera? She is amazing, wonderful, accurate, with the excellent music of Webber, his ingenious work on which I grew up.

Vladimir Sorokin , writer:

This is complete stupidity and obscurantism. This opera, may it be a matter of obscurantists when she went out and hit the Soviet Sujuz, she made many young people think about faith, and many of them fell in love with Christ, in fact. That in it is anti -Christian - I will not know the mind. This is an absolutely canonical image of his path. There is neither irony nor mockery of Christianity - on the contrary, there is delight and reverence, and this is expressed in wonderful music, one aria of Magdalene is worth it. I consider this local obscurantism.

Irina Otieva , singer:

The Jesus Christ Superstar rock opera is a classic, this is a wonderful work, and I personally do not see anything seditious in it. It is amazing to me why the diocese decided to ban it, it is generally difficult to understand them, they have their arguments. All this looks pretty funny, because this opera is so famous, besides, for many years she did not cause any doubts and suddenly caused her. Strange and funny.

Arthur Gasparyan , music critic:

It surprises me-why on earth does some diocese prohibit anything? According to the Constitution, if my memory does not change me, we live in a secular democratic state, where the church is separated from the state, and I do not quite understand on what basis the church intervenes in the affairs of society. It is useless to discuss what is bad or good in this opera. Whatever in this opera, even if it is tough pornography, the church has no right to prohibit anything. Whether it is a secular television channel or even more so theater that is not a church parish. They may not show this opera in their parishes, this is their personal business.

So it is useless to discuss that in this opera it corresponds to or does not correspond to something - the ban itself does not comply with the norms of our constitution. I believe that in this case those who allowed such illegal actions should be involved in the court.