The opera is brought under the monastery

The Novosibirsk Court refused to conduct a religious examination of the opera Tangaiser, which outraged the Orthodox public

The justice of the Central District of the city of Novosibirsk, on March 5, refused to appoint an independent examination of the opera Richard Wagner “Tangeiser”, who is on the stage of the Novosibirsk Opera and Ballet Theater in the production of Timofei Kulyabin. The defense in the framework of the administrative case demanded such an examination, but so far the experts are allowed only to give “the characterization of the personality of the director”.

“What does this wording mean, it’s hard for me to say, I personally do not understand how an expert in the field of religious studies can give an assessment of the personality of the director,” said Sergey Badamshin, the director of the Novosibirsk Opera and Ballet Theater of Opera and Ballet.

“What exactly for the characterization they expect from us is it difficult to say that in my opinion the prosecutor’s office itself does not know how to behave in this situation,” said Boris Falikov, an associate professors of the defense, associate professor of the center of comparative studies of the RSU, RSU. In an interview with NT, he confirmed that he was going to come to the court in Novosibirsk in the near future, but so far he would not have time to get acquainted with the results of the already held meetings. “What is denied by a religious and art history examination means that the issue is going to solve at all and quickly. But I think that they will not succeed, ”the scientist emphasizes.

As the lawyer explained, now two administrative processes are going on in parallel: against Boris Mezdrich, director of the Novosibirsk Opera and Ballet Theater and against the director himself. “Yesterday, at a meeting in the Mezdrich case, our petition for the appointment of an examination did not consider, which in itself is a procedural violation. Today at the meeting in the Kulyabin case, the examination was refused. If the prosecutor believes that in order to evaluate the opera, which is an elite and complex area of ​​art, neither religious nor art history examination, it is difficult for me to comment on something, ”says Badamshin.

Intentional desecration

The scandal in question broke out after the representatives of the “Orthodox community” were outraged by the use of religious symbols in the production of the Novosibirsk Theater. The premiere of the original opera took place back in 1845, but the Novosibirsk director transferred its action to the present, replacing the tangaiser knight - “film director Gerich Tangaiser”, who shot, judging by the libretto, on the poster of which the image of Christ was placed between female legs. It was this poster that appears in the performance, and caused the indignation of believers.

After the Metropolitan Tikhon Metropolitan Tikhon joined the protests of the “Orthodox community”, the prosecutor's office of the Novosibirsk region opened administrative cases under the article: “Intentional public desecration ... of religious veneration.” And the Investigative Committee initiated an audit for the initiation of a criminal case for insulting the feelings of believers against the authors of the performance.

“In my opinion, there is no insulting feelings in the production, since the performance does not deal with religious symbols in the sacred context, but with symbols belonging not only to religious, but also to secular culture,” Falikov believes. According to him, the context in which the symbols are used by the Novosibirsk director, on the contrary, has a “pro-religious” character.

“The director created a very serious work about the fate of the artist challenging religion, and this ends in tragically for him, he goes crazy, and the whole performance tells that the person who challenges religion provokes the tragedy,” the expert emphasizes. -It seems to me that if it were shown at some international competition, he would certainly have received a prize of the ecumenical jury, since the Vatican, the Catholic Church always enters into dialogue with such works. The fact that we have such performances that study modern God -fighting as a problem are attacked by the church, only discredits the Russian Orthodox Church, exposing it as an obscurant and obscurantist. ”

The voice of believers

Boris Falikov previously repeatedly opposed the adoption of the law on “insulting the feelings of believers”, because, in his opinion, the law adopted by the State Duma two years ago was written “extremely unprofessional”: “even then I said that the appearance in the legal field of such laws will call for the life of the“ professional offended ”group, which will speculate them with the aim of capitalizing their own grievances in the political sense,” emphasizes in the political sense, - emphasizes Religious scholar. - In my opinion, this is what is happening now in Novosibirsk. Believers are manipulated by ura-patriotic organizations. And unfortunately, the diocese sided with them, which confirms that the church does not understand the processes taking place in society. ”

According to the Metropolitan of Novosibirsk Tikhon, "in the production of church symbolism is used for other purposes." And in the commentary of the rector of the Novosibirsk Conservatory, doctor of art history Konstantin Kurleni, published on the website of the Novosibirsk Metropolis, it was emphasized that "directorial work ... is a deliberate perversion of the Wagnerian original" and "the director unreasonable claim to expand the personal creative space."

Despite the fact that the court did not decide on the conduct of independent examinations, earlier he was already attached to the case of an examination of the prosecution carried out by Dr. Boris Pivovarov. Nevertheless, on March 5, the head of the Synodal Information Department, Vladimir Legoyd, called on the authors of the play “Hearing believers and to complete this conflict situation without judicial sentences”, and believers - not to run to the prosecutor’s office every time “Seeing in the public space something that seems to him that seemed to be blasphemy that offends his feelings.”

Oleg Tabakov, the artistic director of the ET CETERA theater, Alexander Kalyagin, the artistic director of the Theater of Nations, Yevgeny Mironov, the director and artistic director of the Moscow Gogol Center, Kirill Serebrennikov and the president of the Russian theater directors, Valery Fokin, have already acted in defense of the performance.

Photo: Siburbia.ru