Translated material
The Ministry of Culture will check the financing of Tannhäuser
The Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation will conduct an audit of the financial and economic activities of the Novosibirsk Opera and Ballet Theater “due to the large number of requests for funding for the production of the Tannhäuser opera, the fees of the director and actors.” This is stated in the statement of the Ministry of Culture following the results of public hearings held due to the conflict around the production.
The Ministry of Culture stated that it has the right “to take administrative and financial measures in extreme cases against state cultural institutions, including depriving such productions of funding.”
The ministry blamed the conflict on the heads of the theatre, who "ignored the first protests of the public." As a result, as the statement says, the conflict escalated into litigation.
The Ministry of Culture called for the performance to be corrected and to apologize to “everyone whose religious feelings were hurt” by the performance.
The Ministry of Culture of Russia considers unacceptable a voluntary or involuntary expression of disrespect for traditional values shown by the theater management and a production director, and points out to the director of the theater B.M. Mezdrich that there is insufficient control over the institution he leads.
- On March 10, a court in Novosibirsk terminated the administrative cases brought against Timofei Kulyabin, director of the Tannhäuser opera, and Boris Mezdrich, director of the Novosibirsk Opera and Ballet Theatre. No offense was found in their actions.
- Metropolitan Tikhon of Novosibirsk and Berdsk presented claims to the production. Following his complaint, the prosecutor's office opened cases under the article on public desecration of objects of religious veneration.
- Many directors and artists spoke in defense of Kulyabin and Mezdrich, including Mark Zakharov, Oleg Tabakov, Evgeny Mironov, Kirill Serebrennikov, Oleg Menshikov and Chulpan Khamatova.