Tannhäuser will no longer play this season

The new director of the Novosibirsk Opera and Ballet Theater Vladimir Kekhman decided to remove Tannhäuser from the repertoire. “Yesterday I watched a video of Tannhäuser. I watched until 2 am. I was pleasantly surprised by the high musical quality of the performance and I want to note the excellent work of the troupe and the conductor,” says Kekhman. As reasons for canceling the performance, he named the fact that the conductor has not yet been paid for the two performances played, as well as the fact that he cannot meet with the director Timofey Kulyabin in order to discuss the situation.

The appointment of Kekhman to the position of director became known on March 29. He replaced Boris Mezdrich, who was dismissed as Minister of Culture in the wake of the scandal surrounding the production of Tannhäuser, which offended the feelings of Metropolitan Tikhon of Novosibirsk and Berdsk.