Translated material
Wagner's opera divided the country into “righteous people” and “Christ sellers”
No artist can surpass life itself. "Tannhäuser" continues, and seems to be staged by the invisible hand of the great master. This is, without a doubt, the theater of the absurd - the most relevant of the arts.
No artist can surpass life itself. "Tannhäuser" continues, and seems to be staged by the invisible hand of the great master. This is, without a doubt, the theater of the absurd - the most relevant of the arts.
On March 29, in the center of Novosibirsk, near the monument to Lenin (such a place was chosen by Orthodox activists), a “prayer standing” was held under the motto “Let's protect the shrines - save Russia”, organized at the call of Metropolitan Tikhon of Novosibirsk and Berdsk. According to the police, the number of the action was almost three times less than expected (an application was submitted for 3,000 people). According to other local observers - from 1 to 2 thousand. None of its participants, probably, saw the performance they came out against: as the now former director of the theater said, none of those opposing Tannhäuser presented evidence - "at least a ticket with a torn off “control”, programs” - the presence at its shows (only about 7 thousand people visited the premieres - December and March).
The flags of the "national liberation movement" were raised above the assembled people. After the prayer (they prayed, standing facing Lenin's back), the word was given to the honored guest, world boxing champion, State Duma deputy Nikolai Valuev, who had flown to Novosibirsk to support the prayers morally and politically.
The parliamentarian told an anecdote about how a visitor at an art exhibition could not understand what was depicted in the picture, and when the author explained to him that he supposedly had such a vision of the reality around him, the art lover suggested that the artist “go to the optometrist”.
“Everyone sees it in their own way, but classics are classics,” the athlete noted and said that he had talked on this topic with Governor Vladimir Gorodetsky, having met “full understanding” on his part.
An anecdote from Valuev, perhaps, would have come in handy if all the premiere performances of the performance were not accompanied by a full house with a long standing ovation at the end - according to eyewitnesses, the hall applauded standing each time for at least a quarter of an hour.
In general, the performance of the boxer was peaceful, but his party ally, the head of the United Russia faction in the Legislative Assembly, Andrey Parfyonov, mercilessly cut the creators of the performance he had not seen. He managed to link in his speech “Tannhäuser” with the anniversary of the Victory, Bandera and “predict” the possible fate of the “national traitors” Kulyabin, Mezdrich: “Their names, first of all, are scabrous and scoundrels. Because you look, the symbol of Victory, our Opera House (opened in 1945 - G.B) ... They opened the door, let in a false director who staged such filth! You look at what is happening: they think that if they allow what is happening now in Ukraine, where our compatriots are dying, that this punishment will bypass them. The first ones who will hang out when the fascist rubbish comes here will be them. They will hang from the lanterns! ( Quote from the Sibkrai portal).
The words of the party leader were met with applause from the “prayerfully standing” citizens, they raised icons over their heads, shouted enthusiastically “Yes!”: what was happening was reminiscent of a well-known episode from the Gospel.
On the same day, the Minister of Culture of the Russian Federation Vladimir Medinsky ordered the dismissal of Boris Mezdrich from the post of director of the NGATOiB for "failure to fulfill the instructions of the founder." First Deputy Minister Vladimir Aristarkhov explained on the air of the Russia-24 TV channel that “following the results of public hearings” held in the Ministry of Culture, the theater management was instructed to remove a poster depicting Jesus Christ against the backdrop of the bosom of Venus from the production, as well as “make other specific changes ”, besides “apologizing to the believers” and “explaining to them the meaning of the production of Richard Wagner”.
Of all the “proposed measures”, the theater carried out only one - removed the poster, which is why the performance, given its “integrated into life”, may even have won, it gained additional meaning: its characters, like Orthodox activists, condemned the fact that they they didn’t see, but for some reason they suspected the worst of what can be drawn on a white sheet (everyone sees on it, as they say, something to the extent of his depravity).
Boris Mezdrich did not want to apologize to people who had not seen the performance and explain the directors' intention to those who, most likely, would not see it anymore - as he said in an interview with Izvestia, professional ethics do not allow him to. Earlier, by the way, he more than once suggested that Metropolitan Tikhon meet and discuss all the claims of the Russian Orthodox Church to the “Tannhäuser” unknown to her. It would be possible to hold a "round table" with the participation of the secular and church community. But Vladyka did not respond to these proposals (probably foreseeing that many questions might arise during the meetings - for example, how the church relates to the commandments “Do not judge, lest you be judged”, “Love your enemies”, etc.).
In the mentioned interview, given after his resignation, Mezdrich admitted to unexpected joy: “As they said in Soviet times, I feel a sense of deep satisfaction. I am really very glad that I withstood this pressure, that I did not pass the performance ... I did not win, but I am grateful to everyone who supported us. He is also glad that “despite the sunny weather, the organizers of the “prayer stand” instead of the declared three thousand gathered one”: people did not follow the lead of the aggressive public hiding behind Orthodoxy.” Mezdrich is confident that "the city will not surrender now."
On March 30, the Kremlin released two more interpretations of the dismissal of the theater director. Magomedsalom Magomedov, Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration of the Russian Federation, spoke on this subject unsuccessfully: according to him, such a decision was "forced" because the production of the play "did not please a large number of people, it hurt the feelings of believers." We repeat: among those who “didn’t like it”, almost no one saw it: there are only two negative reviews in the guest book, and they were left by people who are clearly secular (“Orthodoxy, forcing Tannhäuser”, Novaya, No. 24). Magomedov also said: "From any, it would seem, trifles, by manipulating public consciousness, it is possible to inflate inter-confessional confrontation." Who is inflating him - Mezdrich? Kulyabin? What did the official mean in general: as you know, three denominations opposed Tannhäuser in unison - Orthodox, Muslim, Jewish, it turns out that he just united them.
On the same day, Presidential Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov corrected his colleague. He told RIA Novosti that the dismissal of the director of the Opera and Ballet Theater "is within the competence of the Ministry of Culture, this is not the Kremlin's agenda" (then it is not clear why the Kremlin comments on it twice a day). At the same time, Peskov said that “creative censorship is not permissible” and what happened “should not be perceived in any way as an attempt to introduce it,” but the state “which allocates money for performances in theaters has the right to expect” that these performances are not will cause such a heightened reaction of public opinion.
As for the dismissal of Boris Mezdrich, the whole point is that he, as an appointee of the ministry, violated the chain of command without fulfilling his instructions. “Civil service is civil service,” Peskov concluded.
Be that as it may, the director of the Novosibirsk Opera House left with dignity - according to all worldly and Christian canons. And the actions of Metropolitan Tikhon do not fit into either one or the other: on the eve of the “prayer standing” he preached to the parishioners that the Orthodox who did not come to this action would become like “Christ sellers”, and he himself did not come to it without explanation. Deacon Andrey Kuraev in his blog asked the question: “Will the synod leave the chair of the metropolitan, who identified himself with the crucifiers of Christ?”
Further, Kuraev writes : “About 1,000 people came to the rally (the figure of the Taiga.info website, which does not sympathize with the rally, or 3,000, as the most honest LiveNews channel says). Some of them were traditionally brought from regional parishes. More than 1,500,000 people live in Novosibirsk. Can Metropolitan Tikhon now call these people Christ-sellers?
The thought can be continued: even if not the entire population of Novosibirsk, but only 7,000 spectators of Tannhauser, who applauded the artists and the director, turned to the courts with civil claims against Bishop Tikhon, Archpriest Novopashin, who called them "evil spirits", as well as the head of the faction "ER" Parfenov, whose words are quoted above, what would be the outcome of these cases? After all, “insulting the feelings of believers” by a performance that they have not seen must be proven, but insulting the audience, as well as the artists, is clearly present.
According to Andrei Kuraev's calculations, no more than 0.1 percent of the city's residents came to the rally (as he calls it “prayer standing”). Here the question arises: where are the remaining 85% of the supporters of "Orthodoxy, autocracy and nationality", on which the "Russian world" is based? It seems that the further continuation of the "opera" can expose this myth.
The positions of the creative intelligentsia in the Tannhäuser scandal remain firm. The chairman of the Union of Theater Workers of Russia, Alexander Kalyagin, expressed strong disagreement with the decision of the Minister of Culture of the Russian Federation regarding Mezdrich: “I experienced a feeling of bitterness and injustice,” the actor told a TASS correspondent, “There are few good theater directors in the provinces, their shortage is also observed in Moscow. Boris Mezdrich is an experienced director, he raised many theaters. Behind him is the biography of a man who knows how to manage theaters. Dismissing such, according to the head of the STD, the ministry cuts the branch on which it sits.
On the same day, Vladimir Kekhman, head of the Mikhailovsky Theater in St. Petersburg, was appointed director of the NGATOiB - the only theatrical figure who spoke out against Tannhäuser, seeing "blasphemy and blasphemy" in a performance that he did not watch. Six months ago, a criminal case was initiated against him for embezzlement of Sberbank funds on an especially large scale. Kekhman intends to combine both directorial positions, and is going to rename the Novosibirsk Opera and Ballet Theater into the Bolshoi Theater of Siberia.
His appointment in the general context looks quite natural, as well as the fact that he first removed from the repertoire of "Tannhäuser". It provoked a protest from the same intelligentsia - not only from the theater, but also from the cinema. On March 30, 50 representatives of the Film Union (Andrey Proshkin, Andrey Smirnov, Vitaly Mansky and others) adopted a statement in which they called the dismissal of Boris Mezdrich and the appointment of a "scoundrel who made a fuss in time" in his place as "flagrant arbitrariness". The signatories demand the immediate resignation of Minister Medinsky.
The sequel to Tannhäuser is getting more and more interesting. On April 1, jokingly or seriously, the Novosibirsk diocese stated that it had nothing to do with the persecution of the creators of the scandalous opera - it "did not file complaints against them with law enforcement agencies," and in general, according to a message on its website, "the entire legal situation around the production and personnel decisions in the system of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation are outside the jurisdiction of the Russian Orthodox Church.
Here's to you: paraphrasing “The Life of Klim Samgin”, “Were there any statements? Maybe there were no statements? But there were certainly appeals. Back in February, the words of Metropolitan Tikhon appeared on the website of the diocese and were distributed in the media: “And the church community, first of all, appeals to law enforcement agencies, legislative bodies, our administrations ... I wrote about Tannhäuser that the rights of believers are violated there, that church symbols are used there for other purposes. Then, on March 21, online publications quoted a text coming from the diocese: “We appeal to the leadership of the Prosecutor General’s Office, the Investigative Committee and the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation with a request to give an objective legal assessment of the actions of the persons involved in the production…”. A letter was sent to the same departments and to the Minister of Culture of the Russian Federation by the press secretary of the diocese, Alexander Krasov, who, however, signed as a “private person”: “Orthodox, FSB reserve officer.” ( New, No. 32 ).
On April 5, Novosibirsk will host a rally of intellectuals, announced as an action of "free people", it is expected that 2.5 thousand people will take part in it. We will follow the development of these quite historic events.