A fighter with blasphemy

Vladimir Kekhman leaves the Novosibirsk Opera and Ballet Theater. It doesn’t matter, he managed to do a lot there

Vladimir Kekhman announced that he was leaving the post of director of the Novosibirsk Opera and Ballet Theater (Novat). The acting director will be the chief director of the theater Vyacheslav Starodubtsev. The dismissal of Kekhman was connected with the case of his bankruptcy: in mid -July, the procedure for selling property in payment of debts was supposed to be completed, and Kekhman believed that guiding posts could no longer occupy; However, the Arbitration Court of St. Petersburg extended it until September 28. The Ministry of Culture accepted Kekhman's resignation-but it is possible that in the future he will be able to occupy some other position in the theater. Medusa says what Vladimir Kekhman managed to do at the head of the Novosibirsk opera.

1. Kekhman considered Tannanizer a blasphemy - and got rid of the performance

The head of the Mikhailovsky Theater Vladimir Kekhman was appointed director of the Novosibirsk opera in March 2015 - against the backdrop of the scandal around the opera Tangaiser in the production of Timofei Kulyabin. Representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church complained that the performance defiles the image of Jesus Christ (on the poster, Jesus was depicted crucified between the legs of a woman - and this “offended the feelings of believers”). The director of the theater Boris Mezdrich, at which the performance was released, was removed from his post, and Vladimir Kekhman, who called the Tangiser blasphemy, is on the contrary, appointed. In an interview with Lenta.ru on July 12, 2017, Kekhman said that everyone who liked the poster “either died or got sick”; Kekhman considers this to be God's punishment.

2. Kekhman repaired the interiors of the theater to the state of the Turkish hotel. But good acoustics appeared in the concert hall

Under Kekhman, the opera was reconstructed; However, inside the theater, repairs began without coordination with the Novosibirsk Department for State Protection of Cultural Heritage. Since the Novosibirsk opera is an object of culture of federal significance (the building was built in 1931-1941, the architect Alexander-Isaac Zinovievich Greenberg), the court fined Kekhman for 100 thousand rubles for violation of the requirements for the protection of the building. The public movement “Ruffed Novosibirsk” accused the director of the fact that the theater after the repair became like the “Meshchansky Turkish Hotel of the Middle Hand”. Of the good, as Taiga.info notes, the concert hall was reconstructed in the theater, and he now has good acoustics.

3. Under Kekhman, "pretentious and helpless works" appeared in the theater

After the appointment of Kekhman, the chief conductor of Ainars Rubikis left the theater, Dmitry Yurovsky was invited to replace him. The main director of the theater in 2017 was Vyacheslav Starodubtsev; Over the past two years, he put four operas there-Turandot, Aida, Peak Lady and Ball Masquerad, which Kommersant describes as “pretentious and helpless works”. The musicologist Irina Yaskevich told the newspaper that new performances seem “terrible” to her. Some of the ballet prime ministers are the Gizel, Sleeping Beauty, Nutcracker, Flame of Paris, who moved from the Mikhailovsky Theater. The ballet troupe is now headed by Denis Matvienko, the invited soloist of the Mariinsky Theater.

4. The Novosibirsk Theater under Kekhman began to earn more

Vladimir Kekhman said that with his arrival he increased the number of spectators: in 2017, the opera should receive up to 250 million rubles from the sale of tickets. According to him, over three years (2015-2017), the extra-budgetary income of the theater will increase by 100%. The growth of income is considered one of the merits of Kekhman and Minister of Culture Vladimir Medinsky, who was generally pleased with the work of the director. The official said that with understanding he reacted to Kekhman’s decision to leave the position in order to "do not undermine the image of the Ministry of Culture."

5. Kekhman came up with a new abbreviation

Novat is a new abbreviation proposed by Vladimir Kekhman. In his opinion (and it is difficult to disagree with this), it sounds better than the former - earlier the theater was abbreviated as Ngatoib.

Tatyana Ershova