"Anthract" in the Novosibirsk Opera

The Novosibirsk Opera and Ballet Theater suspended the show of performances until April 4. For the institution, 18 days of downtime can be quite expensive. But for his artistic director Vladimir Kekhman, the loss of the revenue of the theater restaurant created by the Ginza Project, which 3.5 years ago paid a banquet at his wedding, will become more painful.

Use the difference in time zones

For almost a day, the Novosibirsk Opera and Ballet Theater was required to respond to the order of the Ministry of Culture of Russia. On Tuesday, March 17, the new head of the Russian department, Olga Lyubimova, made changes to the order of measures to combat the new coronavirus infection. But if earlier the minister obliged all visitors to museums, exhibitions, theaters and Philharmonic to attend mass events in medical masks, then on the next day such requirements were recognized as insufficient. Lyubimova ordered to stop all collective views of performances, exhibitions, museums and circuses that are directly subordinate to the ministry.

One of the first to the order was the state Hermitage, who almost immediately published on his website an announcement that he would stop receiving visitors. A little later, the Mariinsky Theater posted information about the suspension of his work until March 31. The Novosibirsk Opera and Ballet Theater thought for the longest, where, due to the difference between the belts, the performances begin four hours earlier than in the capitals. At the moment when there was complete confidence that the show of Pens Gunt’s ballet was already impossible to cancel, the theater decided to postpone some of its March performances closer to its anniversary date.

“In connection with the current situation in accordance with the Order of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation and the Decree of the Government of the Novosibirsk Region, since March 19, Novat transfers showmanships and concerts to May during the celebration of the 75th anniversary of the Victory and the theater anniversary,” the theater leadership said. At May, 10 performances were transferred, which were planned to be shown in the large hall of the theater, and six performances from small.

Reliefs of repertoire

The transferred performances relievedly reflects today's repertoire policy of the state institution. On the big stage, only two of them belong to the opera genre, and the remaining eight - to the ballet, the cultivation of which turned into an obsessive idea of ​​Vladimir Kekhman. The repertoire of a small scene, whose income is an order of magnitude lower, is already quite traditionally consists of concert and not quite concert performances of popular operas and operett, as well as children's performances. The latter confidently collect a full house in the 300th hall, but due to obscure profitability they still do not risk translating for showing on a large stage.

Many this year have already noticed that the Novosibirsk Opera Theater was stuck in anticipation of a new life after Vladimir Medinsky left the post of Minister of Culture. Since the latter now took up the post of assistant to the President of Russia, it was surprising to see on March 3 on social networks a congratulation against Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin. Considering that last year the Novosibirsk Opera and Ballet Theater was not seen in the congratulations of Russian President Vladimir Putin, nor the former Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev.

Then, even about the losses that coronavirus can bring, probably in the leadership of the theater did not even think. Today it can be assumed that the losses of revenue as a result of 18-day downtime are probably stepped over a 20 millionth mark. In addition to the fact that the ballet troupe is time to put up a new performance, and for this the theater needs subsidies of the Federal Ministry.

Under Vladimir Medinsky, the Novosibirsk ballet, in recent years, was clearly not denied financing. The budgets of the productions of Cinderella and Coppelia went out for 70–80 million rubles. However, 95% of the allocated subsidies for ballet went to the suppliers from St. Petersburg. The choreographer Mikhail Messerer received more for his productions more than for the same work that he carried out in the St. Petersburg Mikhailovsky Theater. At the same time, asaph Messerer “Class-Concert” restored a year ago, and the “Topic with variations” was set under the license from the Balanchi Foundation for only four performances.

Catering income

There is another activity, which, most likely, will suffer more from tough measures to combat coronavirus. The stopping of the theater can quite hit the catering enterprise Anthract LLC. It was created on August 25, 2015 - five months after Vladimir Kekhman became the general director of the Novosibirsk Opera and Ballet Theater. But to look for the office of this limited liability company, which was spelled out on the basement of the house 18 on Yadrintsevskaya Street in Novosibirsk, is quite pointless.

The fact is that its founder is Irina Viktova, who has been engaged in activities in St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region for ten years related to restaurants and food delivery services. Before starting work with the Novosibirsk Opera Theater, she regularly registered 15 limited liability companies specializing in these types of services on Zamavskaya Street. But after five to six years, almost all these legal entities were waiting for the liquidation.

At the time when the head of the theater was Boris Mezdrich, a catering company serving visitors and theater workers regularly paid rent. With the advent of the new director, a lot has changed - the new legal entity of the theater Square in the amount of 532.9 square meters. m were transmitted almost free of charge. This fact was revealed back in March 2016, when the territorial department of the Federal Property Management Agency in the Novosibirsk Region conducted a planned audit in the Federal Theater.

It turned out that documents for the second floor for the audience of 250.4 square meters located on the second floor. m were drawn up in the form of an exit service - catering, and the use of the dining room for workers on the ground floor, where there were 282.5 square meters. m, did not have any legal grounds at all. At that time, on the first and second floor, the cash register of Anthract LLC regularly worked, the theater from the activities of the public catering enterprise did not receive income in the form of rent or other ways.

Having identified all these facts, the territorial administration demanded that the violations of the use of federal property. However, the audit, which was carried out in February 2018, found that in two years little has changed. And although the Catering Agreement with Anthract LLC was terminated, the employees of the enterprise were granted "non -property right to pass the theater and the right to provide public catering services to the audience of the theater." It is worth noting that the Opera and Ballet Theater was fully armed: in two weeks, the inspectors could not inspect the buffet on the second floor. He simply turned out to be closed for repairs, and they never found the key to him, assuring him that he was in the arms of the repairmen.

Having estimated the amount of underwear income for these two years at 5.741 million rubles, the agency demanded to issue a lease agreement with Anthract LLC, on cooperation with which the theater’s leadership insisted. Otherwise, it turned out that Anthract LLC does not bear any responsibility for fire safety, compliance with sanitary and epidemiological rules and hygiene, as well as the safety of the cultural heritage object.

An attempt to make such a deal at the beginning of 2018 failed. The Ministry of Culture of Russia, then headed by Vladimir Medinsky, in order to “develop a subject of small business”, prepared a draft order to transfer the premises of the Novosibirsk Opera and Ballet Theater. They could be transferred to Anthract LLC without mandatory tenders, but it was necessary to receive the approval of antimonopoly bodies for this.

The territorial department of the Federal Property Management Agency several months ago confirmed that the work was being carried out "to transfer the premises of the buffet for rent in accordance with the requirements of the current legislation." But the department did not particularly spread the details.

The most interesting thing is that, starting to work in Novosibirsk, Irina Voitova positioned herself as a representative of the Ginza Project St. Petersburg Holding. This group of enterprises was quite widely lit up in history related to the marriage of Vladimir Kekhman with Ida Lolo in the fall of 2016. The businessman, who was then led by two theater, was recognized as bankrupt, was forced to give explanations to his financial manager, at whose expense there was a banquet dedicated to the wedding. According to him, a wedding dinner was a “gift of newlyweds” from the Ginza Project restaurant.

Why then none of the creditors of Vladimir Kekhman paid attention to this fact, a separate question. It is possible that they were not even informed that under the auspices of the St. Petersburg restaurant group in the Novosibirsk Opera and Ballet Theater was a buffet, the prices of which were quite impressive for its visitors. Without paying for rent, Anthract LLC only for 2016-2017 was able to receive almost 49.437 million rubles of revenue.

Evgeny Kazarinov, especially for Taiga.info