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Culture minister stands by censorship of opera

MEDINSKY PROMISES TO PUNISH PRODUCTIONS OFFENDING BELIEVERS IN FUTURE

Interfax-Religiia, 2 April 2015


In light of the uproar over the Novosibirsk production of the opera "Tannhauser," Russian Minister of Culture Vladimir Medinsky promised in the future to take stern measures with respect to leaders of art who offend believers.

 

"If we ignore the feelings of believers, then there will be all hell to pay. In our multi-ethnic and multi-confessional country, it's quiet, quiet, and then somewhere something greater than 'Charley' explodes. It is necessary to nip this in the bud," the minister declared in an interview published in the newspaper Moskovskii Komsomolets.

 

"I repeat again. I did not want to sack the director (of the Novosibirsk Theatre of Opera and Ballet, Boris Mezdrich—IF), but I was forced to. I did what I had to do and I will do so. I sincerely hope that it will not be necessary," he noted.

 

Speaking about the case of the production of "Tannhauser," V. Medinsky declared that B. Mezdrich was to blame for the uproar for which he refused to apologize. "For two weeks we asked him to react to our suggestions. And in the final analysis, we got an official reply: 'We will not ask forgiveness from anybody, since we do not know any citizens whose feelings were hurt,' Such an approach we consider insulting," he emphasized.

 

V. Medinsky noted that the ministry has no claims against the director: "He is a creative man and he is entitled to his reading as he sees it, even if it is, to put it mildly, controversial."

 

"Our claim was directed to the management of the theatre because the federal state academic theatre should display respect for the audience, the public, and the city. But all commentaries from inside the walls of the theatre came down to one thing: 'Don't let these goody-goodies teach us how to do art.' This led to the inevitable deterioration of the situation," he concluded.

 

In the minister's opinion, in the case of Timofei Kuliabin's production, we are not talking about creative courage "but about stupidity and provocativeness."

 

"They told me that Kuliabin showed creative courage, to which I asked: 'Are you a very courageous man? Swap Christ for Muhammed. Muhammed also has secret pages in his canonical biography. Let's speculate something on this topic. Are you afraid after this to go to your home? Or perhaps let's fantasize on the topic of a new reading of the history of the holocaust? What do you dare to do on this?'" he said.

 

V. Medinsky also pointed out that in recent years "Tannhauser" has had bad luck. "In Germany the latest production was totally banned [in 2013 in the Dusseldorf opera the events were transferred into nazi Germany—IF]. There the city administration closed the opera after its first showing. But you say we have censorship. In the course of the last two months, we tried to do everything possible in order to resolve this conflict," he said.

 

In addition, V. Medinsky provided information presented by the Novosibirsk theatre, according to which the cost of the production of "Tannhauser" was from 12 to 35 million rubles. (tr. by PDS, posted 2 April 2015)


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