Who will have the opportunity to visit the Bolshoi Theater from September 23 to 28, please note: are there names of actors playing the role of Photographer, Handymen, Guards, General in the program .....I was suspended from the role because I wrote a letter to the General Director about the violation of the Contract, where the theater promised me to put my name in the program of the opera "The Golden Cockerel"...
This is the letter:
"Anatoly Gennadievich! Hello!
I am an actor who played the role of the General in the opera "The Golden Cockerel", I am sending you my letter, here - in digital version, as well as in paper, if you print the attached file... This is a ready-made article, which I have not yet posted either in newspapers or on the Internet, in order to give you the opportunity to think through the situation and correct the elementary shortcomings of your subordinates... So:
Does the viewer have the right to know who is on the stage of the State Academic Bolshoi Theater of Russia?
On June 19-23, 2011, the premiere of Kirill Serebrennikov's production of Rimsky-Korsakov's opera The Golden Cockerel took place on the stage of the GABTA. The "production" is written with a capital letter for a reason - it is very bright! The design of the Artist is Galina Solodovnikova, whose imagination has no limits! It's impossible to describe it – you have to see it!
Kirill Serebrennikov: "First of all, we have removed all this "ethnic-Bilibin" component - conventional, grotesque. There will be no splint picture in our performance at all. In this regard, we will disappoint those people who expect from the Golden Cockerel a kind of folk patchwork - buffoons, long beards, exaggerated Russian style. All this will not be in the play. We are moving away from a very conventional, stylized and very theatrical world into an absolutely authentic, like in a movie, reality."
This reality required the introduction of actors who are not present in Rimsky-Korsakov's opera itself - for example, a Photographer played by actor Evgeny Yakovlev, who was invited by the Nika acting agency. Characters such as the bodyguards of Tsar Dodon have also been introduced, which are equipped at a modern level: with headphones and microphones. A certain authenticity is given by the "handymen" introduced by Kirill Serebrennikov, who are played by artists representing mainly "non-Russian nationality", whose work is popularly used in modern Russia.
I play a General who acts on stage from the first picture, and at the end of the play, after the death of Tsar Dodon, being a kind of general, an economic administrator, who, in fact, after the words of the people: "How will we be without the tsar?", rises to the royal podium, not ambiguously embodying the coming to power of the siloviki!..
In my contract, the theater, without my pressure, assumed the obligation to indicate my first and last name in the Performance programs, which is certainly correct – the audience has the right to know who is playing whom…
Imagine my amazement when I saw that none of those who were invited by the Nika acting agency were in the program!..
To the question: "Why aren't we in the programs?" There was an answer: "In the opera programs, we only list those who sing! And you are listed in the booklets..."
Yes, we are listed in the booklets, but the booklets cost 180 rubles, and the programs are only 20 rubles.…
What about someone who visited the theater without having a particularly high financial security? After all, on the theater's website http://www.bolshoi.ru/ru/theatre/mission/
Said:
"The social component of the mission
The Bolshoi primarily focuses on the domestic audience, to whom the theater offers a wide range of high-quality productions of Russian classics, masterpieces of foreign musical culture, new compositions, chamber and symphony concerts.
The theater's priorities are high-quality performances of the current repertoire and the creation of new productions, rather than touring activities.
The theater declares the availability of its performances for every Russian citizen - 20% of tickets are sold at a price of 50 rubles. In addition, there is a "Big for students" program: full-time university students can purchase an entrance ticket worth 20 rubles. Forty tickets are allocated for each performance for students."
Such viewers should have the right to receive information about everyone involved in the production they are watching or wish to witness.
I drew the attention of an employee who contacted me on behalf of the theater to the fact that it was not me, but the THEATER itself, who "undertakes to indicate the name of the Artist in the Performance programs," who replied that this was a typical contract that was simply taken as a basis ... If you will still play with us in September (there was there is a clear hint of my replacement in the play due to my principled nature - everyone has a similar clause, but they do not pay attention to the presence of a name in the programs – V.B.), then I will remove this clause from the contract."…
Yes, there is a question of ambition here, yes, I would like the audience to "know their characters", to know me... of course, I care that recognition was during my lifetime, and not after my death – that someone earned dividends on my behalf, including monetary ones. I want to support my four children.…
But no matter how much I am threatened with being removed from the role of the General in Kirill Serebrennikov's Production, a creative meeting with whom I accept as Happiness, the viewer remains a priority for me, a simple person interested in Theater who, without means to a decent existence (and there are millions of such in Russia), goes to the theater, where he becomes A spectator with a capital letter – I serve FOR HIM!
And I cannot remain silent – I demand respect for the viewer's right to receive information.: specify all of them in the programs – you can write after the soloists or somewhere else below.:
"The characters:
And list all the characters introduced by the Director of Photography, indicating the performers..."
It's not for nothing that in foreign films, and recently in ours, EVERYONE who participated in its creation is indicated - right down to the drivers of vehicles hired to service the film process
.
Artist Victor Balabanov www.victorbalabanov.ru
- Member of the Union of Cinematographers of the Russian Federation, the Guild of Film Actors, the Union of Theatrical Figures of Russia.
Sincerely,,
Victor Balabanov"
...In the general department of the Bolshoi Theater, I was informed that my letter had been forwarded from the General Director to his deputy, Vladimir Arkadyevich... I called him several times - they asked me to call back later, on September 16, they told me that the Programs would be changed.
...After I called the acting agency that brought me to the Bolshoi Theater, I took the phone number of the theater employee through whom the theater was doing business with us, and he told me that I WOULD NOT be in the production! I had no resentment - I always remember: "Lightning strikes a tall tree"!
...But after my blog post, the next day I got a call saying that Kirill Serebrennikov insisted that I play in the production (they argued that because of the children who were involved in the play, I didn't understand what the children had to do with it - I didn't "cross paths" with them, but I thought it was just an excuse... I removed the letter from the blog, reducing it to a message about the performances on September 23, 24, 25...
When I came to the Bolshoi Theater, I made sure that EVERYONE who Kirill Serebrennikov had entered was listed in the Program!
The actors playing the Handymen were amazed and delighted when the premiere performances (in June) I was indignant, they didn't believe that anything could be achieved... I explained that all members of the Yabloko party act the way I did!..
I am glad that I was able to influence the audience to get information about the performers!..
Now I've written this on my blog so that NO ONE GETS DISCOURAGED if EVERYTHING DOESN'T WORK OUT RIGHT AWAY!
- ... "WE NEED TO SHAKE!"
The Bolshoi Theatre removed me from the role of General for writing to the General..
...I was invited to participate in the productions on September 23, 24, 25, 2011...
