The Ministry of Culture changed the management of Moscow theaters – Konstantin Khabensky was appointed the new artistic director of the Chekhov Moscow Art Theater, and Vladimir Kekhman will become the general director of the Gorky Moscow Art Theater. About it informs TASS with reference to the order of the department.
Khabensky will replace Sergei Zhenovach, artistic director of the Chekhov Moscow Art Theater, who has been artistic director since 2018. “Honored Art Worker of the Russian Federation, laureate of the State Prize of the Russian Federation Sergei Zhenovach resigns from the post of artistic director of the Moscow Art Theater. A.P. Chekhov of his own free will, ”the ministry quotes the agency.
The head of the Ministry of Culture Olga Lyubimova stressed that the department respects Zhenovach’s decision and thanks him for the work done. According to her, he took office as artistic director from a difficult period and was always guided by the high ideals of creativity.
Russian businessman Vladimir Kekhman is known as the artistic director of the Mikhailovsky Theater in St. Petersburg, as well as the Novosibirsk Opera and Ballet Theater. The latter is connected with the scandal with the delivery of the opera “Tannhäuser”.
Hacking correspondence “Putin’s confessor” Tikhon Shevkunov showed that the former Minister of Culture Vladimir Medinsky was behind the ban on the production. So, according to his instructions, at the end of February 2015, an administrative case was opened against the director of the opera Timofey Kulyabin and the director of the theater Boris Mezdrich on the desecration of religious symbols, and the Ministry of Culture began checking the financing of Tannhäuser. On March 29, Mezdrich was fired, and Vladimir Kekhman became the new director of the theater, who soon removed Tannhäuser from the repertoire.