Bolshoi director denies ‘gay ban’ on ballet about Rudolf Nuryev
THE Bolshoi Ballet has denied bowing to a controversial Russian law banning “homosexual propaganda” after it cancelled a new production about Rudolf Nureyev three days before the premiere.
The long-anticipated production had been due to open tonight but was called off at the weekend amid speculation that authorities had balked at its depiction of Nureyev’s love life.
Vladimir Urin, the theatre’s director general, said yesterday that he had cancelled the ballet about the Soviet dancer-turned-defector because rehearsals showed it was not ready.
“The ballet was not good,” he said, saying it had been postponed rather than cancelled and would open in May next year instead.
Earlier the Tass news agency cited a culture ministry source saying Vladimir Medinsky, Russia’s minister of culture, cancelled the production because he feared it broke a controversial law banning the promotion of homosexuality to minors.
Mr Medinsky’s ministry confirmed he had spoken to the director, but denied issuing a “ban”.
“Yes there was a long conversation with Urin,” Irina Kaznacheeva, a spokeswoman for the culture ministry said in a statement.
“But a ban is the not the ministry’s working style.”
Rudolf Nuryev was one of the most celebrated ballet dancers of his generation. In 1961 he became was one of the first acclaimed Soviet artists to defect to the West, where he had celebrated career – and a turbulent love life including a string of gay relationships – until his death in 1993.
Russia’s “gay propaganda” law was introduced in 2013. It bans any event or act judged to the promote homosexuality to under 18s, and has been used to ban gay rights marches.
The European Court of Human Rights ruled last month that the law is discriminatory and breaches the European convention on human rights.