Notebook

In September, Vladimir Vassiliev was dismissed as the Bolshoi Theater’s director and Anatoly Iksanov was ap-point-ed as general director. Iksanov will perform mainly administrative duties, while conductor Gennady Rozh-dest-vensky has taken over as creative director.

Art critics quickly termed the move an attempt to stop experimentalism and bring back “classic” traditions to the theater: Rozh-dest-ven-sky headed the thea-ter’s orchestra in the Bolshoi’s heyday of 1965-1970. Under Vassiliev, the Bolshoi had enjoyed unheard of creative and financial autonomy (but, as many critics admitted, Vassiliev “was an outstanding dancer but proved to be not much of a manager”). This autonomy came from a special order of President Boris Yeltsin, but the new administration in the Kremlin has reversed this trend and the Bolshoi will once again be subordinated to the Russian Ministry of Culture. 

Rozhdest-vensky has already confirmed the Russ-ian proverb that “a new broom sweeps anew.” He chose Mussorgsky’s opera Boris Godunov (and not the traditional Ivan Susanin, by Glinka—see photo, inset) to launch the theater’s jubilee 225th season.