Bolshoi delayed Nureyev ballet’s premiere because ‘it was bad’, theatre’s director says after shock weekend announcement
Quality issues behind postponement of premiere of work about Russian dance great Rudolf Nureyev until May 2018, Bolshoi’s Vladimir Udin says, but admits receiving a phone call from culture minister about the ballet
Russia’s Bolshoi theatre has abruptly cancelled this week’s world premiere of a ballet about Russian dance legend Rudolf Nureyev, staged by a top director who has been questioned in a high-profile criminal probe.
Nureyev was set to premiere at the Bolshoi on Tuesday in one of the most hotly anticipated stagings of the season. But in a shock move, the theatre said last weekend the show has been indefinitely postponed.
On Monday, the theatre’s general director, Vladimir Urin, announced that the premiere would now be held in May 2018, telling a packed news conference that he and artistic director Makhar Vaziev had pulled the show because of poor performances in rehearsals.
“In terms of the quality of the ballet, we realised it was bad,” Urin said, adding that the theatre’s management was “completely despondent”.
But a rehearsal on Saturday nonetheless showed a “very serious leap in quality”, he said, and the ballet would now have its premiere next May.