After Tannhäuser, the Kremlin moves to control opera repertoire

The deputy head of Russia’s presidential administration Boris Magomedov has told state-controlled RIA Novosti that he intends to introduce a repertoire approval system in order to avoid another Tannhäuser blasphemy row.

He said: ‘Today I spoke with the Ministry of Culture.Probably, it will be necessary at some stage to approve the repertoire, especially at state theatres … They should no be allowed to hurt the feelings of believers. We have no right to produce works that outrage part of the population and cause feelings of insult. This should not be allowed.’

Day by day, freedoms are extinguished in Putin’s Russia.

One leading director has called the current situation ‘a genocide of Russian theatre’.