An opera house is named after Valery Gergiev
mainDon’t worry, he’s still alive.
But the good folks of the Caucuses wanted to get in first in the posterity stakes.
The National State Opera and Ballet Theater of Vladikavkaz and the Caucasus Music and Cultural Center are to be named after. Valery Gergiev, in honour of the region’s most entrepreneurial musician.
In other oligarch news: A third branch of the Mariinsky franchise is to be built in the Siberian city of Kemerovo.
He will become the Maxim Gorky of musical Putin-Rus. Next announcement: the grateful nation will rename Shostakovich for Gergiev — “Dmitri Shostakovich named for Valery Gergiev,” in the parlance of their language.
Fabulous.
It is good to see such popularity and influence grow in the hands of a great conductor, political ties aside. Music today yearns for the power of a Von Karajan or a Lenny again. With it, the extent to which we can pursue our art is limitless.
Well, Vladikavkaz is his hometown.