Just in: Dog-shit director has got fired, but his work remains in rep

Just in: Dog-shit director has got fired, but his work remains in rep

News

norman lebrecht

February 16, 2023

Messge from Hanover Opera House:

Hanover State Opera is separating by mutual agreement and with immediate effect from ballet director Marco Goecke

Hanover State Opera distinguishes between the employed ballet director and the creative choreographer Marco Goecke, whom it still appreciates artistically, and whose work it will not delete from the repertoire. His works are not related to the events and remain in the repertoire of the State Ballet. This applies not only to the current pieces, but also to pieces that were created for the house company that Marco Goecke formed. No new ballet by Marco Goecke is planned for the next season, but his works will be on the program as revivals.

Until a decision is made on a long-term successor, the deputy ballet director Christian Blossfeld will take over the management of the company. We have agreed to work with all dancers of the Staatsballett as part of their contracts until at least summer 2024.

Opera Director Laura Berman says: ‘First of all, I would like to formally apologize to Wiebke Hüster. I can’t even begin to imagine what it must feel like to be humiliated like that in public.

‘The Hanover State Opera, my colleagues and I have a relationship with Marco Goecke on three different levels: There is the choreographer and artist Marco Goecke, whom I was able to win for Hanover in 2019. There is the manager Marco Goecke, who is not only responsible in a management position on an artistic level, but also as a department head for the entire ballet company and has always taken this responsibility seriously. And then there is the man Marco Goecke, whom we have all come to know and appreciate as a compassionate, considerate, humorous, occasionally very vulnerable person. A person who has also worked through his vulnerability artistically, for example in his work Thin Skin. A person with whom we have worked collegially, constructively and without any form of aggression on his part. That’s why his behavior disturbed us all the more.

‘In view of the sometimes drastic demands from parts of the media and the public, it was a great challenge for me as artistic director and direct superior to find a solution to this situation that was justifiable from a legal, human and artistic point of view between these different levels. We took the time to find this solution and to talk to the administrative management and the works council of the Lower Saxony State Theater and our top employer, the state of Lower Saxony, and last but not least with Marco Goecke. In order to make a professional decision about a separation, a personal conversation is required. It was also essential for us to have discussions with the ballet ensemble and not suddenly present the dancers with a fait accompli. They are all here in Hanover because of Marco Goecke. The ensemble is a creation by Marco Goecke, perhaps one of his most important given the restrictions on working conditions during the pandemic. And it is a wonderful ensemble, which also proved its excellence at the premiere last Saturday in very different choreographic styles. The Staatsoper Hannover, together with the excellent team of the Staatsballett, would like to preserve and protect this special group of artists.

‘I think it’s important and right that we took this time. It was clear to us very early on that ballet director Marco Goecke was no longer acceptable as a manager due to his misconduct. A trusting cooperation is currently difficult to imagine for the Hanover State Opera as well as for me personally. This thoughtless attack on the journalist and the person Wiebke Hüster violated too many principles of the State Theater, massively damaged the reputation of the house and last but not least has criminal consequences. Marco Goecke can understand that too. Therefore, in a detailed personal conversation, we agreed to terminate his contract as ballet director by mutual consent and with immediate effect.

‘However, we still appreciate the choreographer Marco Goecke and will keep his works in the repertoire. This applies not only to the running pieces, but also to the pieces that were created especially for the Staatsballett Hannover, such as B. his masterpiece The Lover. We do not believe that an artist’s work should be completely condemned for a single act of ill-considered, however disgusting. The choreographies are never the work of just one person, they are brought to life in every performance by an ensemble and many people backstage.

‘We are all concerned about Marco Goecke as a person, but I am particularly concerned as his direct superior and friend. Of course we know the interviews he gave. We were surprised at their content. But they only show one side of him. Yesterday I met a Marco Goecke in a personal conversation who was devastated. We are now in contact with him and hope that we can help him through this time despite this break.

‘Finally, I would like to address two other topics that concern me as artistic director. Criticism is important for the creation and further development of art, because it reflects the artist, what art does to people, what emotions, what thoughts are evoked. In today’s society there is less and less serious interest in professional, differentiated reflection on art. Good, responsible criticism is at risk because polarizing statements attract more attention and more clicks. I believe we are all called upon to solve these problems.

‘As artistic director, I also think about how I can protect artists. The criticism that an artist is exposed to today is not only the professional criticism in the established media. At a time when everyone can and is allowed to express their opinion on a wide variety of channels – partly anonymously and often without any sense of responsibility – a pressure is built up that an individual can hardly bear. Of course, this does not excuse or justify abuse of any kind.

‘We will still need time to fully process what has happened. That can only happen if we work together and we hope that the audience will also be by our side.’

Comments

  • Trev says:

    What a load of luvvie twaddle. They should sack whoever wrote that as well.
    The guy committed a criminal act and was dismissed. That’s all that was needed.

  • Clementine says:

    I suppose they were obliged to poo poo his action.

  • Barry Guerrero says:

    If he finds work in the future, those who work with him will need to wear HazMat suits. Then he can walk and toss the dog all he wants.

  • MarciaD says:

    What an unnecessarily long-winded statement. It could have been cut by at least two-turds.

  • Lausitzer says:

    Emerging awareness of the full magnitude of the problem… it’s not just a single individual freaking out.

    A recording of their press conference today is embedded as second video herein:
    https://www.ndr.de/kultur/buehne/Nach-Hundekot-Attacke-Staatsoper-trennt-sich-von-Marco-Goecke,goecke166.html

  • Greg Bottini says:

    I have no problem with this.
    If the ballets are good, keep them in the repertoire.
    Delius and Grainger were both horrible, abusive people; do we delete their music?

  • The View from America says:

    What a load of crap from Opera Director Berman. But I suppose given the subject matter at hand, it was to be expected …

  • Jonathan Riehl says:

    Whoa Nellie!!! I teach rhetoric, and happen to speak German; currently desperately trying to find this in the original because it looks like it would be an absolutely wild romp through the vast expanses that are German vocabulary and grammar, not to mention this thing called the German (and German artistic) psyche. Norman: Was this emailed to you? All I see on the Opera House website is a very short one paragraph release. Far less gratifying and not nearly as much use as a teaching tool to demonstrate what language can reveal about a culture.

    Translation or not, I don’t know that I’ve ever seen such a mind-bending, linguistic-pretzel-fest explanation of stupid behavior and…the human persona? Am I reading a postmodern riff by someone attempting to channel Heidegger, or maybe Foucault — or a press release on the much more mundane question of why someone (emphasis on ONE) who threw excrement at another person should be fired? From any job? And by the way, this person might want to consult an actual therapist, not depend on their ex-employer’s PR office to delve into their tripartite identity while loading up their analytical discourse with as many words as is possible before *all* meaning is completely lost, and we’re all far too exhausted to really think about what actually happened here?

  • Margaret Koscielny says:

    I think this statement reads as it does for two reasons, at least: (1) the choreographer has had a mental breakdown, possibly? and (2)
    The Opera Company was afraid of a lawsuit or crminal charges and liabilities.

    Also, very Germanic convolutions of language from an earlier social, historical period perhaps, poorly translated?

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