MOSCOW (AFP) ― Vladimir Urin, the man who was appointed Tuesday as the new Bolshoi Theatre director, is a respected manager who turned a small obscure music theater called Stanislavsky into a must-stop venue for the art scene.
The 66-year-old now faces an uphill battle after being placed at the helm of Russia’s historic theater and charged with rescuing its reputation following a string of scandals and infighting of the vast troupe.
Urin won respect from colleagues by quietly revamping Moscow’s 90-year-old Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Music Theatre to prominence over the past decade by attracting international talent while also popularizing contemporary ballet in Russia before the trend caught on in the Bolshoi.
He organized several international modern dance festivals in Moscow which proved immensely popular, and was one of the founders in 1994 of Russia’s prestigious Golden Mask theater festival, where he sits on the jury.
Although he has stayed behind the scenes in most of his theater’s successes, Urin is viewed as experienced and perceptive, successfully bringing in an array of acclaimed names from abroad to stage ground-breaking performances despite having considerably less money than the Bolshoi or Mariinsky in Saint Petersburg.
In 2008, Urin made an eyebrow-raising decision to hire Sergei Filin, then the star dancer of the Bolshoi with no choreographing experience, as artistic director of the Stanislavsky ballet.
Under Filin’s watch, however, the Stanislavsky brought in foreign modern choreographers. But Filin left for the Bolshoi in 2011, and earlier this year became the victim of a horrendous acid attack that may leave him blind.
Last year, the theater also made headlines for hiring Sergei Polunin, the talented young Royal Ballet principal who shockingly quit his job in early 2012, moving to Moscow several months later.
The Stanislavsky this year was a finalist for the International Opera Award in “best company” category, a top honor in the world of classical music.
