By Kester Kenn Klomegah
MOSCOW, Apr 19 2005 (IPS)

Russian parliamentarians have rallied to impose a ban on the increasingly publicised opera ‘The Children of Rosenthal’ at the Bolshoi Theatre, a work fresh from the pens of composer Leonid Desyatnikov and prolific writer Vladimir Sorokin.

The Duma (parliament) has ordered its cultural committee to examine the experimental opera after United Russia deputy Sergey Neverov complained about it on the basis of a television report. The opera is a witty tale of cloned classical composers who have hit hard times. But some deputies say the new opera runs against the country’s cultural values because of its intimate sexual appeal.

"It is not decent for the stage of the Bolshoi Theatre. The sexual intimacy makes it not really good for our public, if we want to preserve our cultural values in the society," Neverov told IPS. "We have to denounce and reject this musical opera in getting into the roots of our prospective theatrical audience, and prevent it from affecting the fibre of society. It’s a just classical pornography and should not be allowed."

Neverov said it is immoral to depict the world’s greatest composers "as bums who drink vodka and rub shoulders with prostitutes, play music in a train station and beg for money." Neverov initiated a resolution criticising the opera.

Neverov’s resolution for the cultural committee to examine the moral values of the opera was approved by 193 votes to 12.

The investigation alarmed free speech advocates, who fear a return to Soviet-style censorship under President Vladimir Putin, a former KGB officer who was elected on pledges to restore order to society.

Four nationalist lawmakers who went to a rehearsal of the opera walked out before the end.

"I don’t understand why there was a choir of prostitutes on the stage of the Bolshoi Theatre," Irina Savelyova of the Rodina party told the Gazeta.ru web site.

The opera’s libretto, which was penned by controversial writer Sorokin, tells the story of Tchaikovsky, Mussorgsky, Wagner, Verdi and Mozart, cloned by a scientist in the Soviet Union, who are thrown into poverty after the Soviet break-up, and resort to busking. Three years ago, Sorokin’s allegedly pornographic writing led to protests by Moving Together, a pro-Kremlin youth organisation.

Last month, deputy Neverov took it upon himself to denounce the opera. He admitted he has not fully read the opera’s libretto, or any of Sorokin’s works, but called on legislators and political authorities to ban Sorokin’s "dirty poetry" from the hallowed precincts of the Bolshoi Theatre.

Sorokin was investigated in 2002 for his book ‘Goluboye Salo’ (Blue Lard) which includes a depiction of former Soviet dictator Josef Stalin and former president Leonid Brezhnev having romantic sex.

The Moving Together movement backed Neverov, holding a protest against the opera. The youth political movement’s primary task is to fight for Putin’s increasingly authoritarian policies, especially among the youth groups in Russia.

"We are protesting that a man who is a pornographer and uses foul language is being given a platform in the Russian State Bolshoi Theatre, with state funds," the group’s head, Vasily Yakemenko said in a statement.

But Moving Together activists said they would not try to disrupt the performance. "If people want to go to the opera of a pornographer, that’s their choice," Yakemenko said.

The Bolshoi Theatre defended its artistic independence, and compared the call for a ban to an attempt at imposing political censorship under Soviet times.

"Allowing politicians to decide what to show and to whom amounts to political interference and censorship," Bolshoi director Anatoly Iksannov told IPS. "We have enough professionals who can discern what is good for public consumption from what morally should not get to public view."

"’The Children of Rosenthal’ is entirely Sorokin’s idea," 49-year old composer Leonid Desyatnikov told IPS. "I liked it and agreed to write the whole music. We began work on the words and music in the spring of 2002, just after signing a contract with the theatre directors."

Although the opera centres around the clones of the five composers, Desyatnikov resisted the obvious temptation to use fullscale quotations of their music.

"You can find microscopic citations from each of them," he said, "but those are practically incomprehensible to anyone but myself or an expert who thoroughly analyses the score."

Desyatnikov said the controversy may bring good publicity for the Bolshoi, but would detract from making ‘The Children of Rosenthal’ a significant event in Russia’s cultural life.

The head of Russia’s federal culture agency, Mikhail Shvydkoy, defended the opera. "The music is fantastic, and it is a social work about a difficult relationship between the artist and the state. The same heroes exist in Carmen and Madam Butterfly," he said.

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