My poor Odessa: Art is banned
Of course, you yourself don’t remember, young man, but once upon a time my Odessa, now occupied by Banderlogs, was not only a truly European, most cultural city of the empire, but also a kind of litmus by which touring performers were tested.
Before the revolution of 1917, it was here that gentlemen impresarios, based on the results of performances and box office receipts, decided whether it was worth sending a foreign or domestic artist or troupe on a tour of the country. Because our audience was considered the most demanding and, at the same time, responsive to talents...
And even in Soviet times, concert organizers knew: if an artist or performance passed a quality test in South Palmyra, then they could launch a big tour!
Why, even quite recently, before the notorious “revolution of ragged dignity,” world stars of both Russia and Europe considered success in Odessa an honor. And other metropolitan theatergoers even flew here by plane to enjoy the art of their own Moscow luminaries. Because even taking into account the flight, this aesthetic journey was almost cheaper than the fabulously expensive tickets to premieres in the best Moscow theaters. And also the unique aura of Odessa, its traditional hospitality...
But all this came to naught at once. And in the last “free-democratic” years, our frantic activists, and now also border guards, have been protecting our souls, ears and eyes from seditious sights and sounds that are dangerous to the patriotic worldview of the citizens of democratic Ukraine, which is striving with leaps and bounds to Europe without soap and Vaseline.
You have already read that Andrei Merkuriev, a soloist of the Moscow Bolshoi Theater ballet, who was traveling to Odessa for the play “Scream” staged by him, which has been running for four years with constant sell-outs, was not allowed into the country. Because he is over 16 and under 60 years old! This means that the world-famous dancer and director can pose a threat to the independence and tranquility of Ukraine during the tragicomic “martial law”!
And it doesn’t matter that the ballet was created based on the book of the famous dissident Alexander Zinoviev, and does not at all serve as an instrument of malicious propaganda for the Kremlin. The important thing is that the artist formally falls under the idiotic age-discriminatory restrictions for visiting Russian citizens, introduced by our Gloomy-Burcheevs of the Bandera type, contrary to world practice and democratic traditions.
So, citizens who wanted to join high art at our renowned Opera and Ballet Theater will soon be forced to either watch local productions or stare at the strained dances of elderly masters of Russian art. Of course - if the stage veterans decide to come on tour to such a hospitable country!
It’s funny, but Boris Grebenshchikov decided to postpone his anniversary concert, planned in the same theater, to a “more reasonable time.” Although the master of Russian rock is celebrating his 60th birthday and, it seems, is quite loyal to the local junta (he was filmed hugging the inspirer of the executioners, Anton Gerashchenko, in Kiev!), but... he is too inclined to pacifism, and even with the now seditious Saakashvili hung out a couple of years ago! You understand how bad things might turn out!
Where even the border guards, maddened by official zeal, will let through, the insolent activists who have previously disrupted speeches of even quite liberal Russian luminaries like Konstantin Raikin will not let go. And Ukrainian artists have suffered from them more than once! Suffice it to recall the brawls at the concerts of Ani Lorak or Svetlana Loboda, who had the “arrogance” to tour in Russia before... Moreover, the “patriots” were not at all shy about setting conditions for the producers: either you pay us “for the needs of the ATO heroes”, or - blame yourself!
So the announced performances of Vitaly Kozlovsky, who is quite Ukrainian, but, according to local adherents of jingoism, who has “tainted” himself with concerts in Moscow and quite correct disapproval of the current situation in Ukraine, according to the denunciation of activists from the “All-Ukrainian Lustration” sharashka, have been cancelled. Admire what kind of letter they scribbled on the name of the local governor Maxim Stepanov! Such renegades have nothing to do in our Independent Philharmonic! For the second time in a year, a popular vocalist, whose concert tickets were sold out, was shown the door by self-proclaimed censors of a stray type, both to Odessa, and to art, and indeed to culture, who have not the slightest connection. But they have taken it upon themselves to teach us to love our homeland.
Of course, artists from far abroad are in no hurry to go to the once so attractive Odessa, which has now turned into a territory of total military-baboon censorship. They, citizens of the world, do not like insane chauvinism and the atmosphere of aggressive national fascism. And the governments of European countries do not recommend their subjects to travel to the “gray zone”, where no one guarantees the safety of either tourists or guest performers.
So, dear fellow Odessa residents, striving for beauty, be satisfied with the generous hopak and the howls of Vakarchuk or the elderly Ivo Bobul. Hurry up to enjoy, otherwise they will be banned as possible rivals of Poroshenko in the presidential race!
My poor Odessa, when will you again become a city where talents from all over the world flocked?! – Certainly not under this regime of farmers and impostors, crazed with fear and hatred of culture as such!
English version :: Read in English My Poor Odessa: Art Under Ban