Cassandra thinks that this article is offending. I agree, it IS offending and stinks of cheap sensationalism because the author is drawing illogical, unjustified conclusions out of the facts she described.
“It looks like a ruin...” “Rubbish chutes descend from 10 stores up. The dramatic marble fountain is switched off. The air is dusty and suffocating.”
Has Viv Groskop ever seen buildings under reconstruction? When they are stripped of paint and plaster and decorative details, they do look like ruins.
Has this lady ever been to a building site? If not, she can make a trip to the City of London or Docklands and to see rubbish chutes there, dusty air and fountains switched off if they share some communications with the building site.
Why does she call temporary performances on a smaller stage “a sorry state of affairs”? This is a normal state of affairs. No other theatre in Moscow can match the Bolshoi like no other theatre building in London can match the Royal Opera House. So when the main building is under reconstruction, the performances have to be carried out in another venues.
And this sensational headline: 'The Bolshoi is already dead'. Has Groskop seen the performances? We saw them here last Spring and were satisfied that the Bolshoi is very much alive and kicking.
This is a dead journalism for me. The lies in this article were so unprecedented that the Bolshoi reacted with a letter. I haven’t seen it in The Guardian (I don’t buy this paper) but read about it in the Russian ‘Izvestiya’ on 19.06.2006.
http://forum.balet.ru/viewtopic.php?t=9 ... c&start=60
The Bolshoi’s Director-General Anatoly Iksanov said in an interview: “Of course we are not going to take legal proceedings against The Guardian but we have already written a letter to the Editor. The author of this article Viv Groskop simply could not cope with the information avalanche that came down on her. In fact, what was written is an utter nonsense. And absolutely tendentious with that! How can she possibly say that the theatre is collapsing, is covered in scaffoldings and nobody works there? The average of 800 people work inside the building every day. Furthermore, what does she know about our financial situation? The financing has been increased six fold, and it is being done on a regular basis, according to the plan. The theatre’s own revenue has quadrupled. When the Covent Garden Theatre was under reconstruction recently, they didn’t have another venue at all. But we have one. And how is all this related to some retired KGB officer whom the author quoted?.. She is under complete delirium! Someone is very much against our visit to London. This is how I see it."