MPs announce moratorium, while National Opera House artists want priests to take evil out of theater

As the conflict at the National Opera House went deeper, artists of the theater were asked to appear before the parliamentary commission for culture, education, youth and mass media. In order to reconcile the artists and the new administration of the Opera House, the commission's head Corina Fusu proposed instituting a moratorium on this subject, Info-Prim Neo reports. The artists were questioned on June 8. After expressing their opinions about the situation created at the theater following Valeria Seican's appointment as director at the end of 2009, they started to quarrel and accuse each other and demanded that the director be dismissed. Valeria Seican said a part of the artists are against the reforms initiated at the National Opera House and refuse to work. She stated that on January 1, 2010, the institution had debts of 4 million lei inherited from the previous administration. Half of the debt was paid from the money allocated from the state budget, but now the Opera House needs financial resources to work Attending the meeting, Minister of Finance Veaceslav Negruta said an inspection carried out at the institution revealed that the National Opera House last year committed violations and managed the money inefficiently and, as a result, sustained losses of 1 million lei. Tenor Mihai Munteanu said Chisinau is not an opera city and the theater does not make profit, while the artists are in a difficult situation as they are terrorized. Artist Andrei Donos suggested inviting a group of priests to bless the institution and take the evil out of the theater that became 'the insane people's house'. Corina Fusu said a moratorium should be instituted on the issue as the work of the National Opera House is affected by this conflict. Minister of Culture Boris Focsa said he will monitor the situation of the theater and instructed Valeria Seican to present a performance report. He also asked the artists to be more indulgent with the new director.