Repertoire of National Opera House was destroyed, institution's director

The long tours done by the troupes of the National Opera House destroyed the repertoire of the institution and exhausted the artists, the House's director general Valeria Seican said. She criticized the work done by the institution while it had been run by the previous administration. This year, the National Opera House refused ten tours abroad and began to clarify things though court, Info-Prim Neo reports. In a news conference, Valeria Seican said the cultural institution that she heads started to follow a European development path and to deal with the problems left by the former administration that destroyed the Opera House from economic and artistic viewpoint. “We canceled the 9-month-long tours of foreign countries that exhausted the artists, destroyed families and the repertoire. The people in Moldova forgot the troupes as no performances have been staged at the National Opera House for a long time,” the director said. Speaking about the economic inheritance, Valeria Seican said that the institution's debts last December totaled 4 million lei and its accounts were blocked. “Termocom and Union Fenosa demanded that we pay the debts. We managed to pay half of them with the help of the Ministry of Culture, the Ministry of Finance and the parliamentary commission for culture. We avoided a collapse,” the director said. She stressed that the National Opera House does not have an anti-fire system, its electrics are warned out, while the ventilation system disappeared. She also said that the largest storeroom where the decorations are kept is managed by a limited liability company. Legal action was taken to get the storeroom back. Valeria Seican also said that the old employees of the institution who should retire do not leave and new, younger artists cannot be thus attracted. However, some of the artists who left the Opera House and went to work for other institutions now return. Among them is Mihai Caftanat, the artistic manager of the ballet troupe, who refused an offer to work in the U.S. for five years after working at the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow for many years. Master Nicolae Dohotaru, senior conductor of the National Opera House, said it is not enough to promote the artists and the institution by tours abroad. According to him, the Opera House needs strategic partnerships with similar foreign institutions. On the day when the conference was held, artists of the National Opera House sent to the press copies of a letter addressed to the Ministry of Culture and the parliamentary commission for culture, in which they say they do not agree with the decrease in the salary coefficient for artists provided in the amendments to the Fiscal Code. “Artists' salaries were cut by about 30% as we are in a financial crisis. The salary is low, but is paid regularly,” Valeria Seican said.