Conductor resigns as Moscow's Bolshoi Theatre woes mount

The music director of Moscow's renowned Bolshoi Theatre has resigned suddenly, throwing the future of the institution's grand $1 billion rebuild into chaos.

Alexander Vedernikov, who had struggled for eight years to raise standards and inject new life into Russia's best-known international music theatre, announced his decision on the opening day of the Bolshoi's summer tour of Italy.

"The theatre is putting bureaucratic interests before artistic ones," he said by telephone from La Scala, Milan. "But the interests of art matter far more than the interests of bureaucracy."

Behind the drama of Mr Vedernikov's sudden exit, music experts say, lies a bitterly fought battle over the future of the Bolshoi, located near Red Square in the heart of the Russian capital.

The theatre's doors closed in 2005 for a grand renovation. Engineers said subsidence threatened the collapse of its main walls and directors had long complained of the chronic lack of rehearsal space and scenery stores.

Intended to take just three years, the ambitious rebuild has so far taken four. The theatre's once proud building is now an empty shell covered by hoarding and held together by metal beams. The interior is gutted.

Nobody expects work to finish before 2011 at the earliest, possibly later. The bill is mounting.

Worse still, Russia's economic crisis is forcing cost-cutting on the project, sources close to the work say. Mr Vedernikov fears that it will lead to fatal compromises on some of the most vital details, such as the theatre's acoustics.

The architect who led the project to rebuild the theatre was fired months ago amid recriminations over changes to the designs and Russian media have also reported that the main contractor on the job will be changed.

German experts Mueller-BBM, hired to repair the damage done to the legendary theatre's acoustics by the construction of the Moscow Metro in the 1930s, have been told their contract is under review and that Russian consultants will be used in the meantime, according to a letter seen by Reuters.