Timofey Kulyabin, the author of the scandalous staging of the Tannhäuser opera in the Novosibirsk Opera and Ballet Theater, will stage Gaetano Donizetti's opera Don Pasquale in the Bolshoi Theater.

"In no way did we make use of the scandalous fame of Timofey Kulyabin - our decision to invite him for staging was taken long before the story with Tannhäuser; we took it last year, after his winning of the Gold Mask”- the Bolshoi Theater’s music director Tougan Sokhiyev explained.

At the end of February 2015 the prosecutor's office of Novosibirsk initiated proceedings against the stage director Timofey Kulyabin and the Novosibirsk theater director Boris Mezdrich on Article 5.26 - Deliberate Public Defilement of Religious or Liturgical Literature and Subjects of Worship.

Metropolitan Tikhon of Novosibirsk discerned an insult of religious feelings in the stage production of the Tannhäuser opera. In Timofey Kulyabin’s version Jesus Christ is presented as the hero of the erotic movie Grotto of Venus shot by the film director Tannhäuser in the course of action.

On March 10 the case was dismissed in default of offense elements.

In spite of the fact Boris Mezdrich was fired by order of the RF Minister of Culture on March 29. The new theater director Vladimir Kekhman removed Tannhäuser from the theatre repertoire on March 31.