Done without speeches Moscow farewell to Yury Lyubimov – BBC News

In Moscow said goodbye to Yuri Lyubimov. The event was held at the Vakhtangov Theatre. It was there almost 70 years ago, he started his life in art. It was there that put one of the last performances of “The Possessed”. Great director, who created the famous “Taganka” which reinvented the theater, country, freedom, wanted to bid farewell to him in silence. Therefore, there was no speeches from the stage. Just on the outskirts of the theater – thankyou from viewers, friends, students, colleagues.

It was his director’s will – no funeral speeches, and behold, with Yuri Petrovich Lyubimov forgiven in the silence of the auditorium. Thousands of people come and go in the Vakhtangov Theatre. Here in the distant 46th Lyubimov first came on the scene, here replaced acting position for the director, but here in 2012, after leaving the Taganka irrevocable, put the “Demons” by Dostoevsky. So the circle of life in a sense, has closed …

But all the words and tears – of course, about the “Taganka” theater, which he made a legend of the XX century, the theater, where he became a legend. Lyubimov Theater – always more than theater. Each premiere, starting with “The Good Person of Szechwan” – public event: the queue for tickets on the night and mounted police at the door. At the censors on “Taganka” was a lot of work.

Why Galileo standing on his head? A Otrepyev – a pea jacket and vest – “Do not you know that Andropov was a sailor?” When the director said – “I’m tired of your liberties, put the classics” – he raised. Hamlet Vysotsky starring. But, of course, not only politically sound performances, and in the poetic language of Yuri Petrovich. And all who were fortunate to work with him, even to touch the corner of life, do not forget about it.

Over a hundred performances in the world’s major stages. His last work was the opera director’s “Prince Igor” at the Bolshoi Theatre. Silence, bequeathed master viewers today still violated: theatrical tradition – to accompany applause.

Cabinet Yuri Petrovich Taganka is a memorial. In Moscow, the name of the street will be called Lyubimov. And friends and colleagues remember the words of Bulgakov’s Moliere today – one of the few roles that Lyubimov played himself: “For his fame has nothing. But it is necessary for our glory”.

At the funeral service in the church of the Donskoy Monastery attended only by the closest. On the grave of the director there is a simple wooden cross with a sign “1917-2014″ – almost a century in the country’s history and theater.