Mikhail Agrest, still music director with Stuttgart Ballett (left), together with John Neumeier (right), posing for „Anna Karenina“ in Stuttgart. Agrest will be guest critic from September on for BALLETT-JOURNAL. Photo: Facebook
Life is not always what it should be. Actually, the worldwide famous Hamburg Ballet has a hard crisis like never before. The reason has a name: Demis Volpi, the new ballet boss over there. He is a protégé of Reid Anderson, who once was the boss of Stuttgart Ballet. But now, Stuttgart has trouble of its own. Let’s have a deeper look at this. We’re talking about well renowned Mikhail Agrest, music director of Stuttgart Ballet since 2020. First he won when Anderson threw him out. But now Agrest has to go himself – for no good reasons. His international reputation is undoubtable, as well as his acceptance in Stuttgart. From 2013 onwards, the St. Petersburg native, who learned his art from Mariss Jansons, among others, conducted ballet performances in Stuttgart. And with great success. In particular, the 2019 revival of Kenneth MacMillan’s „Mayerling“ became a triumph of the artistic symbiosis of dance and music under Agrest’s aegis. Only few others sense the subtleties of the interplay between the two art forms as accurately as Agrest. But in 2021, a disagreement arose with ballet coach Reid Anderson during a stage rehearsal. Anderson is now not just any coach, but a kind of grise eminence. Until 2018, the Canadian-born artist was artistic director of the Stuttgart Ballet, and since then, through inheritance, he has held the licenses for the ballets of John Cranko.
Mikhail Agrest (third in first row) with Stuttgart Ballett after „Mayerling“ by Kenneth MacMillan. Photo: Gisela Sonnenburg
Anderson has often rehearsed his choreographies himself. When Agrest contradicted him and, with the applause of the orchestra, suggested a different tempo at a single point in the score, the musician enraged the coach. Anderson promptly fired Agrest. And because Anderson’s successor as ballet artistic director, New York-born Tamas Detrich, associates something like blind obedience with Reid Anderson, brilliant Agrest was given immediate dismissal and banned from the premises after being thrown out of rehearsal (BALLETT-JOURNAL reportet).
Of course, such a thing is not legally permissible in Germany. Agrest went to court and won. The ballet performances, which he then conducted as music director, alternating with conductor Wolfgang Heinz, were always acclaimed. Seen in this light, Mikhail Agrest was first the overall winner in his dispute with Reid Anderson.
Stuttgart’s ballet boss Tamas Detrich is best friend with Reid Anderson. Photo from Stuttgart Ballet: Björn Klein
But as is the case with grizzled eminences, Anderson’s will lingers. Agrest, in turn, made a tactical mistake: He had filed another lawsuit for damages, claiming defamation, at the same time like the main lawsuit, and that was going on even after reconciling with the Stuttgart Ballet’s Tamas Detrich. This was evidently resented.
And although this lawsuit was shelved without result after some back and forth, Agrest subsequently suffered a curse of fate: Detrich refused to extend his magnificent music director’s contract beyond this summer.
Agrest’s attempt to have this termination overturned in court failed: The fixed-term annual contracts common to artists at German theaters, with the generic term „Normalvertrag Bühne“ („NV Bühne“), seem sacrosanct.
Mikhail Agrest (in the front) after „Romeo und Julia“ with Stuttgarter Ballett. Photo: Boris Medvedski
Now 76, Anderson can rejoice. But the Stuttgart State Orchestra, the Stuttgart Ballet, and its audience are at a disadvantage. They’re losing a piece of high quality to the satisfaction of an old white man.
And Mikhail Agrest? He’s sweetening his departure with a 50,000 Euro severance package, even though this isn’t legally required. But Tamas Detrich wants to get rid of him at all costs, and so he pays.
After all, Agrest is a walking symbol that the power of artistic directors who act like temporary princes is not infinite.
Reid Anderson – not a hero of ballet any more. Photo from Stuttgart Ballet: Roman Novitzky
On Tuesday, July 30th, Agrest will give his last performance with the Stuttgart Ballet, with John Cranko’s „Romeo and Juliet„. The performance is sold out. Afterward, Agrest will conduct as a freelancer at international companies – and will continue to live in Stuttgart with his wife, child and dog.
And, surprise, suprise: From time to time, he will be seen in the audience at the Stuttgart Opera House: Mikhail Agrest will be reporting as a guest critic for BALLETT-JOURNAL.
Demis Volpi was a choreographer from 2006 on with Stuttgart Ballet – for Reid Anderson. Photo: Stuttgarter Ballett
This job of course will not be offered to Demis Volpi in Hamburg who is not yet fired. We are wondering why not… A request to Carsten Brosda, Senator for culture in Hamburg, is pending. So don’t lose touch with us!
Gisela Sonnenburg
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