On August 8, 2012, the capital’s Department of Culture unilaterally severed contractual obligations with the director of the Novaya Opera Theater Igor Lysenko. The theater, which was led by conductor Igor Lysenko for the past nine years, was founded in 1991 by Evgeny Kolobov.
Igor Lysenko has worked at the Novaya Opera Theater since its inception. Since 1998, he became the executive director, and since 2003 - the director of the theater. The former leader is going through the court to recover monetary compensation from the department for the reputational damage inflicted on him. Lysenko is indignant at the decision of the department and claims that for 15 years, while he worked in this theater, he did not make a single comment on the conduct of financial and economic affairs.
As the former media director said, in the department the reason for his dismissal was explained to him by the fact that he could not cope with the duties of the director, and his person did not correspond to the level of this theater. However, Lysenko himself insists that systematic checks have revealed that the attendance of the institution in recent years has been over ninety percent. In addition, the former leader said that at the end of July 2012 he received a bonus for the second quarter according to the results of work.
Now the duties of the director of the New Opera theater are temporarily performed by Natalia Popovich, the chief choirmaster and chairman of the artistic and creative board of this institution. According to Lysenko, this situation in the theater was due to the fact that he fired a close relative Popovich, who was imposed, according to the former director, "by close relationship."
Igor Lysenko also said that a relative of Natalia Popovich did not have the appropriate education, work experience and specialty. In the troupe of the theater, he worked as deputy director for general affairs. But many theater workers expressed their complaints about the level of professionalism of the relative Popovich, as well as his ability to work in a creative team. After he was fired, Lysenko claims, complaints, accusations and slander about the head of the Novaya Opera Theater fell in the department.
