Eugene (Yevhen) Lavrenchuk, the Ukrainian citizen recently arrested in Italy with a request of extradition to Russia, is a cultural manager who was the artistic director of the Odesa Opera and Ballet Theatre from 2018 to 2021.
While there is understandable concern about Russia’s motives and Lavrenchuk’s predicament, he is clearly a complex personality.
Odesa audiences associate his name with scandals and murky events worthy of a thriller.
Our story begins on Feb. 10, 2021, when Nadiia Babich, general director of the Odesa Opera Theatre, told Lavrenchuk of her decision not to renew his contract as artistic director, set to expire on March 15.
The reason was dissatisfaction on the part of the Theatre’s leadership with the artistic director’s professional behaviour and results. The Opera reproached him for having staged just one play during his work in the Theatre since 2018, La Traviata, which cost Hr 3.6 million.
“Lavrenchuk turned out to be untenable to organise the work of the directing department: the current repertoire remained outside his attention, he had conflicts with many experienced performers due to his incontinence in behaviour, the use of profanity and insults,“
the Opera House wrote on its official Facebook page.
Besides, the Ukrainian Cultural Fund had given Hr 700,000 to a charitable foundation, to be allocated to the Opera House for the implementation of the project "Ukrainian Inclusive Choir and Orchestra", which was never realised. The Ukrainian Cultural Fund sued Lavrenchuk for a refund.
Attack and murder attempt
On March 1, Lavrenchuk announced he had been beaten up by unknown persons on Dec. 8, 2020. He viewed the incident as attempted murder, and showed pictures of a cut above his eye.
The manager claimed that the attack was allegedly ordered by the Opera’s management. The motive was to deter him from running again as a candidate in the competition for the Opera’s general director. Oddly, he only decided to make it public after three months.
The Theatre, for its part, reported that in July 2020, the manager had already been beaten up once, sustaining a fracture of the bridge of his nose and received financial help from the Theatre, which paid Hr 28,500 for medical assistance.
On March 5, Lavrenchuk changed his opinion and announced on his Facebook page that he no longer believed that the director general had any involvement in his beating.
Kyiv prize controversy
The scandal around Yevheny Lavrenchuk, and the exchange of mutual accusations with the senior management of the Opera Theatre, reached the capital. The Taras Shevchenko National Prize Committee reported that it had received many letters with complaints against the former artistic director requesting that he not receive an award. At that time, Lavrenchuk was nominated for his avant-garde production of La Traviata.
The people running the award process saw this as a planned campaign to discredit him.
Prior to leaving Odesa, Lavrenchuk said “I will file several lawsuits against the management of the Odesa Opera. One of them will concern insult to my honor and dignity, which they committed by sending slanderous comments against me to the Shevchenko Prize Committee”.
Babich confirmed as general director again
In July 2021, the general director and artistic director of the Odesa National Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre, Babich, who had headed the institution since 2010, won the selection process for a new contract as head of the Theatre. According to the Theatre’s press service, the competent commission in the Ministry of Culture was unanimous in its support of Babich's candidacy.
