Grammy nominee maestro Constantine Orbelian was dismissed from the post of the National Opera theatre director by the acting Armenian Culture Minister Nazeni Gharibyan.

Gharibyan supported her decision by noting that the director cannot be engaged in other paid activities except scientific, pedagogical, and creative work; Orbelian served as the general director in addition to the position of the artistic director.

The Actors and staff of Armenian National Opera have openly opposed this decision and protests  against the Ministry of Culture’s actions are scheduled for April 1, 2019.

There’s also a petition to the Prime Minister of Republic Armenia Nicol Pashinian, which was signed by more than 2,500 people as of this writing.

Lithuanian/Armenian soprano Asmik Grigorian gave a comment to OperaWire,
“I can’t believe it could happen. I know how much Constantine (Orbelian) did for the theatre, and it finally started to work and live the way it should. They never gave a chance to my father (Gegham Grigoryan) to bring his ideas to life there, but Constantine has got the ball rolling. And the biggest fear is that there’s literally no one to replace him.”

Orbelian was appointed the artistic director of Armenian National Academic Theatre of Opera and Ballet in 2016. He’s also a Principal conductor of the Kaunas City Symphony Orchestra in Lithuania.