While the possibility of replacing Jorge Telerman as director-general of the Teatro Colón was something that has circulated in municipal offices since last December, the decision adopted by City Hall around noon on August 23 – finally to remove Jorge Telerman from his post at the Colón Theatre – surprised everybody. The announcement took the form of an official communiqué issued from the seat of the Buenos Aires City Culture Ministry.
The document not only announced the removal of Telerman but also confirmed a new direction under Julio Bocca and Uruguayan Gerardo Grieco, the ex-director of the Solís Theatre in Montevideo and a cultural communication agency in Uruguay. The Colón’s new authorities will be presented in early November.
But beyond City Hall’s official communiqué, Telerman also referred to his dismissal, using his official account in the social network X to post: “I want to inform you that in the last few hours, the City Culture minister has communicated to me her decision to replace me as director of the Colón Theatre.”
He continued: “For me and my collaborators, it has been an immense and unforgettable honour to conduct the destinies of this marvellous institution throughout the last 30 months … the Teatro Colón has managed a series of achievements which fill us with pride – the incorporation of new audiences and new generations, performances permanently sold out with record publics, a rich and diverse programme in a dialogue committed to these times, a considerable increase in our own funding via box-office receipts and private donations, which have been decisive for this season.
“We know that the revalidated national and international recognition of the artistic excellence and the professionalism of our beloved theatre have been possible, in the first place, thanks to the extraordinary dedication, talent and commitment of its workers and artistic ensembles, with whom we are united in a conviction which has already become a motto of our management – the Colón is for everybody but not for anything.”
Nevertheless – and beyond the official and formal communiqués of both City Hall and Telerman – sources close to the City’s cultural sphere highlighted “an unsustainable relationship” between the departing Colón director-general and City Culture Minister Gabriela Ricardes, who “did not want Telerman at the head of the theatre,” this journalist was able to ascertain.
Telerman became general and artistic director in March 2022, after having held the same post at the Complejo Teatral Buenos Aires since 2015.
Ricardes, a protégée of Hernán Lombardi, a previous City Culture minister, confirmed from the first day of the Jorge Macri mayoralty that the coexistence between the two officials would not be optimal.
“The situation did not suit either of them. It was like a marriage of convenience which lasted as long as it had to since Ricardes took no interest in Telerman’s management on which she did not look kindly,” said sources consulted.
In this sense, the official communiqué informs that “the team taking forward this plan has as its priorities ordering the processes, recovering the focus on the local and global relevance of the artistic offer of the theatre and the promotion of accessibility for all publics.”
‘Austerity’
Telerman and Ricardes made a joint presentation of the 2024 agenda for Teatro Colón with the watchword of “austerity” in keeping with the new national government and the situation of the country.
That announcement of the calendar by the ex-director had affirmed: “One of the Colón’s missions is to boost local production. There is an international presence in the 2024 season. This will perhaps not include the appearance of those glittering names which, quite rightly, have very high-priced contracts but we have boosted the local programme with six of the seven operas directed by Argentines.”
Yet one of the pearls of the programme announced then – the Marta Argerich Festival – was finally cancelled “due to force majeure” early this month.
The proximity of the former Colón director-general to Unión Cívica Radical Senator Martín Lousteau in the latter’s mayoral campaign last year was another factor accelerating his dismissal from Argentina’s leading theatre, as was his nearness to ex-presidential hopeful Horacio Rodríguez Larreta.
“He lost every lottery ticket he bought and was wrong-footed,” the sources emphasised.
Both Argentina’s greatest ballet dancer and the minister expressed their satisfaction at the new direction. Bocca highlighted his happiness on “coming home” while Ricardes described herself as “very happy with the working group we formed with Gerardo and Julio.”
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