National Opera and Ballet Theater (NOBT) choir members will not participate in the “Invita Maria Biesu” International Festival, in order to protest against institution’s director Valeria Seican. The artists ask President Nicolae Timofti to get involved in the scandal and dismiss the director, reports Info-Prim Neo. On Thursday, August 16, at a press conference, a group of artists said that they give Valeria Seican their want-of-confidence votes, because ever since her appointment as the institution’s leader, the problems didn’t get solved, but in fact multiplied. People’s artist Petru Racovita, communicated that in the last two years, since Valeria Seican’s appointment, the artist’s salaries have gone down by 33% and they have gotten to a miserable state; they often lack the money to even get to the workplace. Petru Racovita claims that it is impossible for strangers to enter the theater. “We have the feeling that everything is militarized. The director goes in front of the press and claims that everything is fine, that the theater is flourishing and that it is a sort of heaven on earth. Maybe her office is heaven, but our theater that used to be Moldova’s identity card once, has become a giant space for rent”, the artist communicated, adding that there is no transparency in their finance management. People’s artist Elena Gherman said that the institution’s repertoire is also degrading. “Several years ago we were giving 30 performances a month, and in the last sessions we’d only give three” said the artist, highlighting that the last three shows had been organized with the help of foreigners, from Italy, Russia, and France. According to the members of the group that asks for Valeria Seican’s dismissal, the theater is in a miserable state; artist go on stage in 30-year-old costumes, the stage is crumbling, and the lighting is horrible. Meanwhile, they claim that it is impossible for them to rehearse, because it is impossible to breathe in the halls, due to the locale that rents some of the theater’s space. Conductor Andrei Iurkevici, who was the theater’s lead conductor for a while, stated, during the same press conference, that the institution is undergoing a period of deep stagnation. “The theater is not able to fulfill its basic mission, i.e. the cultural one. It used to be Moldova’s identity card. I believe there still are chances to rehabilitate it, but the authorities must get involved”, mentioned the conductor. The initiative group, supported, according to the artist, by 100 of the theater’s employees, demand that the relevant institutions dismiss Valeria Seican. The artists have been invited for an audience with Presidential Councilor Mihail Sleahtitchi.