MOSCOW, November 28 (RIA Novosti) - The Bolshoi Theater announced Monday that it would launch a new production of Sergei Prokofiev's opera War and Peace in December, but not under the baton of world-famous cellist and orchestra conductor Mstislav Rostropovich, who had been leading the rehearsals.
The theater's director said the premiere had been postponed by three days, to December 9, and that Artistic Director Alexander Vedernikov would be conducting the orchestra on the first night instead of Rostropovich.
The director declined to give a reason for the substitution.
