It is one of greatest lyrical voices in the world, the Russian soprano Anna Netrebko sang in April 2022 at the Monte-Carlo Opera, but his concert at the Philharmonie de Paris this Wednesday, May 25 marks the big return to the stage in a Western capital of the Russian star soprano, criticized since the war in Ukraine.
Anna Netrebko was among the first Russian artists to be singled out after the start of the invasion of Ukraine for not having clearly denounced the war.
The prestigious Metropolitan Opera in New York, of which she was the star, thus deprogrammed her for an indefinite period and she then announced that she was temporarily withdrawing from the stage.
On March 30, she condemned “expressly the war against Ukraine”which earned him to be withdrawn from the poster in his own country.
The soprano has never openly proclaimed her support for Russian President Vladimir Putin, but she is accused of having traveled to Donetsk in December 2015 to pose with the flag of the pro-Russian separatist rebels.
She also sparked controversy when she presented a check for one million rubles (about 15,000 euros) to pro-Russian Ukrainian leader Oleg Tsarev.
Anna Netrebko defended herself by explaining that she wanted to support the arts, and more particularly the Donetsk Opera, to which Ukraine had cut all funding, and assured that she had not “never received financial support from the Russian government” and of never having allied with “no leader of Russia”.
In an interview with the daily Le Monde on Sunday May 22, she repeated that she was not “guilty of nothing”claiming that his only mistake was not having “more informed about the situation in Donbass” and that she wanted”just helping friends in difficulty”.
“I was also asked to declare myself against Vladimir Putin. I replied that I had a Russian passport, that he was still the president, and that I could not publicly pronounce these words. So I refused” , she added.
Despite its condemnation of the war, the Met has called into question all of its contracts until May 2026, according to her.
His former mentor, the conductor Valery Gergiev, close to the Kremlin, was declared persona non grata by Western concert halls.
In their country, Russian artists have been called upon to display their patriotism or, failing that, to remain silent, and in Western countries, to publicly distance themselves from the military operation and the Russian regime.
Anna Netrebko’s concert at the Philharmonie on Wednesday had already been postponed three times due to the pandemic – it was due to be held in November 2020. Her last recital in Paris was in 2017 (apart from a gala in 2019 for 350 years of the Paris Opera).