Star soprano Anna Netrebko is “taking a step back” as Valery Gergiev is fired from the Munich Philharmonic, the Verbier Festival and the Rotterdam Philharmonic cuts ties after 34 years.
“Now is not the time for me to make music and perform. So I decided to take a step back from the shows for now. It’s an extremely difficult decision, but I know my audience will understand and respect this decision. So says Anna Netrebko in the press release from Andreas Homoki, the director of the Zurich Opera, announcing that the diva will not sing macbeth of Verdi at the end of March.
The phraseology chosen by Homoki is decisive: “On Saturday evening, Anna Netrebko issued a statement in which she explicitly condemns the war in Ukraine and expresses her compassion for the people in the war zone. We regard this statement as a positive development, and take note of the fact that she cannot distance herself further from Vladimir Putin. […] We are forced to recognize that our decisive condemnation of Vladimir Putin and his actions is not compatible with the public position of Anna Netrebko. »
Too little, too late
To understand, we must return to the written words of the singer: “I am opposed to this war. I am Russian and I love my country, but I also have many friends in Ukraine, and the pain and suffering break my heart. I want this war to end and people to live in peace. However, she adhered to this statement: “Forcing artists and personalities to publicly express their political opinions and to denounce their homeland is not fair. »
Before Homoki, on Tuesday morning via Twitter, Serge Dorny, intendant of the Bavarian State Opera, had settled the Netrebko and Gergiev cases together: “Because of Russia’s terrible war of aggression against Ukraine and the absence of sufficient distance from Valery Gergiev and Anna Netrebko, the Bayerische Staatsoper cancels their existing engagements. ” No macbeth neither in Munich. And withdrawal also in Milan, in the wake of the exclusion, Monday, of Gergiev.
Due to Russia’s terrible war of aggression on Ukraine and a lack of sufficient distancing of Valery Gergijev and Anna Netrebko, the Bayerische Staatsoper will cancel the existing engagements.#Ukraine
—Serge Dorny (@DornySerge) March 1, 2022
The almost simultaneous action of Milan, Zurich and Munich did not go unnoticed by the soprano. By condemning the war and regretting having to do it, Netrebko, who still said “I am not a political expert”, did not manage to make people forget the photo of 2014, after the annexation of Crimea, where it held the flag of the internationally unrecognized “New Russia” state of the people’s republics of Donetsk and Luhansk. She understood that her conviction on Saturday would not help her.
Forcing artists and personalities to publicly express their political views and denounce their homeland is not fair
As for the leader Valery Gergiev, who did not sign, on Saturday, the petition of the great directors of Russian artistic institutions calling for the negotiation and the preservation of human lives in chastised terms (see The duty from 1er March), he was sacked by the mayor of Munich from his position as music director of the Munich Philharmonic after the ultimatum expired on Monday. The Verbier festival stripped him of his post as musical director on Monday in addition to “returning donations from anyone sanctioned by a Western government”. Under Martin Engstrom’s leadership, Verbier developed as a haven of Russian musical nomenclature attracting the oligarchs accordingly. Rotterdam, the city that launched Gergiev in the West, giving him his chance in 1988, had the privilege of speaking to him. Observation exposed on Facebook, “the end of the collaboration with Valery Gergiev” and unique information so far: “Monday evening, there was contact with Gergiev and in this conversation, the gap proved insurmountable”
It is therefore, beyond the coming months, the entire career of Gergiev which is called into question. One last person does not move: Doug Sheldon, the agent of Gergiev and his orchestra in North America and Asia. The duty has been trying to contact him since Monday morning to find out his position. He warned us in the evening Tuesday that he would make an announcement on Wednesday.