(New York) Soprano Anna Netrebko has pulled out of future engagements at the Metropolitan Opera in New York rather than condemn Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Posted at 1:57 p.m.
The New York house thus loses one of its most popular voices at the box office. “Anna is one of the greatest singers in the history of the Met, but with Putin killing innocent victims in Ukraine, there was no other way forward,” the general manager of the “ Met” in a statement.
Peter Gelb had said on Sunday that the Met would not hire artists who support President Putin. The Met has reportedly made repeated efforts in recent days to try to convince Mme Netrebko to repudiate the Russian president. But the famous house did not succeed, said a person familiar with the matter, on condition of anonymity because this detail has not been announced publicly.
The Met’s decision follows the collapse of the international career of Russian conductor Valery Gergiev, who was close to President Putin as artistic director and general manager of the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg.
Anna Netrebko, from Krasnodar in western Russia, in 2014 donated 1 million rubles (then US$18,500) to the opera house in Donetsk, a Ukrainian city controlled by pro-Russian separatists. in the Donbass.
The soprano had pulled out of all her upcoming performances on Tuesday. Her next scheduled performance was to be in Barcelona on April 3, followed by three concerts with her husband, Azerbaijani tenor Yusif Eyvazov, and a concert on April 13 with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra.
“I stand against this senseless war of aggression and call on Russia to end this war now, to save us all. We need peace now, she said on Tuesday. This is not the time for me to make music and play. So I decided to take a step back from the scene for the time being. This is an extremely difficult decision for me, but I know my audience will understand and respect this decision. »
The Met has also announced that it will build its sets and tailor its costumes for the new production of Wagner’s “Lohengrin” next season, rather than sharing them with the Bolshoi Opera Moscow as originally planned.