Soprano Anna Netrebko withdrew from her future engagements at the Metropolitan Opera instead of giving up her support for Russian President Vladimir Putin, which has cost the company one of the best singers and best box office.
“This is a great artistic loss for Matt and the opera,” Matt general manager Peter Gelb said in a statement Thursday. “Anna is one of the greatest singers in Met history, but there was no way forward with Putin killing innocent victims in Ukraine.
Gelb said on Sunday that the Met would not hire artists who support Putin.
In recent days, the Metropolitan has made numerous efforts to persuade Netrebko to give up on Putin, but has failed to persuade her, said a source familiar with the matter, who requested anonymity because the details were not disclosed.
The invasion of Ukraine has led to a demonstration of solidarity in the world of art and culture with Ukrainians and a reaction against the Russian government and those associated with it who will not reject Putin’s actions. The effects of the waves have also reached the international sports world.
Netrebko, 50, from Krasnodar, received Putin’s 2008 People’s Artist of Russia award.
She was photographed in 2014 holding the flag of Russian-controlled territory in Ukraine after donating 1 million rubles (then $ 18,500) to the Opera House in Donetsk, a Ukrainian city controlled by pro-Russian separatists.
On Tuesday, Netrebko withdrew from all his upcoming appearances. Her next listed performance was at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona on April 3rd, followed by three concerts with her husband, Azerbaijani tenor Yusif Eivazov, and a concert on April 13th with the Berlin Philharmonic.
“I am against this senseless aggressive war and I call on Russia to end this war immediately to save us all. We need peace right now, “she said. “This is not the time for me to make music and perform. So I decided to take a step back from the moment. This is an extremely difficult decision for me, but I know that my audience will understand and respect this decision. “
There was no immediate response from Netrebko to Gelb’s message.
Netrebko made his Met debut on February 14, 2002 in Prokofiev’s War and Peace and quickly became a favorite of the house. She appeared in 192 performances at the house, the last New Year’s gala, in which she participated on December 31, 2019.
Netrebko will be replaced by Ukrainian soprano Lyudmila Monastyrska in Puccini’s Turandot for five performances from April 30th to May 14th, including a May 7th performance in theaters around the world. The Met said Netrebko would also be replaced as Elizabeth in Verdi’s Don Carlo for five performances from November 3rd to 19th.
Met also said he would create his own sets and costumes for Wagner’s new production of Lohengrin next season, instead of sharing them with the Moscow Bolshoi Opera, as originally planned.
The Metropolitan’s decision followed the collapse of the international career of Russian conductor Valery Gergiev, who is close to Putin as Mariinsky’s artistic and general director in St. Petersburg.
Gergiev was fired this week as chief conductor of the Munich Philharmonic, and the Gergiev Festival, an annual event since 1996, was canceled by the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, where he was chief guest conductor from 1995 to 2008. He was also rejected by the Vienna Philharmonic. Edinburgh Festival in Scotland and Teatro la Scala in Milan.