An Italian summer festival confirms Gergiev will conduct

The Ravello Festival on the Amalfi coast has gone against the international grain of annullations, announcing that Putin’s propagandist Valery Gergiev will conduct there this summer.

‘The Ravello foundation, all its collaborators and artists are very saddened by the fratricidal war in the middle of Europe”, says Ravello’s president Dino Falconio, adding ‘art and music are fields that, by their nature, speak a language that has no national distinctions but is universal. In particular, music does not need translation to be understood and is a heritage of all men on earth. At any latitude and longitude.

‘Maestro Gergiev and the Russian orchestra are in the program, albeit provisional, of the Ravello 2022 festival. What we have to evaluate today is the cultural and artistic profile and not the political aspects. Because of a mere national affiliation, musicians cannot be discriminated against. Unless an artist makes a paean.’

Gerguev has conducted at Ravello since 1997.

By calling the illlegal invasion of Ukraine a ‘fratricidal war’, the festival president has simply subscribed to the Putin propaganda.