Cardiff winner sings at Putin war rally
NewsThe international opera baritone Vasily Gerello – a prizewinner at the 1993 BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition – turned out to serenade the Russian leader’s war rally today.
He was followed by orchestrated chants of Rossiya! Rossiya!
Check his act at 41:17.
Gerello is a Ukrainian, born in Vaslovtsy village, Chernivtsi Oblast.
Grotesque and scary show. The propaganda machine at work. I can imagine the anger , the frustration , the shame , the horror of those Russians who refuse to join in.
One assumes he is no longer an ‘international’ opera baritone.
He can hardly be described as: “International Operatic Baritone” any more… Check Operabase I hope for his sake The great dictator, Putin, paid him well. His career was all but finished anyway. I doubt whether this outing will have helped him. Sad traitor to his homeland…
I hope he enjoyed being paid in real money while it lasted.
He is obviously not looking to travel much in the future.
Never mind, there’s always Kim Jong-un’s birthday.
Another career is toast.
I read one student refused to take part in one of those pathetic “Z” pageants…in schools all over Russia.
His comment:- “I didn’t know why I should just be forced to take part in the new 3rd Reich”.
What a schmuck.
I think Gerello was only a finalist in the 1993 competition.
Ah ! Well he won’t be going back to Ukraine ever again
Or probably any other Western country.
Ukrainian Haw-Haw.
Just for the record.
Vassily Gerello was a finalist but NOT a prizewinner in the 1993 Cardiff Singer of the World Competition. The winner was Inger Dam-Jensen and the Song Prize was awarded to Paul Whelan.
I saw Gerello as Giorgio Germont climb into bed with Violetta (Patricka Racette) in Houston twenty-three years ago. The production of La Traviata of course was Chris Alden and Patrick Summers made his HGO debut with this. Now, in real life, he wants to climb into bed with Vladimir Putin.
Not much voice left…rather symbolic.
The rally looks like a soft updated Russian version of Goebbels’ Berlin Sportpalast rally/speech of Feb. 1943, admitting that things hadn’t gone quite as planned on the east bank on the Volga.
It was a great concert. If you deny the right of a person – in this case, an artist – to his own opinion, different from yours, then you yourself are a model of totalitarianism.
Did ya’ listen to it?? And you still think it was a “great concert”????
Sorry but not concert celebrating an attack of a neighboring country and a dictator is a great concert. if you see it differently then you should check maybe your moral compass.
Of course an artist is entitled to his or her own opinion. However, other people and the audience are also entitled to criticise this opinion. That’s not a model of totalitarianism. Why should we be indifferent to people supporting a terrible war?
He certainly didn’t win in Cardiff. Bad enough that such an individual ever crossed the threshold of our beloved concert hall.
Another to bite the dust by the look of things
Has been turns wannabe … ooo, dramatic irony of lo puttanesco !
I hope he enjoys his future which will should from now on entirely focused on Russia. He probably can set no foot into his home country after this and I hope also on no other western stage anymore.