Even Placido Domingo has pulled out of Moscow
NewsThe Bolshoi has cancelled a gala the Spanish singer was due to give on March 8.
No reason has been given.
Russia has been a haven for Domingo since the US and most of Europe shut down his engagements over misconduct allegations.
It is not clear whether he cancelled the Bolshoi, or vice-versa.
Neither is saying.
Doming has made no statement – yet – on the Ukraine war.
I would assume it was he who cancelled — why would they? It would have been a propaganda coup.
He could hardly headline a gala in a country that has invaded another. Good on him for seeing a bigger interest than his own.
Duly noted, Mr. Gergiev?
I don’t know why you stated that ” most of Europe shut down his engagements”. Here is his calendar for 21/22. All over Europe. Fair amount in Russia, yes, but also in Germany, Italy, Spain, Austria etc.
https://www.operabase.com/artists/placido-domingo-14248/performances/en
These are mostly concerts. A few opera performances, yes (too many if you ask me), but 90% of his engagements are concerts. The business of recital concerts is different, the performer rents the venue. When you sing in an opera performance, the opera house management hires you. Very few houses offered him roles in the 18 months, with the lion share of these going to Russian houses.
None of this is true. Domingo does not rent the space! Concerts are just as difficult as opera performances. They actually take more artistry normally than opera.
You don’t say so, Joanna. Perhaps the space rents Placido? LOL. For a mixed gala, it is the organizer who hires the singers (plural), but a solo recital concert is the singer’s business.
No, concerts aren’t as difficult as opera performances. Recital concerts may be longer, but are less difficult. For a concert (recital or gala) a singer selects only aria(s) suited to his or her voice, and sings them in the most advantageous order. When singing a role, they have to sing everything belonging to the role, in the written order, including the bits unsuited for their voice; they also have to memorize lots and lots of entrances. In a concert, they can simplify and transpose down without worrying someone is going to call them out. Hardly a knowledgeable critic wastes his time reviewing recital concerts, and the audience is just fans, who are conditioned not to hear wrong tones from their idol. As to concerts taking more artistry than opera, ROTFLOL. What “artistry”, Joanna? The artistry of singing O sole mio after Granada? The artistry of dropping difficult recitatives and scenes?
Don’t you think his age, stage of life and voice probably have more to do with that?
@Rick Do I think “his age, stage of life and voice” have more to do with Russian companies offering him roles in opera, but almost no European companies? Uh, no. Don’t think so.
Do I think he is in the recital concert business now, instead of singing roles, because of age, etc. Answer: Yes, absolutely, but this wasn’t @Counter_woke’s point; I was replying to him. I also think he is a clown who doesn’t realize how ridiculous his “baritone” shtick is, and should have retired long ago.
Reflects very poorly on them.
Of course, the war against Ukraine is a horrific crime against humanity, but the west should lose its self-righteousness about Russia; the US for instance did a Ukraine about 12 times over as of now.
It takes literally no effort as a person and nation to jump on the scapegoating bandwagon and just demonize Russia without factoring in how its security interests around Nato expansion contributed to this situation.
I would say that the “interests around NATO expansion” amount to Russia being opposed to obstacles to its attempt to resurrect the USSR as they are doing in Ukraine right now. Those former USSR and Warsaw Pact members who are now NATO members knew better than to trust Russia despite Russia being a signatory to the Budapest Memorandum which, among other items, committed all signatories to respect the territorial integrity of all the signers. Signers include Russia and Ukraine (and others).
Gee, I wonder why countries want to join NATO instead of the Russian confederation? They don’t even have to be invaded by “peacekeepers” in the process.
Let’s talk about Russia’s security interests. There’s the NATO, and there’s Russia, with Russia’s zone of influence shrinking. And why is it shrinking? Because for European countries, read their governments and their populations, NATO is a less sh*tty option than Russia. Both options are sh*tty, but NATO is less so than Mother Russia’s. Who has rolled in with tanks in various European countries after WW iI? The Hungarian Uprising? The Prague Spring? (aka Warsaw Pact invasion*). Rings a bell? It wasn’t the NATO. How history repeats itself now, same invader* , different invaded country. You can’t blame European countries for not having much love for Russian politics, which, sooner or later, involved tanks, rolled out _after_ WWII. Now it involves rockets. Instead of justifying the killing of civilian population in the Ukraine by the Russian war machine, you should perhaps accept there is something fundamentally incompatible between the mentality of Russia and that of European countries, if the European countries put under Russian influence at the end of WW II, tried to shake off that influence, repeatedly. It may take no effort for you to point out the “injustice” of not caring about Russia’s security interests in Europe, but it takes even less effort for European countries to remember who rolled out the tanks in Europe in the last 75 years. Nor have they forgotten the consequences of the Russian influence – run down economy in East Europe, with Russian propaganda dominating culture life, and Russian the only “legitimate” foreign language taught in schools; run down economy in Western Europe for trying to bolster up the economy in East Europe(**). Russian economy is in shambles. I’m sure they don’t like it, but the European Union likes it even less to be forced to pay for it, they have their own problems. Shambles on both sides, the difference is that the Russian mentality is such that they are of the opinion someone else has to pay for their own sloth, including paying with people’s lives.
(*) In the case of the Prague Spring it was a joined effort, but the instigator was the same.
(**) and for moving big chunks of their own industry to China, which is their (Western Europe’s) own fault.
Point taken, but we Americans protest our own imperialist destructive and deadly foreign policies just add much as we protest those of other nations. My friends and and millions upon millions of remote Americans flatly rejected the illegal invasion of iraq and decades of incident civilian murder in the middle east, so… Don’t be so quick to play “what about” with this..
With the help of the Kremlin’s machinery of reinterpretation, propagandists like Tim a ranting if “Russia’s legitimate security interests” in every comment column, every news site, and all social media. Of course, as with every country, there are – but in the case of Putin, this means primarily that vassal states should be set up around Russia as a buffer zone.
What about Dutoit? He was in St. Petersburg. They should let him back into Canada. He can’t be considered worse than a blackface Prime Minister. .
He’s singing is no longer worthwhile at 80 years old he’s finished and not even a true baritone give it up Domingo it’s over I don’t know about his politics