Netrebko’s back at La Scala right now

Netrebko’s back at La Scala right now

News

norman lebrecht

May 25, 2022

The semi-banned Russian soprano is singing a Friday night recital at La Scala, accompanied by the British pianist Malcolm Martineau.

She is next scheduled to sing in the Slovene capital Ljubljana.

War, what war?

Comments

  • Peter P says:

    Shame on Meyer! Simply ludicrous

    • IP says:

      Shame on the paying audience. Or at least on the part of it that is not composed of rich Russians with uncertain sources of income..

  • Maria says:

    Good for her. She is a soprano and an artist. She’s not the cause of the war, or gone to fight on the front line, just because she is Russian, and should be allowed to get on with her career as the Irish singers were when Northern Ireland and other parts of the UK were being blown up. People seem to have it in for her and now her accompanist.

    • jane christo says:

      yes!

    • Elena Fernandez says:

      Nobody expects her to fight, But any decent human being should have the forthright position against Putin who unleashed the terrible war. And please don’t lament that singers should sing, dancers should dance…..

    • Sam McElroy says:

      Side bar, apologies…

      You mean after four hundred years of British rule, murder, starvation, genocide etc. etc., right? Should I remind you of the song? “They stole Trevelyan’s corn, so the young may see the morn, now the prison ship lies waiting in the bay.” Just making sure you understand that my fellow Irishmen didn’t just blow things up for shits and giggles, and that you know about gerrymandering and the “No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs” subjugation under which the Irish found themselves. My people may have been white, but they were no less brutally occupied and oppressed.

    • John Cavanagh says:

      Spot on

    • IP says:

      No, she is just a bad singer and a hideous person.

    • Kevin ONeil says:

      Yes she is an artist performong ..were Britush singers banned when the british army machine gunned innocent civilians on the streets of Derry in Northern Ireland ? Or the UK and USA leaving millions dead in an illegal war in Afghanistan, Iraq and Lybia . Or Nato bombing civilians in Belgrade ?

  • Tom Ponti says:

    Thank God the leaders of La Scala are not as mean spirated and self rightous as Gelb and the Met are.

  • H.P.Gyldfeldt says:

    Same on Italy – Shame on
    La Scala, Milano!
    Ban to visit.

  • Pianist says:

    In the last two years, we have fostered and accomplished the culture of virtue signaling in the West, which hinges largely on fear of cancellation. Now we are expecting artists from other cultures to march in lockstep with our own derangement. Or else. I wonder how many artists who have “recanted their affiliation with Putin” ctually meant it? Or have they done it pro forma, to satisfy the latest Western mania and to keep their engagements? Did anyone gauge the degree of their sincerity in making these statements? Is there a way to do so? And if not, why demand/expect it? Where is the logic?. And how much more Orwellian can this become?..

  • Kate says:

    Get her out, she is Putin’s friend and supporter and has been. And Putin is a killer, what else needs to be said?

    • jane christo says:

      she is not and never has been a “friend” of Putin. Although she lives and pays taxes in Viena, she has family in Russia As many who have lived in a dictatorship know, it is dangerous to speak out against the dictator. Russia has called her a treitor and an enemy of the State.

      • JS says:

        Netrebko has no family in Russia, her parents are dead and her sister lives in Denmark or travels with Anna. Netrebko during Putin’s two election campaigns – in 2012 and 2018 – acted as his representative – Доверенное лицо кандидата в президенты Российской Федерации. It’s an official function – the said representative (proxy) is indicated by the candidate or his party and he/she registers himself in the relevant office indicating his place of residence and work. Ms Netrebko registered as a Russian citizen, living in St. Petersburg and working as a singer in the Mariinsky theatre (in 2012 and 2018!!). Austrian citizenship was arranged for her to travel freely, that’s all, she never even try to learn German. She maintains normal contacts with her Russian (well placed) friends – so get it out of your head at last the naive idea that someone is going to persecute her! She has NEVER disowned Putin, nor EVER will. There’s no reason for it, she still has it both ways like before!

      • Jim says:

        She could have remained neutral all these years. She chose not to.

    • Gary Relyea says:

      During the immoral Viet Nam war and the Iraq war I don’t remember cancellations of America Artists in foreign countries. Hypocrisy has always been rampant in USA.

    • John Cavanagh says:

      Kate,
      She’s an entertainer, artist, singer—not a politician, simply a survivor who does the best she can to live as best she can under an unpredictable despot.
      I wonder how you would feel about Dmitry Hvorostovsky if he were still alive?

    • Ștefan says:

      Mai multe despre tine!

  • Lucia says:

    L’ipocrisia dei perbenisti italiani! Allo stesso modo, sarà in diverse recite presso l’Arena di Verona per la prossima stagione…. Sembra proprio che non esistano alternative a Ms./Mr. Netrebko. Ma di cosa stiamo parlando???? Se non della solita cricca mafiosa che si ricicla ! Vergogna!!! Alle istituzioni italiane e ai loro complici!

  • Pedro says:

    The concert at the Paris Philharmonie is about to start. Pretty full.

    • Potpourri says:

      I saw video of Netrebko’s curtain call and it appeared the large audience was giving her a standing ovation. As she exited the stage she laughed and screamed with delight. She was probably worried about her reception by the audience and if she would be accosted by a demonstrator, as she was a few years ago.
      I think her interview with La Monde newspaper last weekend clarified complaints against her.

  • vag says:

    … would I visit a concert with an artist who sympathises with the Texas school shooter?!?

  • Anonymous Bosch says:

    Most appropriately, the penultimate selection on the programme is “Gold is a fine thing” from “The Ballad of Baby Doe”.

    I wonder in what language she will attempt it?

  • Jeremy H says:

    How do we feel about Malcolm Martineau choosing not to distance himself from Ms Netrebko? I think that’s a mistake on his part…

  • guest says:

    Recitals are always sold out for a good reason, and concerts goers – a different species from opera goers – are always ecstatic, for the same obvious reason. The reason is concerts are for fans. Would you pay good money to see / hear someone you don’t appreciate? No you wouldn’t. Fans are incapable of hearing anything that upsets them, particularly after paying a hefty price for the privilege. The hullabaloo isn’t proof of anything, it’s just people sharing the same echo chamber. Concerts are much beloved by certain performers because they are such a sure bet – only darlings in the audience, who don’t mind being fleeced, and not a critic to be found for love or money, they aren’t paid to waste their time with love fests; the performers makes a packet. Pav was still selling halls at 70, having nothing much to offer the audience beside the hard rests of his voice and a microphone. Domingo too sells to nostalgic fans, and will continue to sell even at hundred, if he lives to see the hundred; not one fan will point out the emperor has no clothes, and the fact that he isn’t an emperor, and never was. Even Hitler’s rallies were, er, ‘sold out’ to enthusiastic audiences back in the day. Did I mention echo chamber and the etymology of the word ‘fan’? I bet my comment will enrage the species who communicate using thumbing. They are always enraged by obvious truths.

  • Pianist says:

    It is only good recitals that are sold out and good performers who have a populous fandom.One may dislike them, for a variety of reasons, but they clearly speak to the hearts of their followers. Often in ways that are incomprehensible to us…Whether the latter is the artists’ loss, their fans’, or ours is another matter. Also, I fail to see how Hitler’s rallies are pertinent to this thread and why the great Placido Domingo is under attack here. Perhaps he has come out in support of Netrebko or other cancelled artists? If so, apologies – I may have missed the news.

  • Melania says:

    Shame on you Paris ! Shame on you Mr.Meyer ! You were always a pokerface and a hypocrite! Concert or opera, Netrebko is only worried about her money ! She has nothing in her head, is impertinent, calls people and even colleagues a shit !
    The stupid Fans who go to her concert are as stupid. To hear a faded singer who’s best years have passed ! Having gained so much weight she looks like a (cow), sorry. No, she doesn’t have family in Russia. She never pays tax in Vienna, because she stays less than 6 months everywhere! She picks up the raisins from everywhere. An Egoist! And yes, she IS supported by the dictator, who paid many costs, and opened doors for her. How can anyone be so blind ? The world has great singers without these vain allures of a AN !!

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