Netrebkos slam Angel Blue for blackface cancellation
NewsHours after the American soprano withdrew from the Arena di Verona because it blacked up Anna Netrebko in Aida, she received this open message from Netrebko’s husband, the tenor Yusif Eyvazov, calling her action ‘disgusting’.
(Right-click on the text to see the full message.)
Angel Blue had posted earlier on Facebook:
Dear Friends, Family, and Opera Lovers,
I have come to the unfortunate conclusion that I will not be singing La Traviata at Arena di Verona this summer as planned. As many of you know, Arena di Verona recently made the decision to utilize blackface makeup in a recent production of Aida. Let me be perfectly clear: the use of blackface under any circumstances, artistic or otherwise, is a deeply misguided practice based on archaic theatrical traditions which have no place in modern society. It is offensive, humiliating, and outright racist. Full stop. I was so looking forward to making my house debut at Arena di Verona singing one of my favorite operas, but I cannot in good conscience associate myself with an institution which continues this practice. Thank you for your understanding, and to all who have shown support and sensitivity to me and my fellow artists of color.
-Angel💙
UPDATE: Julia Bullock urges: ‘Boycott this house: performers and audience attendees alike, until it becomes a safe place for artists to offer and share of themselves, their life and their work.’
Compare this photograph:
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angel_Blue with this video:
https://www.operabase.com/artists/angel-blue-1128/en
Just saying.
The singer in the video is not Angel Blue but Aleksandra Kurzak (Operabase has problems with their website as the videos are linked by algorithm and often incorrect and incoherent.). It is always advisable to check facts before posting in public forums. “Just saying…”
> Just saying
Quite rightly.
Black women (1) seem to like to be photographed so as to appear as light-skinned as possible, and (2) seem ashamed of their natural hair and determined to copy the styles of white women.
It’s also really ignorant of these black American women to think that these moronic attitudes to stage makeup are shared everywhere else in the world.
If I see a CV and there’s any suggestion of any kind of ‘activism’, it goes in the bin.
Get ready for a fuller bin……
Gee, I almost think that blackface may be better than egg on your face.
ARE YOU SERIOUS??? THAT’S NOT ANGEL BLUE.
I guess the word “disgusting”ly is a hint to Jamie Barton ‘s Tweet ( a sort of Woke call to arms ): “It’s been a long day and I’m hella tired, but I’m not too tired to say that BLACKFACE IS, AND ALWAYS WAS DISGUSTINGLY WRONG. (Whyyy is this even a question?? How is this not obvious?!)
@AnnaNetrebko and @arenadiverona, do better. It’s seriously not that hard.”
Well , blackface WAS not that disgusting for Mrs.Angel Blue (who has very recently joined Jamie Barton in her activist furor) in June. Or not disgusting enough for her to cancel her Verona debut.
At the same time, in other comment, he compares blackface with a certain mezzo s Don Jose disguise (which the world , in his opinion, should find as “disgusting” as blackface). It’s true, this idea of his is as disgustingly illiberal ( and homophobic) as is the sabotage of artistic expression on racial assumptions.
Angel Blue was not associated with the Aida production and was engaged to sing in La Traviata. Artists don’t–and shouldn’t have to– research the details of other productions at the same venue before agreeing to perform. Ms. Blue saw photos of the Aida production when Netrebko posted them after her July 8 performance, with a subsequent social media furor. According to Blue, she was disturbed when she saw the photos on July 11. And the AdV response (to an Operawire inquiry and story (which appeared on July 12) probably made matters worse. I don’t understand your remark about June; that is irrelevant.
Lyudmila Monastyrska sang a “blakfaced” Aida in the same Verona production in June and Mrs.Angel Blue wasn’t bothered. Her civic conscience has woken up only after Anna Netrebko did the same thing ( not only on stage, she also put “explicit” pics on Instagram ) and some Twitter activists reacted vehemently ( a good occasion for them to trash “Putin s puppet” one more time…).
They re all exhibitionistic, hysterical divas, avid for online publicity and pretending they re making art or defending values and ideals.Boo!
Threatrical language ( ways of expression on stage), either traditional or modern, should remain apriori free from any ideological censorship or political bullying . Otherwise all art is over.
Imagine revoking Daniel Day-Lewis’ first Academy Award win for My Left Foot, for impersonating a heavily handicapped man with cerebral palsy.
Should that cause havoc among handicapped people’s associations? Nope, cos it’s called acting.
But as you point out, this “touchy” hysteria will bring the end of the theatrical arts, meaning – acting to be who you are not.
Incidently, me thinks Twitter artists like Mrss Barton and Blue are merely fishing for publicity.
Nope. Not with the current amount of excellent artists and excellent new operas. Maybe it was not easy before, but now at least the big operas and music festivals DO have a choice to be ideologically and politically correct – there are plenty of top-level artists of all colors and political stances. Unless you talk about someone truly unique, but those usually don’t get involved into operatic industry.
And something interesting from the Slipped Disc blackface archive ( no mention to Netrebko) https://slippedisc.com/2022/03/munich-is-hit-by-a-blackface-furore/
This silly blackface bickering does a disservice to classical music. As in every set of circumstances where a profoundly divisive issue is lacerating our communities, we should rely on experts to determine a solution that is acceptable to everyone and that transcends the tribal mentality so painfully displayed by an alarming high number of concert goers.
Therefore we urge Maestro Muti, the undiscussed authority in Black racial relations, and the man who has turned black singers into zealots who enthusiastically utter “filthy n**** blood”, to weigh in and settle this issue once and for all.
Once the Italian Maestro issues his racial decree, everybody else should shut up and obey.
Netrebko and her husband are just horrible people aren’t they. In all sorts of ways.
Eyvazov is an unapologetic racist. Period.
More than that, he’s an incompotent tenor who has no business being on world-class stages and is only there because of his current wife (and rest assured this will not be the last marriage for either of them given their, ahem, track records).
Eyvazov should be singing at an opera house that more suits his actual talents, like the Great Leader Opera House in Pyongyang.
The one good thing that will hopefully come out of this, for NYers, is that the Met says Eyvazov’s comments were “hateful” and they re-evaluating their relationship with him. They should have done that before as there were ample artistic and behavioral reasons to do so. Fingers crossed!
Didn’t know you knew them so well!
The world is moving on and the Netrebkos are looking more and more like vestiges from the past – clinging to old ideas of racial superiority and an imperial Russian empire. Enlightened opera companies will find other singers and she and her husband will soon be the equivalent of a faded Las Vegas lounge act.
The real scandal is not that Netrebko practices blackface, but that Verona allows it. Netrebko is just a singer, it’s not her who chooses her costumes and makeup. Now they lost Angel Blue which is a much more interesting singer at this stage of both careers.
I am confident that if Ms Netrebko said to Verona “I am not wearing blackface” they would say “OK then” because they wouldn’t want her to walk. Now they’ve lost Ms. Blue and she has lost her fee, so she believes strongly and in my opinion she is right.
Also recall that the production of Aida earlier featured a different cast, some of whom also wore blackface. So this is by no means unique to Ms. Netrebko and perhaps is even being encouraged by the production team.
Interesting the Netrebkos are interested in having a career in the west but not at all in learning a decent english at least; what does it say about their respect for their westen public?
Or does Anna speaks fluent german? I hear she s an austrian citizen
English does not define “the west”. Anna’s oral communication skills in English are more than adequate in my experience in conversation with her. I cannot attest to her abilities in German. Without formal study, written proficiency in a foreign language is more difficult than conversation, as with most casual speakers of a second language.
Let’s at least be fair.
Despite being an Austrian citizen, Donna Anna’s command of German is as poor as her comprehension of logic or politics.
She once admitted in Opera News that ‘my brain doesn’t compute German’.
That said, she is an intellectual titan compared to Yusif the Useless.
Allow me a small correction. ‘Dear Friends, Family, and Opera Lovers,’ should read ‘Dear Friends, Family, and Tourists’.
I applaud Angel Blue. I wish many others would follow her example. Hold on on your up and down votes, boys and gals prone to impulsive reactions, until you read the rest of my comment. Currently the US has only two export products to offer to the rest of the world: Weapons and Woke (They have successfully shot themselves in the foot regarding everything else by relocating material and even intellectual production to China.) At the risk of being accused of speaking in other people’s name (though to judge from the comments I read here and on the other two SD related posts, everyone speaks in other people’s name anyway), I’d say both US export products are unwanted by the rest of the world. The first doesn’t need much explanation – mankind stupidity may be on the rise, but hasn’t yet reached the level on which most people, US Americans included, fail to realize that the probabilities of the common man of being a target are many orders of magnitude higher than their chances of being the finger that pulls the trigger. The second product (woke) needs a bit of explanation. Apparently the few strident Twitterati spending more time posturing online than doing useful work in real life haven’t realized that the alleged collective guilt in this particular matter is US’s and US’s alone. The rest of the world isn’t interested. Opera is an European art form, of Italian origin to be more precise, that has nothing in common with American blackface, and everything in common with using stage makeup, a thousand years old theatrical practice. Strident US Twitterati who feel like imposing your ‘artistic’ values on other nations’ artistic achievements, reserve said values for your own nation’s artistic achievements (Assuming US can be considered a nation. Considering what’s going on over there right now, I have my doubts. The American nation looks more and more like a well meant social experiment in diversity gone awry, the various communities all but jumping at each other’s throats, encouraged by worthless opportunists who see in this a means of making a name for themselves. As with all almost-failed experiments, there is also a tiny minority advocating digging a deeper hole.)
Back to Angel Blue, yes I applaud her decision. Please don’t sing in Europe. The operatic doghouse is more than full. I am sure the other performing animals will be more than grateful to you, more bones left to them. Audiences too will be grateful – with the woke confined on the other side of the pond (and channel), European opera lovers can return to what matters in opera, which is _voice_ and make believe, not natural skin color and social cleansing. Stage makeup is cheap. Excellent voices, excellent performing artists are rare. You can’t fake the latter.
I wonder what Arena di Verona is going to do. Singers can cancel on grounds of ‘indisposition’ without financial repercussion to their wallet. But cancel because you don’t like that another singer puts on stage makeup? This has to be a first. I can’t believe Angel Blue (or her agent if Angel herself, in the purity of her indignation, hasn’t realized this) doesn’t know she is liable to a lawsuit. I don’t know about you, but methinks Angel wasn’t going to sing more performances anyway, this is why she could afford this show of virtue signaling.
Now if only Arena di Verona would consider going one step further and hire singers who can _sing_ the role they are hired for, we could get rid of AN & hubby too. Arena di Verona has advanced to Italy’s Summer Ice cream Festival. It would be nice if it could return to being a venue for operatic singing.
PS. This issue aside, AN’s hubby has made racial comments in the past. Those are a different issue.
PPS. I thought AN was ‘banned’ from using social media without her agent supervision. Apparently the interdiction doesn’t extend to her hubby as well.
AN wasn’t “banned from her social media”. While singing her shoe-polish Aida in Verona she shared this on her Instagram (filmed by herself) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50BoMp7FAHo
I should have specified ‘banned from _writing_ on social media’. I didn’t watch the YouTube video you linked to, life is too short to waste it on mediocre singers. I have witnessed AN in Aida already, thank you very much.
You are being abusive. Please desist.
If so please delete my comment above. It wasn’t my intention to be abusive, nor do I consider I am abusive, compared to those who call AN names because she puts on the makeup the Zeffirelli production calls for (stage makeup, not shoe-polish), or compared to other commenters who wish readers to have fun in wartime hell. Yes I am opinionated about her singing, but I don’t call her names. Anyway, I am not prepared to argue the point with you, and I am sure you are even less prepared to argue anything with me, or anyone else. Please delete my reply to AA. Thank you and have a nice Sunday.
You are spot on!
The USA want to inflict it massive inequalities, ignorance and fanaticism on the world!
Nothing is more counterproductive that these ill-thought decisions.
There are plenty of Americans who do not care if Putin nukes all of Europe back the stone age, when you will be lucky to find a flute and drum for your enlightened culture. Don’t want weapons and woke? Have fun in wartime hell.
Can anyone be more smug and condescending?
Angel Blue is one of the most enchanting performers and delightful personalities I’ve seen in recent years. Yusif Eyvazov lost me when he wouldn’t sing with an Armenian soprano not long ago. I’ll go with her on this.
Believe Angel’s decision is wrong in that the Aida production doesn’t involve her. I can see singers cancelling if it directly involves their contract, i.e., Debbie at Covent Garden and her little black dress, Eva Marton at the Met when Solti wanted Behrens instead. By all means, cancel and sue, but it should be your name on the line. Attacking opera venues because of twitter, tribalism or jumping on the bandwagon is counterproductive. It makes me not want to spend money to see these complainers.
Also, these performances are in Italy not in the USA !!
Blackface means nothing bad in Italy, it is makeup.
Are the people objecting to the stage makeup that they describe as ‘blackface’ saying that blond singers cannot play Otello/Othello or suggesting that descriptions in the text should simply be ignored and that anyone should be allowed to play the part?
Would that apply to all characters including those expected to be of African or Oriental appearance?
Opera is already an abstracted art form – what matters is the voice, not if the person has a “realistic” appearance of the character. No one needs kitschy, and outdated styles of production like blackface that come with significant racist baggage.
I cannot be accused of any great love for Mme N, but when she laughs (at about 2:50) in the midst of Stoelzl’s depressingly idiotic staging, lovers of opera must laugh with her. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dvJfwccGD4 And this was long before the war in Ukraine or before we were instructed which singers are allowed to follow Verdi’s intentions and which are forbidden to.
Eyvazov should shut up his mouth, both speaking and singing. Blackfacing is offending black people; it is racism and should be banned.
I really do hope that people like Netrebko and Eyvazov will never ever appear on stages of democratic countries.
Don’t get me wrong, I think Yusif Eyvazov is a class-A creep, but he is not entirely wrong in his question. His final remark is superfluous and typically nasty.
I disagree with Angel Blue’s position, but this delay begs the question: was she really that upset about it as she started in Verona, or did the Twitts get hold of her and woke her up?
She seems to be of the view that you dance with the guy that brung ya.
Angel Blue’s doing the Italian audience a favor by cancelling. Just watched 2 Sempre liberas available on YouTube, one accompanied by just piano, she’s under pitch in both & unable to negotiate the difficult notes at the end. Maybe the true reason behind the cancellation? She’s probably quadrupled vaxxed and the jab has destroyed her body. Yusif has a point. I know she sang the role at La Scala. But it’s customary to give 21st century Black singers high praise for “effort” rather than for being spectacular. White guilt. Which is really pity, not guilt.
Dark makeup in opera isn’t blackface. Blackface disparages/caricatures Blacks. Neither Aida or Otello the character disparages or caricatures Blacks. The same way Asian makeup for Butterfly or Turandot doesn’t disparage or caricature Asians. Makeup of Faust as an old man doesn’t disparage/caricature senior citizens. But the self esteem of Blacks is so low that they feel threatened by statues, pancake boxes, monuments, makeup etc. The Left has officially crossed into insanity.
Left or Right, these people are just confused .. Makeup in three or four operas is NOT blackface !!
So, was the comment made by Netrebko`s husband accurate?
Did she cancel only after the SJW-cries on social media? Really? If so, sad.
The argument is understandable that blackface does not necessarily carry the same connotations in Europe as it does in the United States…but Angel Blue is an African-*American* woman who has every right to be so offended by its use as to drop out of the performance.
Any sane person knows that wearing skin paint in Aida has nothing at all to do with minstrelsy. The only people offended are those who have been programmed to be offended, or who have chosen to be.
Nothing that we haven’t seen in China during the Cultural Revolution, the Great Leap Forward or whatever. And they even didn’t have Twitter. . .
“The only people offended are those who have been programmed to be offended, or who have chosen to be.”
Or born black?
It’s time to learn more about operatic tradition and history! Blackface mocks and degrades people; operatic makeup tries to create authenticity.
The USA with its massive inequalities, ignorance and fanaticism needs to sort itself out rather than trying to pull the world down.
More power to Blue for taking a principled stand. But I will die on the hill of contending that using makeup to darken skin on the opera stage to play another ethnicity has nothing to do with Amos ‘n’ Andy–style minstrelsy, and is not “blackface” in any meaningful sense.
Who brought up minstrel shows? Wearing makeup on stage to appear as a black person is ‘blackface’. Here’s the OED: “Make-up worn by a non-black person to imitate the appearance of a black person”
The way people try to carve out their own definitions to support their arguments on here would be hilarious if it weren’t so depressing.
I read your comment as: “The blackface wasn’t the most extreme example possible, so you shouldn’t be offended by it”.
Opera is an archaic art form and Angel Blue chose to work in it and complain about its archaic rules and conventions. I am boycotting Angel Blue.
The leftist liberal woke ideology that originated in American academia has spread and taken roots in the streets of Western Europe, unfortunately!
I must confess I can never see why it is ‘offensive, humiliating and racist’ for an artist to wear make-up to play a part. The Greek word for acting means ‘to play someone you are not’ or ‘to wear a mask’ so if you are playing an Ethiopian then why not at least darken the skin a little (NOT a la Black and White Minstrels) to at least look a bit more like the part. Why is it acceptable for a black artist to play Violetta (a white woman obviously) and no accusations of ‘cultural appropriation’. It is no problem with me and I welcome it but it does seem as if the surest ‘rules’ we operate under are confusing.
It’s not a double-standard, as a Black person playing Violetta is not wearing make-up to appear white. A white person can sing Aida or Otello or Cio-Cio San, but they don’t need to alter their appearance in order to do so.
I don’t see that Violetta is ‘obviously a white woman’, unless the production is supposed to be rigidly historically accurate to being a representation of Marie Duplessis, the role could be played by someone of any ethnicity.
Thank you for engaging constructively!
Racism exists in Italy, it is not just the country of bel canto and opera. The Verona Aida is by all accounts racist. If you don’t believe me just ask Milan’s soccer french player Bayakoko what he thinks about it, after a misunderstanding where he was treated like a criminal just because of the color of his skin? https://www.si.com/soccer/2022/07/18/ac-milan-player-tiemoue-bakayoko-stopped-by-italian-police-in-misunderstanding
Netrebko and her mediocre husband, can judge another artist about her decision to avoid singing a production that offends her and dare insult her.Yet they seem to be ok with the killing of hundreds of Ukrainians (children, women etc) each day. Why don’t they call Putin and his senseless war ‘disgusting’? No decency let alone moral authority….