Kremlin sends orchestra to play in Mariupol ruins

Kremlin sends orchestra to play in Mariupol ruins

News

norman lebrecht

September 13, 2022

In the cultural war between Russia and Ukraine, this is perhaps the most bizarre piece of musical triumphalism.

The Kremlin Orchestra, with conductor Konstantin Chudovsky, is pictured performing outside the Mariupol Theatre, which has been bombed to ruins by Putin’s forces.

Ukrainian sources claim the Russians slaughtered hundreds of people at the theatre and are now mocking the mass grave of their victims. If that is the case, the Kremlin orchestra concert may itself constitute a war crime.

Konstantin Chudovsky, who is chief conductor of the Ural Opera in Ekaterinburg, is a former chief of the Santiago orchestra in Chile and was once acclaimed by the Financial Times as ‘one of 25 Russians to watch’.

Now for all the wrong reasons.

 

 

Comments

  • James Ross says:

    Repulsive and sickening, but unsurprising.

  • Hayne says:

    One can find out what really happened in Mariupol instead of all the pro US/NATO incessant western propaganda. Of course
    there is propaganda on both sides but at least try to feel out what is really going on. It’s not always Oceania good, Eurasia bad as the controlled media portrays it.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRtLFT2sbBg

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1b-RKDHZOo

  • switchman says:

    Disgusting!

  • The View from America says:

    I wonder what was on the program. “The Lark Ascending”? “The People United Will Never be Defeated”? The “1812 Overture”?

  • Gary Freer says:

    Does the Kremlin Orchestra have Beating Retreat in its repertoire?

  • SHKSPRTH says:

    Sickening to anyone with normal moral sensitivity.

  • Lily Sun says:

    By the way, The Bolshoi Theatre will open a new season on September, 14 with Pique Dame under the baton of the so called war criminal maestro Konstantin Chudovsky, who serves the Kremlin Orchestra (belongs to Directorate of the President of the Russian Federation) and who literally was dancing on bones in Mariupol just a few days ago. Total nightmare.

  • Jean says:

    Newsflash: Mr. Zelensky is Jewish.

    There are several memorials in Ukraine which the Russian army has been destroying.

  • All that’s left says:

    Do you need to talk about the past to justify bad things in the present? Russia did invade Ukraine NOW, bombed Mariupol to ashes NOW, created a massacre at the theater NOW, and sends an orchestra to play music at that spot NOW. Now what is here to doubt?

  • Zima says:

    Reminds me of the concert Gergiev did in Palmyra. Russia loves staging concerts at places that were bombed to ruins by Russia itself.

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