Exclusive: Russia adds Vienna New Year’s Day to its boycott list

Exclusive: Russia adds Vienna New Year’s Day to its boycott list

News

norman lebrecht

December 25, 2022

Ever since the turn of the century the Rossiya-K TV has shown a live feed of the New Year’s Day concert from Vienna to many millions of appreciative Russian viewers.

This year, the channel has dropped out.

The reason? In mid-December, the European Union imposed fresh sanctions against the channel’s owner as ‘a media organization associated with the Russian government’.

So the boycott is a tit-for-tat reciprocal act.

Comments

  • trumpetherald says:

    Who cares….The free world enjoys the concert

  • Petros Linardos says:

    More taste of cold war. This reminds me of the Moscow 1980/Los Angeles 1984 boycotts of the Olympics by the USA and Russian teams respectively.

  • guest says:

    Then perhaps, as a further revenge, russia will demand the return to its homeland of all those opera singers with whom it has flooded the world’s opera stages for decades? take them back, tovarishchi, take all those netrebkos, stikhinas, abdrazakovs and a several dozens of sub-par mezzo-sopranos…
    It’s not like Europe or the United States don’t have their own singers, maybe without this constant flood of russians they’ll start nurturing local talents.

    • Tamino says:

      actually, ACTUALLY, without any Eastern European singers, it would be very difficult for the top opera houses to stage decent productions.
      Your terminology is revealing.
      Russia has „flooded“ western stages with good singers? No dear Hillbilly, western agents and casting bueraus have fought each other to secure the fresh resources from the east.
      Let‘s try to keep some humanity, before we are completly devoured by hatred for out brethren, ok?

      • guest says:

        I came from the East, darling. But nor russia.

      • guest says:

        My country – like many others – was occupied by russia for almost 200 years. You have no idea what russia and russians are, absolutely none. They hate the West, they deeply despise the Westerners, whom they regard as gullible fools (I can see their point there…). You are nurturing a fifth column at home.
        Of course western opera theaters could not operate if all of a sudden all those russians suddenly disappeared. That’s what they were hauled in by the dozens for, they ate you from the inside. You gullible people. You don’t know what they think because you’ll need to know russian to be able to understand what they say and write – among themselves and not what they say for your use, in broken English. Haha.

        • Wannaplayguitar says:

          I have never ever in 40 years, met a (classical) musician who hates the Russians. Never. We have always admired the music, literature and skills that leaked, leaned or crossed to the West. Whilst it has recently become difficult to separate culture from politics, it is disappointing to learn that Russia has always hated us…..really? Every single Russian musician hates every single Westerner and always has done? This is the sort of careless vitriol and propagandist tool that throws petrol on the political flames then fans them enthusiastically (and I did not expect to see it on the pages of SD) I would not have thought that classical musicians who share and have so much in common would join in the cacophony of extremist views.

      • Bonetti Micaela says:

        Grazie, Tamino.

    • Tom Phillips says:

      That would indeed be wonderful. In fact, on another someone was asking about the (until quite recent) relative neglect by the Met of Lisette Oropesa and Radvanovsky and I could help wondering how much we might have heard from them had it not been for the endless parading of Netrebko in roles that the other 2 were and certainly now are vastly superior in (i.e. most). Of course there are many other non-American artists – particularly German – who have been given short shrift due to this incessant catering to everything Russian.

  • Tom Phillips says:

    The Viennese should feel honored by this.

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