Putin pet pops up with pianist competition
OperaThe wholly compromised pro-war soprano Hibla Gerzmava is spending her down-time in Moscow running an ‘international’ contest for opera singers and pianists.
And the winners are:
1 Vasily Popov (Russia)
2 Mark Vaza (Russia)
3 Elena Vardazaryan (Armenia)
photo: Vasily Popov, Natalya Petrozhitskaya (c) Evgeny Evtyukhov
Putin’s Cultural Initiatives Fund gave her good money for this contest at the time of war. About $500k-$600k, depending on the exchange. Plus co-sponsorship from other sources seems to bring the funding up to about $1M total, publicity on the national media and so on. Abdrazakov performed at the opening gala. Russian Minister of Culture as well as First Deputy Chief of Staff of the Presidential Executive Office sent their official congratulations to Gerzmava on the opening of this contest. Oh, I completely forgot, art is separate from politics.
“Art should be separate from politics.”. Think of the statement that would be made if all the singers, dancers, actors, athletes and directors just stopped (or perform elsewhere).
Surprisingly Vasily Popov (pianist) and baritone Viacheslav Vasiliev (1st prize singers) and basso Gleb Periazev (2nd prize singers) are all from the Mariinsky Theatre.