Metropolitan Opera severs another Russian singer

Metropolitan Opera severs another Russian singer

News

norman lebrecht

February 24, 2023

The bass singer Ildar Abdrazakov has announced in a Russian media interview that he has ‘paused’ his relationship with the Met.

He says: ‘ I just paused my relationship with the Metropolitan Opera myself: I cancelled participation in Verdi’s Forza del destino and Gounod’s Romeo and Juliet.’

The Met has yet to confirm his absence. He may have been pushed before he jumped.

Ildar adds he gave on the Met ‘out of solidarity with colleagues Anna Netrebko and Hibla Gerzmava. The way the theatre treated them is beyond (contempt). My deep conviction is that people of art should remain neutral, thereby continuing to unite peoples and countries with their art.’

 

Comments

  • A.L. says:

    Bye bye. All singers, such as they may be, are expendable anyway, no? You, along with your Anna or Hibla or whomever else you think deserves our pity and concern for no less than having sided with the war-criminal and autocrat, ought to do charity performances across unoccupied Ukraine. If you do, please then report on the events there.

    • Jan van Dijk says:

      Where were you when USA went in many different countries killing innocent people? Didn’t hear you talking in the same way about American singers!

      No shame !!!!

      • MacroV says:

        Ah the old “whatabout.” I don’t recall the United States invading, attempting to permanently occupy another country, bomb civilians back to the stone ages, rape women, recruit prisoners as cannon fodder, commit all sorts of war crimes, and openly attempt to wipe out a nationality. Find me an example of that and we can talk.

        • Mary Nealon says:

          And don’t forget stealing infants & children, and re-trading them.
          Horrifying

          • Westfan says:

            We voted those people out in 2020. Thank goodness. It was abominable but hopefully it will never happen again, unless the GQP wins again. Horrifying thought.

          • Hayne says:

            We’re not talking about the US southern border here.

        • Vadim says:

          I guess you have amnesia, in that case

        • Jan van Dijk says:

          And you are naive enough to really believe this war is just between Russia and Ukraine.. wow! Keep going!!

          And, you don’t recall America killing 300.000 people in the other side of the world in Afghanistan? Or 100.000 in Iraq and so on! No , not Stone Age, just a few years ago!

          Not that I’m standing behind Russia but stop being naive and one sided without using your head farther than what’s being sold to you!

          The whole world is going extreme on both side. You belong to one of them..

        • Iphigenia en Aulide says:

          Dominican Republic, April 24, 1965: 48,000 marines in 48 hours.

      • A.L. says:

        And we don’t hear you protesting or lamenting the downing of the Malaysian jetliner (by Ukrainian separatists apparently on orders from the Kremlin) that took off from your country’s main airport and that took so many innocent lives. You know, the same separatists with whom darling Anna posed for a photo op, later claiming to have been just an innocent bystander caught in the headlights.

    • Brettermeier says:

      I guess all those ruzzians bots doing the voting here were busy elsewhere today.

  • Ari Bocian says:

    “Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.” – Elie Wiesel

  • william osborne says:

    If the Met goes too far with its Russophobia, it will undermine its claim to a moral cause.

    • Brettermeier says:

      So you would have been ok with Nazi artists and close friends of Hitler performing in London during WWII?

      And stop calling it “Russophobia”. It’s a term invented by ruzzian propagandists.

      • Jan van Dijk says:

        Comparing this war to WWII. Wow!! You are brainwashed!!

        Comparing Russia (am definitely also not a fan or Russia and I also wasn’t when Germany and more closed the gas deal with the same “Russian Hitler” as you would call him , but that was fine with you right? The same dictator!!) to Nazi germany is a very unreal comparison and far going comparison.
        If it was the case all countries would really go and fight the war like they did back then!

        Most of the Russian musicians don’t know putin and don’t even live in Russia for ages!
        Please tell me where you come from and tell me if you wrote a apologizing letter when your country did something wrong!

        I don’t hear you speaking about endless deaths in Africa or India or so many other countries every day!

        HYPOCRITE!!!!!

  • JS says:

    He pauses his relationship with the MET… let me laugh. At the exact moment when US site Operawire publishes this article: https://operawire.com/ildar-abdrazakov-allegedly-close-to-putin/ based on publication in the Austrian Opern News https://opern.news/news/beitrag/419

  • Choi says:

    Anna Has not been neutral!
    She supported her country’s outrageous invasion of part of Ukraine
    few year ago.

  • Ann French says:

    Some atrocities are too great for neutrality. “Evil prevails when the good do nothing”

  • A FUGLER says:

    Some atrocities are too great for neutrality

  • Ms.Melody says:

    Abradzakov has been getting away with sloppy singing for quite sometime now, but the Met no longer cares for pitch accuracy and precise musical singing. Netrebko, Girzmava, Abradzakov have lost the ability or the desire to deliver top level performances. “Anything goes” should remain a beloved Broadway musical not the new standard for once great, storied opera house. Ildar started out as a potentially good basso, but with time his singing and acting became more and more provincial and careless. So, addio, senza rancor.

  • sonicsinfonia says:

    So 1. The Met hasn’t done anything. and 2. “People of art: should indeed be neutral but when they are not and side with and support someone like Putin, it has its consequences.

  • Tom Phillips says:

    No loss, very mediocre and overpromoted like so many other Russian singers at the Met. And a Putin lover to boot. Hopefully wont be back.

    • Tiredofitall says:

      If you’ve ever hear him live, you would know he is a fine singer. You can lambast his politics, but he has proven his worth on the opera stage.

  • pvl says:

    It is other way around: Ildar Abdrazakov severs his relationship with the Met.
    It is said in the 1st line of you posting.

  • L. H. says:

    Shame on G.M. ot the met, the russian artist is not to be blame for this war, he thinks he controll the world with big money and anti russian policy, this artists are 10 times better than all your rooster, disgusting, the never recover from cold war.

  • L h says:

    Shame on them, russian singers are the best.

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