Pussy Riot join Netrebko boycott
NewsMoscow Times reports that the punk anti-Putin group has pulled out of Wiesbaden’s May Festivl on learning that soprano Anna Netrebko was scheduled to appear. Previously, all Ukrainian performers had withdrawn.
‘No one had told us about Netrebko’s participation in the festival. Equally, no one told us that they were just trying to plug a hole by replacing the Ukrainians who refused to perform,’ Pussy Riot said.
Russia’s Investigative Committee has meanwhile opened a criminal case against Pussy Riot’s Nadezhda Tolokonnikova for ‘insulting religious sensibilities.’
Imagine this blog had the same group defaced a synagogue…
Thanks for the anti-semitism.
Oh suddenly what was good for the goose ain’t anymore for the gander?
It’s a shame Anna Netrebko has taken on Abigaille, a voice-damaging role.
But both (unstaged) performances in Wiesbaden are sold out.
It’s a shame she still has a career at all. In any case, having just suffered through her Vienna Aida and La Scala Lady Macbeth a year ago, its clear that her voice is already damaged.
Why would anyone pay high prices in Vienna and Milan to suffer an opera with inadequate singer in the title or very important role? Netrebko ‘s voice is damaged, so why attend her performances and thus, indirectly, support her?
‘Insulting religious sensibilities’…seems like the Russian government is the new Taliban.
If Pussy Riot represents western values, then God help us all.
Tolokonnikova was imprisoned in 2012 for religious insults.
Is she being investigated again?
I didn’t know Pussy Riot was still around. They probably decided they would get more publicity by boycotting Anna Netrebko instead of performing at a music festival. Netrebko has condemned the war several times, her performances in Russia have been cancelled, she has been called a traitor, and she has not returned to Russia since the the invasion of Ukraine. High profile critics who attack Putin have a fear of heights because they are clumsy and fall from tall buildings. Pussy Riot has been jailed for less serious offenses like insulting religion. Have they heard only the lies and distortions about Anna Netrebko?
“ no one told us that they were just trying to plug a hole by replacing the Ukrainians who refused to perform”
Wasn’t the truth actually that the Ukrainians very much wanted to perform (they are happy about any paid gig in the west) but their government threatened them?
Oh, they are still alive and now they are “against Putin”. I remember that they were convicted in 2012 for obscene dancing at the altar of Russia’s main temple. Do you think this is their position? To have a position, they need to have heads on their shoulders. They don’t have it.
This goes to show that all the best people are against Putin.