Prague asks Kyiv if it should allow Netrebko to sing
NewsPrague’s deputy mayor Jiri Pospisil is consulting the Ukrainian Embassy on whether to allow a Smetana Hall recital by Anna Netrebko to go ahead in October.
The reply from Kyiv is a foregone conclusion. Ukrainian embassies across Europe have consistently protested against the presence of a singer who formerly supported Vladimir Putin and the breakaway regime in Crimea.
Popisil said: ‘This is not just any concert. She has been actively involved in supporting the criminal regime in the past.’ Czechs, on the whole support Ukraine.
Full report here from our Czech partners, Opera Plus
WTF…
Do they need to ask? Isn’t the answer all but obvious and nothing new? As I have suggested before, her agent(s) should secure Netrebko a few gigs in unoccupied Ukraine, preferably in Odesa and Kyiv, so she comes face to face with what her masters have wrought. You know, for humanitarian, cultural and fundraising purposes. But of course not.
This is utterly ridiculous. I have every sympathy for Ukraine and I hope they manage to repel the Russian invasion but the control Ukrainians are trying to exert over the arts across the world is chilling, controlling and dictatorial. Elizabeth Gilbert had to cancel her upcoming book the other week because it was set in Russia and Ukrainians found that offensive – even though the book is about people resisting the Soviet government! And frankly it’s quite silly to ask for sympathy cos you’re suffering and at war while apparently also having the capacity to complain about who’s singing at La Scala or writing a book set in Siberia. It seems a particularly Ukrainian thing, I’ve not heard Syrians or Yemenis or Afghans or Sudanese or anyone else facing war moaning like this.
Tell us more about Yemeni opera and the brave singers being denied their rightful place in the operatic firmament. Perhaps La Netrebko could be persuaded to go there as resident prima donna assoluta.
The Gilbert’s case tells us this is not really about Putin, right? But since you’ve mentioned Gilbert I’ll quote from NYT, “The choice of whether to read Gilbert’s book lies with readers themselves, and those who are troubled by it must be free to voice their views.” (Suzanne Nossel, PEN America’s chief executive). Shouldn’t the same principle apply to Netrebko’s singing? Some people will buy the tickets and some won’t.
But no one is getting a chance to read the book because it’s not being published as scheduled! Same for if Ukraine say no to Netrebko singing and Prague cancel her recital. There’s no choice, only censorship.
You are a rare voice of reason. But look at the likes and dislikes. Activists and useful idiots have the momentum in our times. We can only hope reason prevails in some ivory towers or remote caves, enlightenment shelters, away from the access of the idiotic and encouraged masses. On the back of all this, fascism will ride into town (again).
Thank you, I agree – I hope reason prevails (across a lot of different subjects not just this one), but it’s hard to have hope sometimes.
How many Syrians, Yemenis, Afgans or Sudanese wanted to sing in Covent Garden?
What a silly comment, I made it quite clear this about the arts in general. There are opera singers from those nationalities trained in the Western classical opera tradition anyway.
Where is the line between a citizen opposing a war, and aiding and abetting the enemy? Can they be separated? Netrebko had clearly stated her opposition to the war. Must she go so far that she will be effectively banished from her country?
Dear Mr. Osborne. It is about the concert in Prague. If the Czechs don’t want Netrebko in Prague then the concert won’t happen. No one needs to care what the PR specialists wrote in her official statement when her career collapsed after the war broke out. Let her state what she wants or state nothing at all, it doesn’t matter. If people in certain places don’t want to see her that’s their right. And your opinion in that case really doesn’t matter in the least.
We don’t know if the Czechs don’t want Anna Yuryevna. If the recital is in Prague why does Prague’s Deputy Mayor need to consult the Ukrainian Embassy to obtain Kiev’s approval? Shouldn’t he consult the Czech people or have the cajones to think for himself? How gutless!
Only the sale of tickets can tell if the Czechs want or do not want Netrebko singing in Prague. It is certainly the right of some people not to want to see her in certain places, but if there are people who want to see her this is their right too. If they are given the chance to buy tickets your opinion won’t matter in the least.
Apparently the Czechs do want Anna Netrebko to sing in Prague on October 13 because the theater is already 80 percent sold out, more than two months before her concert. Her performances earlier this year were also sold out or nearly sold out. Future concerts and operas are also nearing capacity. People who buy tickets are “voting” to let Anna Netrebko sing without harassment by politicians. People who disagree can peacefully demonstrate outside. Let the people decide where they want to go.
“Must she go so far that she will be effectively banished from her country?”
Yes.
I don’t really care if she is banished from all opera stages, but American ones are definitely on the list. Are you listening, Peter Gelb? There are better sopranos at less cost.
Which “her country”? she is a citizen of Austria and lives there. Not sure how the poor soul is at risk of being banished from there.
This is simply the work of the greedy and insensitive Nachtigall agency.
Amazing. Popisil also said: ‘[..] She has been actively involved in supporting the criminal regime in the past.’ Yeah, it’s a tough decision, the city of Prague as represented by its deputy mayor can’t figure out what to do and reaches out for advice.
Strauss, Orff, Furtwangler, et al. Interesting how much more flexible Germans are when it comes to the historical collaboration of their own artists. But for Russians, it’s an entirely different matter.
Exactly the same could be said for most people, especially Americans. About one million dead and half a dozen countries massively destroyed in the Middle East since the unjustified 2003 Iraq War. Where’s the protest?
None of this is to justify Putin who is a monster and war criminal, but to note that our sense of injustice might have more power if we weren’t such double-standard hypocrites. Now howl and down thumb and make anonymous comments like the cowards that you are.
Your voice of reason is drowned in the screaming of the idiotic masses. These useful idiots. Soon fascism will come to us again, on the back, and with the votes at first, of these useful idiots. Then humans will be mass murdered again, at larger scale and more systematic, than the collateral mass murders you mention above that happened for the interest of the US plutocracy.
Why do they need to ask?!! It’s insulting to the people of Ukraine that they would even consider allowing her to appear.