Anna Netrebko heads for arts-free state
OperaIt has been announced that the half-banned Russian soprano will make her first US appearance in six years at a forthcoming gala for Palm Beach Opera in February.
The company is located in Florida, where the Governor recently abolished all arts subsidies. The money for her engagement will come from private, probably Republican donors.
It remains to be seen whether there will be contact with another Floridan resident, the Republican challenger for the US Presidency. Feelers will certainly have gone out.
Netrebko, 52, is presently suing the Metropolitan Opera for fees that she lost when her contracts were cancelled after the Putin assault on Ukraine. Netrebko is a former vocal Putin supporter.
Oh Norman, time to leave her alone methinks.
The continuous publicity against her isn’t going to stop the war anyway. She’s not even the problem. Let her get on with her career – she’s a great singer.
She’s been a visible cheerleader for Russia’s criminal behavior on the world stage. It’s the news media’s duty to keep this front and center, even as Republican-leaning opera companies decide to cash in.
I believe you have the wrong tense: “she was a great singer”.
I think she’ll go down in history as Elena Suliotis II.
Wherever there are mafiosi, corruption and dark money, there will she inevitably be.
Each state has an Arts Council, originally set up to receive and spend grants from the Federal budget, which apparently no longer exist. Except for New York, the amounts appropriated by the state governments are tiny, and amount to little more than seed money. Governor DeSantis is a master of symbolism over content, so the amount he cut is well under $100 million, in a state that is two-thirds the size of the United Kingdom and has a population of over 20 million. It is thus doubtful that very much, if any, of the arts activity in Florida was dependent on that money – that is even the case in New York, which has a smaller population and a much larger arts appropriation.
“State arts agencies are funded through appropriations from state legislatures. By law, state arts agencies also receive 40% of the federal grant dollars Congress provides to the National Endowment for the Arts.” (from the National Assembly of State Art Organizations)
The musical arts in Florida come down to Jerry Schwartz’s Palm Beach Symphony and the Jacksonville Symphony which have essentially been relegated to Pops concerts and donor requests. The other musical bands there are even less. Their seasons are extremely abridged as well.
Well reflects the barbarians who live in that state and clearly make up its overwhelming majority.
Classical music is thriving in Naples and Sarasota – symphony orchestras, opera, and a host of smaller organizations operating at a high standard.
It fits. This bastion of conservative capitalists will delude themselves that they are righting some existential wrong, perpetrated by the New York left.
They are all whores.
Will the State Department grant her a performance visa. They can announce, but as those wealthy Republicans sponsoring this are not in power at the moment, it may not happen.
Netrebko has Austrian citizenship and is NOT vocal supporter of Putin’s war. She is the best soprano and I need her voice and art.
State Department should grant her the visa. But only to perform at a specific place and perform with only similarly minded others, i.e. Lisitsa, Gergiev…
She’ll be back at The Met once their Board of Directors grows a spine and gets rid of the woke Gelb. He’s just a cancer killing a once legendary opera house….
What makes Gelb “woke”? Be specific.
Actually, before you do that, could you please define “woke”? Again, be specific.
Republicans throw around “woke” and DEI and still cannot define them. I doubt these terms appear in “Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise” (aka Project 2025)
Which is worse? Gelb, the Met Board, or AN??
All are temporary in the greater scheme of things.
He’s certainly not wrong about her. You’re a MAGAist, aren’t you?
Yes, please define “woke”. Since you insist on using the term as an insult it would be particularly decent of you to define it in terms ALL of us can understand. Or is the phrase “all of us” going to be problematic for you as well?
I sent this email to the Met:
I have subscribed to Met Opera on Demand on and off over many years and would like to resubscribe, but will not until Peter Gelb leaves. This is because of his disgraceful and shameful behaviour towards Anna Netrebko.
I should not have been as disappointed by this as I was given the Met’s shocking treatment of James Levine who was primarily responsible for keeping the company in existence over many years.
Please leave, you wont be missed. Especially given your fervent defense of the pedophile Levine.
Where does she come up with these outfits ?
Nowhere women of taste shop. This one looks like construction worker chic.
Good on her! I can guess what she is signalling.
Netrebko has not been supporting Putin (nor war in Ukraine) for quite a while and she is not ambiguous about it.
Don’t confuse silence with non ambiguity.
She is first and foremost a human being. The rest is what she does for a living. The latter will end eventually and will be forgotten. The former, not so much.
Artists, creative or performing, should not be asked for political opinions, especially if it endangers their freedom or, even, their life. Expecting anything else from them is unfair and even childish.
Many artists freely offer their political opinions. They don’t have to be asked.
Ideal appointment. Trump is a current Putin supporter.
Florida Grand Opera has productions of Magic Flute, Elixir of Love and Carmen scheduled for their 2024-25 season. Hardly “art free”. The headline is false and should be corrected.
Why would the donors be republican? The are the ones lead by Rhonda Santis, who cancelled the funding. And it is time to leave her alone. She has done more than should be required to distance herself . One of the worst cases of guilt by association I’ve seen.
Why feminize Ron De Santis’ name? I’m no fan, but giving him a female name insinuates that being a female is somehow less than (a male)?
So, in your world, what exactly is the hierarchy?
More commonly Rhonda Santis. Not female, but in drag with his thigh-high white go-go boots. Anti woke, anti gay, anti arts, anti American history, anti diversity, AntiChrist.
Lots of rich Russians have homes in south Florida, so those tickets will sell.
I can only agree with you.
Some of the comments made here say MUCH more about those from whose lips they sprout than a gifted woman who is trying to make a living doing what she obviously loves.
Yes, just a single working mom.
This sounds like a massive temper tantrum because a crack has appeared in the Atlantic wall barring Anna Netrebko. The seas have parted near Palm Beach, Florida, and Netrebko will again appear on American stages. I expect the Royal Opera House will welcome her again in the not too distant future.
Any evidence that the arts patrons are republicans? Why politicize private arts funding?
You’ve obviously never been to Palm Beach.
I understand that some Russians are unhappy that the USA bought Alaska from them over 100 years ago. Maybe they should offer them Florida as a consolation?
I have watched the canceling of this particular artist with a great deal of interest. The thing I find absolutely the most puzzling is the fact that I am very much of the opinion that this person cannot sing. I have never heard anything by this artist that would justify even a modicum of the success and popularity she has enjoyed for a long time. Snippets of the recent Turandot broadcast (all I could manage) merely underlined this for me, though of course she shouldn’t have been singing it to begin with. But if anyone hasn’t seen the clips available online of her attempting to record the Liebestodt you should look it up. I mean whatever her political decisions have been, her vocal decisions have been far more distressing.
There were American Opera singers who sang for President Ronald Reagan at the White House and various events when he did nothing for the AIDs plague when thousands were dying. No one boycotted those singers. i use to cringe seeing them sing for that BS artist. And 20 years from now The Palm Beach Concert will be played all over the media and whatever recordings exist as Callas last Paris concert was.
A footnote. I was working with Patti Lupone in 1987 when she refused (vociferously, as is her won’t) to sing at a nationally televised Broadway gala at the White House, during the Reagan administration. They engaged Elaine Paige instead. Funny, since Lupone and Paige had parallel careers, both essaying Evita, Anything Goes, and Sunset Boulevard.
Some artists have the courage of their convictions.
“Wont” not “won’t”. Autocorrect…
AKA Just like Kid Rock, it’s the only job she can get.
All artists sing the song of their masters. In fact, not only the artists but anyone who strives to climb up the ladder. It’s just a fact of life. What bothers me more than AN’s political ties is the fact that her voice is a delicate lyric instrument that is being pushed into dramatic repertoire which does injustice to both the music and the artist. AN singing Turandot is a crime against the art form and the vocal chords. And that is what matters.
That’s the kind of clownish getup she’s wearing to appeal to the far more clownish orange man there in Florida. She expects to help bring the Putin agenda to the place where they can read all sorts of classified documents while sitting on the throne. Maybe she will replace Melania as putain du jour.
The chain seems solid enough.
At least the governor of the arts-free state has his head in the right place. After his inauguration he flew his entire cabinet, at state expense, to a foreign capital 6500 miles away where he signed legislation outlawing criticism of the foreign state. Israel über alles.
Americans need to take a look at what they do more. Russians are doing great. Americans are nuts.