Thugs beat up opera conductor in the heart of Europe
NewsThe atmosphere in the Serb capital Belgrade just turned uglier.
Early this month, a car drove into a group of Belgrade Philharmonic musicians who were protesting at Government indifference towards victims of a railway disaster.
Now the opera orchestra is involved. Here’s what we are told by the musicians:
‘The orchestra of the National Theater in Belgrade announced that two incidents occurred after the opera “Cinderella”, and in one of them the conductor of the orchestra was attacked in front of her young daughter.
‘On Friday at the National Theatre, immediately after the performance of ‘Cinderella’, two serious incidents took place that violated the safety and dignity of our team. In one of them, our conductor was verbally and physically attacked in front of her minor daughter and was transported to the Emergency Center due to her injuries. The attackers are people who had a history of violent behaviour…
‘The conductor Ana Zorana Brajović came out to bow in front of the audience with a red glove on her hand. Spectators also noticed that Cinderella, played by Ljubica Vraneš, a member of parliament from the SNS, refused to take her hand and bow to the audience.’
UPDATE: The National Theater just confirmed the identity of attacker. He is the son of a prominent member of Vučić’s party.
Belgrade, Heart of Europe? I don’t think so.
I was born in Belgrade, but I agree with you. I am sure that Norman wanted to say it is incomprehensible this happened in Europe.
I am sad. Both Serbia and Belgrade could have been much nicer places than what they are now: dark, gloomy, ugly.
Eastern Europe will always be Eastern Europe with the history that connotes. Only Czechoslovakia and parts of Poland are anywhere near as civilizationally advanced as the West.
Quel préjugé, comme si les “hooligans” anglais étaient des produits civilisés du Royaume-Uni!
What a Western (presumably white) supremacist statement, ha! Of a typical “there be dragons” ignoramus variety! Tom, there is no such a thing as Czechoslovakia!! BTW, which criteria qualify a country to be “civilizationally advanced”? Collaborating with Nazies in the WW2 (brought up by another Western civilization bullwark!)? Being a Christian fundamentalist? Adhering strictly to the US global dictums? Or, making a truly excellent beer?
I vote for the beer.
Czechoslovakia??
Sure thing, Tom. Concentration camps, poison gas, nazism and even lobotomy were all invented in the West, of course.
Absolutely agree! When the disgusting Serbs learn how to adequately orchestrate color revolutions to advance the Western democratic values we all adhere to. If that doesnt work we can just use superior NATO air power to bomb them until they are sufficiently democratic.
Don’t be ironic. That is not a joke. Serbia has had rotten foundations ever since 1893 and “Black Hand” terrorist organization. People think that Russian Siloviki are dark people hidden in the dark country, but Black Hand was more than dark. That echo has been reverberating through Serbian society for over 130 years, effectively preventing Serbia from becoming a decent, peaceful, democratic state.
Belgrade is part of South-Eastern Europe, with the other Balkin cities. It really isn’t “Eastern Europe” and has a very different history.
More like the rectum….
Terror of authoritarian strongman Vučić and his thugs. They are to blame for everything. Vučić has created his own personal regime and cult for the last 12 years, destroying every single institution in Serbia, torpedoing democratic constitutional state and establishing full control over courts of law, prosecutors and media. At the same time there is a fully fledged government-directed media war against the West and EU.
Donald Trump’s team are taking notes.
Pretty funny considering your pals tried twice to assassinate him and regret they failed. Right now they’re applauding the murder of a CEO.
No pals of anyone around here, buddy.
The Balkans is a powder keg. Here we go again.
You mean the opera was La Cenerentola, there must have been many traumatized kids in the audience.
This is the country of my birth. Which I left during communism. In fact I had to flee. Never went back. And from what I’ve heard and read life and politics have not improved for my countrymen.
Yugoslavia has not seen communism at its “finest” . You where one foot in the west, the other in the east. Ask us Bulgarians what is full blown soviet bolshevism.
I had friends in the audience who witnessed. This was not, according to those standing by, politically motivated but rather the result of a personal row. Of particular relevance is that Brajović was the first party to throw literal hands at which point the second party retaliated in kind.
Actually, the conductor is the one who physically attacked first the other person, and the daughter wasn’t there at all!!!
But the story perfectly fits the moment in which is Serbia political situation is and the ”witch hunt” is at full swing. However, everything will be proved on the court anyway, and in the meantime some people are happy that they’ve got a opportunity to cure their own personal frustrations.
In this terrible time for Serbia, where people lost their life due to the consequences of actions directly caused by corrupted government, some people’s reactions to this event, that has absolutely nothing to do with daily political situation is just pathetic.
Your comment shows why exactly Serbia is where it is, and why it is what it is. No wonder it has been nicknamed “Little Russia”. Darkness abounds there. No logic or reason matters. Decency has been lost. It is a society that did not know what to do with the hard fought freedom 24 years ago (end of Milošević rule), so it killed the one who brought them freedom (PM Djindjić) and handed that freedom back over to the former jailers.
Aside from that, the current director of the National Theater in Belgrade is Vučić’s man. And the trust has been lost. Don’t expect anyone to simply blindly trust the obvious attempt to control the damage.
Totally agree. I hope NATO bombs them again to teach them how to be democratic and follow EU values.
“A car drove”: it didn’t drive. It was driven.
It’s curious how the identified attacker is nameless. I always thought identification meant having a name attached to the individual. It could be the attacker was too poor to acquire a name. So, the news is reported in such a way that we’re to believe that the nameless attacker is a tool to blame Vucic and his party, which, of course, means we have to extend the blame to the devil incarnate himself, Putin. We all know everything in the end is Putin’s fault. Remember when NATO assisted in destroying Serbian civilization by bombing hospitals, schools, bridges, monuments, and Serbian civilians not too long ago? Another regime change in the making anyone? I fully endorse Tim Page’s previous diplomatic and heartfelt comment on this site regarding Serbia and its people.
Am I the only person who doesn’t have the faintest idea what this is about?
Basically, the usual stuff: Serbs and Russians being the bad guys, Westerners drowning in moral narcissism, and so on.
Marxists, always beating people up.