Lucerne cancelled Anna Netrebko ‘under government pressure’
OperaA Swiss newspaper has obtained a letter from the authorities in Lucerne, ordering the concert hall to cancel a June 2024 recital by the Russian-Austrian soprano ‘for reputation and damages risks’.
The letter, sent by the governing councils of Lucerne city and canton, also warned of ‘threats to public order’ in demonstrations by political activists and cultural workers.
The official now say their letter was a matter of advice to the concert hall, not a direct order.
That’s not much of an excuse. Anti-Neb demos elsewhere in Europe have mustered around two or three dozen participants.
An “order” would be a court order. Of course they didn’t have one, and issued just a whisper “advice.”
“Anti-Neb demos elsewhere in Europe have mustered around two or three dozen participants.”
This is not true.
I was in Wiesbaden on May 4th of this year and saw far more protesters than a mere “two or three dozen”. Hessenschau wrote that “Hunderte protestieren gegen Netrebko-Auftritt”, and the Frankfurter Rundschau mentioned “circa 400 Menschen”.
400 is far more than two or three dozen. About 11 to 16 times more.
There are about 6 million Ukrainians in Europe now, so why not.
Nebs is living her existential moment for her delving into politics. The shame doesn’t go away easily. Those that think it’s a smart move to hire her will live with protests at the moment and a likely cancellation. I would blame this on the Lucerne management for creating the problem. Lots of great singers out there to choose from without the drama.
The size of anti-Netrebko protests has diminished since Russia invaded Ukraine almost three years ago. Reviews of La Forza commented there was a large crowd supporting the general strike in Italy and pro Palestinian demonstrators, but few criticizing Netrebko.
The local government and the concert hall are denying responsibility because they are being sued for hundreds of thousands of francs for breaking their contract with Netrebko.
She’s suitlicious. She’s going after the Met for things that were discussed, but never agreed and thus no contract. She will lose and a smart judge will have here fork over any legal fees the Met is forced to spend on this wast of judicial time. If she were really contracted anywhere, the houses should pay the contract fee with the cancelation. I suspect the case she filed against the Met is similar to any other suits she has filed.