Swiss take down a Tchaikovsky opera
NewsThe board of the Théâtre Orchestre of Bienne Soleure, (German name Biel Solothurn) has called off the remaining performances of an outstanding production of Tchaikovsky’s Mazeppa.
A statement said: Due to the current situation in Ukraine, we are forced to cancel the performance of the opera “Mazeppa” on Sunday, March 6th, 2022 at 5 p.m. in the Biel City Theater. The follow-up performances of “Mazeppa” in Biel and Solothurn are also cancelled.
The opera, based on a Pushkin poem, tells the story of a 17th century Ukrainian Cossack hero.
Madness. I don’t know what we can do to stop this – it feels like the industry has gone crazy on this war, while it’s remained silent on so many others.
I don’t know how we can stop the train wreck that is Putin’s Russia. All these musical concerns seem so insignificant compared to the magnitude of the disaster we’re sitting on. Perhaps ppl should google a little sociologists’ and political scientists’ opinions about what has been going on with the mental state of Russian population in the last two decades, and to what point they have arrived now.
I agree with you, it’s a whole generation of executioners and morons, millions of them there- but the musicians are precisely OFF that train and its wreck. Most of musicians are risking their lives at the protests these days- there is no sufficient coverage for what same people are trying to do!
I agree there are Russian musicians courageous enough to speak against the war. There are also a few others who are with P****, and others who care more about their double careers in West and in Russia. I’m not doing finger pointing, just enumerating categories. I’m afraid that some musicians being off the train wreck doesn’t matter anymore. I pray to be proven wrong.
It’s not just about caring for one’s career, it’s about being able to survive, period. And if Netrebko’s career is ruined, what about all other singers? What happens to one, happens to all.
No, not necessarily. There’s a difference between a superstar Putin superfan like Gergiev and others who are simply keeping their heads down and trying to make music.
Describing the population of Russia, you sound exactly like Putin speaking of Ukrainians on Russian TV.
Just letting people know I am the guy who wrote the comments “I don’t know how we can stop the train wreck…” , and “I agree there are Russian musicians courageous enough…” The guy who wrote “Describing the population of Russia…” is someone else. Apparently there are two of us. There is also someone who posts under the moniker “Guest” (spelled with capital ‘G’), that isn’t me either.
To @Paul, if your comment was in reply to mine, my point was “double careers” i.e. straddling the fence. I didn’t mean career on just one side of the fence. AN’s career was “ruined” by her close association with Putin. (And I’d argue that her musical career should have stopped years ago because of _musical_ , not _political_ reasons.) Russian musicians who don’t speak out still have a career in Russia. That’s fine with me. Far from me to demand heroics from people who, even if they don’t fear for their own lives, may fear for the well being of their families.
It’s comforting, though, to realize that the biggest existential threat comes from climate change – no matter how bad things become in Russia. (Will these idiots/climate zealots ever grow up?)
Your comment is so universally upvoted because both sides think it agrees with them. Well done.
“Forced”?
Swiss neutrality in action, perhaps?
They will give glory to neither the Ukrainian Cossack hero nor the Russian composer…
Is that it?
His grandfather, Pyotr Fedorovich Tchaikovsky, was born in the village of Mikolayivka, Poltava Gubernia, Russian Empire (present-day Ukraine),[6] and served first as a physician’s assistant in the army and later as city governor of Glazov in Vyatka. His great-grandfather,[7][8] a Zaporozhian Cossack named Fyodor Chaika, distinguished himself under Peter the Great at the Battle of Poltava in 1709.[9][10]
I don’ t understand why russian sinfony music is bad and slavy culture is wrong?! Especially finnish are a part of slavies and Componist Sibelius music are nyans from Tsaichoyski
The Ukrainian crisis is sad—and completely unjustifiable. However, while cancelling musicians and composers is nowhere near as atrocious as attacking innocent Ukrainians in their own country, we still need to ask if it is fair. There comes a point where this is outright discriminatory. Can we imagine cancelling someone on the basis of their sex, race, or sexual orientation, and then telling them to grow up because they feel entitled to have nice jobs while other people are dying in war?
Actually, I think we can imagine this now…
It is hard to see any logic here, and to cancel Tchaikovsky, of all people, is beyond sense, let alone this opera. Perhaps they are just assuming it would be boycotted? The intrusion of politics in classical arts is incredibly destructive.
In today’s Philadelphia Inquirer, their resident “critic” basically orders the Curtis Institute of Music to abandon its traditions and standards because they don’t fit today’s “fashions.”
The mediocrities are calling the shots. Again.
My understanding of this wonderful opera is that it is anti-war. So why do they feel “forced” to cancel it?
Wait, I’m confused. Isn’t “Mazeppa” a perfect symbol of the Ukrainian resilience? Someone who is more familiar with this opera and this production might be able to better explain, and I hope the company will offer more clarification.
I think you have nailed the problem. Ukrainian resilience? Sounds like endorsing that would affect Swiss neutrality — and the Swiss are taking the long view.
Definitely the dumbest of all the cancelations. To cancel the opera which is almost a parable of the current Russian terror and the defiant Ukrainian spirit
https://www.facebook.com/100044593896626/posts/518313486331777/
What silliness. What ignorance. Banning Pushkin and Tchaikovsky!! Or does this opera house know something we don’t know? Has this moralizing outfit had a seance with them to see what their views on the Ukrainian invasion are? Have they stood by Putin from the grave?
This banning of people really has gone too far. It’s hypocritical, and feeds right into today’s pathetic and ignorant cancel culture. Recall how we have never appreciated Israel banning the music of Wagner. And how we hated the Germans for banning Jewish composers. Isn’t the classical music scene getting dangerously close to this kind of idiocy?
If you have recalcitrant performers such as Netrebko and Gergiev who basically go “rah, rah, Putin” – ok. Dump them. But Pushkin and Tchaikovsky, Mussorgsky, et al hardly qualify for the scarlet letter being sewn to their chests.
I do hope that virtue signalling isn’t their only skill.
Can we still put Russian dressing on our salads?