Norwegians would? Not if she’s ex-Russian
OperaWe reproduce below the dumb refusal by the Queen Sonja Competition in Oslo to admit a former Russian singer:
Dear Anastasiya,
Thank you for your e-mail.
This year’s regulations do not allow participants with Russian or Belarusian citizenship, which unfortunately means that you are disqualified even though you also have a German passport. We will of course reimburse your paid application fee and hope that the situation changes so we may welcome you to apply for the next competition.
Please provide all necessary details for an international bank transfer for your refund.
Best wishes,
Emilia
Anastasiya Taratorkina will make her Semper Oper debut this week opposite Rolando Villazón and Eric Jurenas. She has lived in Germany since 2019 with her grandmother and brother.
So there, Queen Sonja.
What a very simplistic look at the world. But it is Norway, after all. Not EU. Not NATO. Very go-it-alone. And, it seems, lacking in a realistic approach to dual nationals.
Not NATO ? Who is the Secretary General ?
Discrimination based on national origin, something a person cannot control, is deeply disgusting. The fact that a competition bearing Queen Sonja’s name is engaging in this discrimination is even more disgusting.
Stubborn irrational lunacy. They are ruining the lives of the people who actually don’t want to be in Russia and who abhor and condemn what’s going on. Unlike sports, where the sportsmen represent a country, singers are in their own. Not everyone can speak freely for fear of repercussions for their relatives remaining in Russia. Just recently another young singer who’d been living in Britain for years, was rejected from the same competition. Collective punishment is not right. People should not be guilty by association and on the basis of their place of birth. In the meantime the wives of Putin’s officials are openly parading on shopping trips in Europe. For them nothing changed.
I agree, except about the part about sports, unless you mean Olympics. Even then, it’s often not fair to the athletes.
She is not ex-russian. She is russian, holding a german passport foe commodities.
As all Germans in general, 80 years ago, became non-handshakable, so it is now the (deserved) “fate” of all russians. They will have to go through this tough period. The good and the bad ones.
And it is a very efficient way to unite them. Especially behind leaders who tell them: “You see, we have told you. It doesn’t matter what you do or what your position is. You are RUSSIAN, because they want you to be.” Regarding the Germans: only really stupid people have put Thomas Mann and Adolf Eichmann into the same category.
What is ridiculous is this hypocrisy of the banning of only some Russians and not others. Some Russians living in Europe for years have nothing to do with the regime or with artists supported by that regime and they are canceled as in this case. Others who have been publicly supported by the conductor or soloist connected to the kremlin and even performed and photographed with them, such as Kochanovsky, are playing around Germany at the Elbephilharmonie, in the UK, and even recently performed with the National Symphony in Washington! A Russian on the Washington podium. No ban. No questions asked. How did that happen? And his family is still in Russia. Why is he free from answering his position like others supported by the regime are required to do, and not being banned while this young singer is banned? How did he get a visa? What hypocrisy. I dare anyone to pose the question in a real cultural platform or newspaper- why her and not him?
You need to think this a bit more through. You want anybody who performed and took picture with Gergiev in the past to be banned?
You want Kochanovsky to uproot his children from their home, school, friends, because that would make you feel better?
How is he “supported by the regime”?
How much do you actually know about it? This has nothing to do with making me feel better. And it seems you feel injured by my inquiry. I am only writing about this variable policy of banning some and not others.
You seem to know about the family of Kochanovsky? From what I know and read they live in St. Petersburg. Not in Europe. He is a Russian citizen . He is not a permanent resident of another country nor does he have a position outside of Russia. He has been openly supported and engaged by Gergiev at the Mariinsky and performs regularly with Matsuev, both artists who have been banned according to their political positions. And he would not be as active with them if he were not also on the political and cultural radar of his country.
I do not agree about any banning of artists over political conflicts. The point is while others have been asked to clarify their positions, we do not know Kochanovsky’s opinion on the war. Others have been asked. They made their opinions known. Some people openly protested and resigned- Petrenko, Jurowski, Sokhiev. Others support the regime and are banned in the west like Gergiev and Matsuev. Others are financed by companies supported by the kremlin and are banned in some places and not in others. Currentzis comes to mind. For a soprano who is a resident of Germany and has no reason to be asked and is canceled because of her passport whereas Kochanovsky is not even asked about his position is the hypocrisy I am highlighting. If he was not performing regularly at the Mariinsky or if he was a permanent resident outside of Russia, he would have reason to perhaps not be questioned. But for him to conduct the National Symphony Orchestra when the US is financing a war against Russia and making sanctions against Russian artists, it smacks of something curious and dubious.
Ilya Gringolts recently was quoted by the Guardian: “I know plenty of people who don’t have any trouble even though they actually support the war. I’m not going to name any names … but you know they support the war. They keep their mouths shut and they can continue their international career.”
https://amp.theguardian.com/music/2023/feb/06/russian-violinist-ilya-gringolts-i-know-people-who-support-the-war-they-keep-their-mouths-shut
So maybe it’s about career for him and he’s got people helping him from above to get visas and he’s just keeping his mouth shut.
I’m surprised no journalist in Washington asked him about his position on the war. Maybe he just said nothing. And I make no comment about his quality. He’s a fine conductor. But why her and not him?