Zurich calls for Netrebko ban to be lifted
OperaThe influential Neue Zürcher Zeitung has published an op-ed claiming that the Swiss state prompted the cancellation of a concert in Lucerne by the Austrian-Russian soprano Anna Netrebko and her Azeri husband Yusif Eyvazov. It argues that the state should have no role in banning singers.
The clinching argument:
… The openly admitted pressure that was exerted here by politicians is also something to think about. There is also the assumption that the publicly expressed concern about possible riots is actually intended to conceal a rejection of Anna Netrebko as a person and her political positions. Their previous commitment to Putin and the credibility of their distancing from the war are actually controversial. However, it is up to each individual to decide whether this should stop them from attending Netrebko’s concerts. It is not a matter for the state. This must ensure the free exercise of art instead of preventing it.
finally end this hypocrisy and once more NZZ is right as the only German speaking newspaper worth reading
There are limits to keep art separated from political reality. A dangerously unhinged, paranoid dictator mincing his own people in an entirely unjustified invasion, threatening the whole of Europe with nuclear annihilation, attempting to disrupt world order, and European security through cyber attacks, Russian spy ships exploring Europe’s coasts, Russian spies infiltrating European societies, disruptive extreme-right populist parties being paid by Russia, thousands of people fleeing Russia in a serious brain drain, in short: free society being seriously threatened by an insane country, and artists merely thinking of their nice concerts and fees and having no squalms aligning themselves to a murderous regime consisting of criminals.
If you want to stay in the right-leaning echo chamber …
Danke, NZZ.
Meanwhile, the fake peace talks, to which Russia was not invited, seem to have derailed any chance of real peace talks, with Zelensky and his top officials now criminally charged by Russia. Good work, great job.
People should be allowed to make their own decisions. The West is supposed to be the fortress of freedom. My US taxes support Ukraine, but I had to fly Europe to see Anna Netrebko in Verona and Berlin. Her past and future performances are sold out.Audiences have chosen Anna Netrebko. Stay home or protest peacefully if you don’t like her.
My condolences for your inconvenience.
Wrong. IF the state is subsidizing a venue in any way, then the state can and should have a say on who can perform and who cannot. Moreover, independent of subsidizing, a state also has the right to decide who can show up or not in their territory.
No. Read the constitution of your country. And familiarise yourself with the basics of modern democracy.
You must enjoy living in a fascist country. Absolutely crazy top down view on control.
Mick don’t use big words when you don’t know what they mean. State subsidies and border controls are not fascist.
But directly ordering for artists to be engaged or banned, based on their immediate alignment with the system in power, is fascist.
“In the name of Almighty God”
First words of Swiss Constitution.
Wrong. She has First Amendment rights regardless of state funding, I would imagine.
You mean the First Amendment to the Swiss Constitution? Hmm, I wonder what the exact words of that Amendment are, given that the Swiss Constitution has no amendments. Perhaps you could quote the words for us?
Instead of worrying about hiring absurdly over-exaggerated and controversial personalities, *perhaps* theaters like Zürich, and, oh, I don’t know, all of the major theaters of the world, should start focusing on hiring singers who are actually GOOD and pleasing to listen to, who are actually competent technically, musically, and dramatically, and who aren’t pigs on stage. Casting via PR is part of what is killing opera. That and mostly deaf casting agents.
Switzerland washes whiter. And Austria too.
This woman never understood one very important thing: no matter how much you apologize, Russophobia in Europe is so widespread that not a single European will ever forgive you, simply because you are Russian. In Russia, this person has not been needed for a long time after her words. In general, traitors are not liked anywhere. Nobody likes. Traitors are despised, this is a stigma for life. This woman 2 years ago should have thought a hundred times before making a fatal mistake. For those who don’t know, I remind you that Netrebko is from Donbass.
You well convey in your authoritarian absolutist comments the hideous backwardness of your nation and culture – and the vast majority of its inhabitants. You are a truly barbarous and uncivilized people whom the world would be much better off without.
Do you own a mirror?
You were born and lived your whole life in Russia to speak so boldly? Or are you just conveying the words of your narrow-minded politicians and intimidated journalists?
From the looks of that photo both Mr. and Madame N have been eating well.
If she shleps her husband around still then she should be cancelled just for that alone…
For God’s sake, she publicly came out AGAINST THE WAR. But just because she won’t raise an extended middle finger specifically against Putin, people need to protest her? Grow up, folks – she’s just an opera singer. And a good one, too. We’re all missing out because she’s not singing – she’s the best at what she does.
BD, Anna Netrebko was born in Krasnodar, Soviet Union, in a family of Kuban Cossock background.