Russian opera star Anna Netrebko has finally condemned the war more than a month after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but the New York Metropolitan Opera is not yet ready to renew her contract with the singer.
Netrebko posted an English-language post on Facebook this week expressing “strong condemnation of the war in Ukraine” and claiming to be thinking of the victims of that war and their families.
“My position is clear. I am not a member of any political party and I am not affiliated with any of Russia’s leaders,” the opera singer writes.
“I admit to regret that my past actions and statements may have been misinterpreted. In fact, the President [Vladimiru] I have met Putin a few times in my life, “Netrebko continues, adding that he has not received financial support from the Russian government and pays his taxes in Austria.
“I love my homeland, Russia, and I just want to seek peace and unity with my art,” says the singer.
Netrebko, who announced a break in his artistic activity in early March, announced that he would resume performing “originally in Europe” at the end of May.
Meanwhile, the director of the Metropolitan Opera, Peter Gelbs, has admitted that, despite the position expressed by the opera star in public, he is not ready to change his decision to terminate the agreement with Nettrebko yet. “If Anna shows in the long run that she is completely and completely distant from Putin, I will be ready to talk,” he added.
Netrebko has been expressing pro-Kremlin views for many years, but in 2014 he posed the flag of the self-proclaimed Donetsk republic of Russian-backed militant gangs.
Since Russia invaded Ukraine again on February 24, the New York Metropolitan Opera, where Nettrebko has become a prima donna for the past 20 years, has suspended all cooperation with him indefinitely. The upcoming performances have also canceled the Munich and Zurich operas.
After the start of the war, the concert scheduled for April 7 by Nettrebko and Yusif Evazov at the Latvian National Opera was also canceled.
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