Ukraine launches new witch hunt against Russian opera star

The government in Kiev has called on Ukraine’s Western backers to ban soprano Anna Netrebko from performing anywhere outside Russia.

Earlier this week, the Rome Opera announced that Netrebko would star in their production of ‘Tosca’ on January 14, on the 125th anniversary of Giacomo Puccini’s opera premiering at the Costanzi Theatre.

“Now it is very important that Russian figures do not have the opportunity to earn money in the civilized world and continue to bring Russian culture to Europe and the West,” Vladimir Zelensky’s chief of staff, Andrey Yermak, said on Friday.

Yermak described Netrebko as a “servant of the regime” in Moscow, who endorsed President Vladimir Putin in the 2012 election and visited Donbass in 2014. 

“Netrebko should not perform in Europe. The only place for her and others like her now is the opera in Moscow. I call on all concerned and our allies to react,” he added.

His initiative comes as Ukrainian forces are losing ground all along the front line and right after Zelensky announced the suspension of all foreign debt payments.

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Formally the head of the presidential administration, Yermak has been rumored to be the gray eminence actually running Ukraine. The former movie producer has more influence in Kiev than any elected official, some Ukrainians told The Times in June.

Netrebko has lived in Austria since 2006 and insists she is not political. She has nonetheless faced a wave of cancelations in the West. Companies and theaters in the US, Estonia, the Czech Republic, and even Taiwan broke off their contracts over her refusal to disavow Russia, condemn Putin, or endorse Kiev in the conflict with Moscow. Netrebko ended up suing the New York Metropolitan Opera company last year to the tune of $360,000, for breach of contract, defamation, and other offenses.

Ukrainian artists boycotted last year’s International May Festival in Germany, because Netrebko was scheduled to perform there. Most recently, the Swiss city of Lucerne canceled her June 1 performance citing the upcoming Ukraine ‘peace conference’ scheduled for two weeks later. 

Kiev has also sought to have any and all Russian artists canceled. In March, the Ukrainian government pressured South Korea to uninvite Svetlana Zakharova, the renowned ballerina from Russia’s Bolshoi Theater. She was supposed to perform at the Seoul Arts Center, in a show developed in collaboration with the French fashion house Chanel in 2019.