Anna Netrebko, Russian soprano with ties to Putin, out at Metropolitan Opera

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After 192 performances at the Metropolitan Opera, soprano Anna Netrebko will not be performing this year due to her support for Russian President Vladimir Putin.  The Met made several attempts to convince Netrebko, who has made statements critical of the war, to rebuke Putin but failed to persuade the singer. "It is a great artistic loss for the Met and for opera," General Manager Peter Gelb said in a statement Thursday.

NEW YORK -- Soprano Anna Netrebko withdrew from her future engagements at the Metropolitan Opera rather than repudiate her support for Russian President Vladimir Putin, costing the company one of its top singers and best box-office draws.“It is a great artistic loss for the Met and for opera,” Met General Manager Peter Gelb said in a statement Thursday. “Anna is one of the greatest singers in Met history, but with Putin killing innocent victims in Ukraine, there was no way forward.”Gelb had said Sunday that the Met would not engage artists who support Putin.The Met made repeated efforts in recent days attempting to convince Netrebko to repudiate Putin but failed to persuade her, a person familiar with the developments said, speaking on condition of anonymity because that detail was not announced.The Met’s decision followed the collapse of the international career of Russian conductor Valery Gergiev, who has been close to Putin as artistic and general director of the Mariinsky in St.

Anna Netrebko, famous Russian soprano, will be banned from the Metropolitan Opera for the next two seasons after she failed to denounce Vladimir Putin amid his war on Ukraine.

Ukraine intensified Tuesday as the Cannes Film Festival said no Russian delegations would be welcome this year and the Venice festival announced free screenings of a film about the 2014 conflict in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region.The announcements by Europe's two premier film festivals came on the heels of other high-profile protests in the arts, including Hollywood's decision to pull films scheduled for release in Russia and the Munich Philharmonic's decision to fire chief conductor Valery Gergiev. The orchestra, joined by other orchestras and festivals linked to Gergiev, cited his support for Russian President Vladimir Putin and his refusal to reject the invasion.Cannes, which is scheduled for May, is the most global of film festivals and its international village of flag-waving pavilions annually hosts more than 80 countries from around the world.In a statement, festival organizers said the ban on any official Russian delegation or individuals linked to the Kremlin would remain “unless the war of assault ends in conditions that will satisfy the Ukrainian people.”The festival didn’t rule out accepting films from Russia.

Ukraine has drawn swift and wide-ranging condemnation from the international community, which has imposed unprecedented sanctions against President Vladimir Putin and his inner circle and pushed the Russian economy to a breaking point, with the ruble plummeting to historic lows on Monday.Amid calls for a boycott of Russian films that have received government support and a strident response from European media groups, cultural institutions, film festivals and industry confabs, the backlash has rattled Russian filmmakers with long-standing personal and professional ties to the continent’s screen industry.“The need for Europe to make a clear anti-war statement is understandable and necessary. However, banning all Russians from the major cultural events is not only unhelpful — it’s harmful,” said one veteran producer.

Russian conductor Valery Gergiev has been dropped by his management and from upcoming performances in Europe and the US over his failure to denounce Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The friend and long-time supporter of Russian President Vladimir Putin has so far issued no statement on the war.Gergiev had been represented by Munich-based manager Marcus Felsner since December 2020.