The Russian invasion of Ukraine shook the foundations of classical music and opera from the first day of the war.. As well as sparking a diaspora of Ukrainian musicians trying to live their artistic lives away from war, there have also been serious debates among Western programmers that have ended in some cases. Explain the ban on invitations to Russian musicians. The job of the vast majority of Ukrainian artists, especially the men of martial age who was summoned, has not been easy. For this reason, almost all translators living and working abroad (including Spain) are women..
As soon as the conflict begins, internationally known Russian stars such as the omnipotent director Valery GergievShe has been seen closely linked to the Putin administration or to international opera diva Anna Netrebko. Pressure to position themselves after a real bombardment of backlash both on social networks and in the media.
Gergiev, head of the Mariinsky Theater in Saint Petersburg and a close friend of the Russian President, took no action and was banned from La Scala in Milan, where he successfully directed ‘The Queen of Spades’ when the conflict broke out. for refusing to condemn the invasion.
Within a few days he was eliminated from the program of Carnegie Hall and the Met in New York, ownership of the festivals in Lucerne (Switzerland), Riga (Latvia) and Edinburgh (UK), the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra. Paris, Munich and Vienna. The artistic representative of Russian director Markus Felsner also canceled his contract of representation and his representative in the USA.
netrebkoinstead, he chose to continue acting in the West. after a first moment He announced that he was withdrawing from the public stage indefinitely, avoiding speaking out against the occupation.The Russian singer finally denounced the war and announced that she would be performing again in Europe, moving away from Putin, who celebrated her 50th birthday together at the Kremlin Palace in 2021.
Some Russian theaters, where performances were planned, as in America, terminated their contracts, but the singer was able to continue her career, singing in Italy, France, Austria and even at the Teatro Real in Madrid.
For the history of this new example of human stupidity will remain as the tremendous and irreparable loss of human life. The brutal murder of Yuri KerpatenkoThe chief conductor of the Kherson Philharmonic Orchestra is in the hands of the Russian army as he refuses to play for the occupying troops. And the death of hundreds of thousands of people like him.
erased legacy
But at the same time, a legacy is destroyed by war, like theaters bombed as if trying to erase a vibrant culture with the stroke of a pen.. Ukraine, like many countries in the former Soviet orbit, is a region where art, dance, opera and music are part of different educational cycles.
The loss of human life is compounded by the disappearance of cultural heritage, which is struggling, for example, with the digitization of musical notes.
That is why there are few cities in the country with symphony orchestras and opera houses with stable seasons, to which many families of permanent workers, including singers and ballet soloists, are attached. Many musicians continue to perform even in bombed-out cities, stopping performances when alarms go off and restarting when the danger has passed..
artists in spain
This is how the Ukrainian soprano living in Cantabria explains it Anastasia Golub, the lead soloist of the Odessa National Academic Opera and Ballet Theater, the stage where she returns several times a year to maintain her contract as a soloist in the coliseum. In November he attended the premiere of a new opera, a function that was postponed as sirens warned of danger; When the show restarts, the singer assures that she can concentrate on her role because she “forgot everything” on stage and became her character she. Since living in Spain, the soprano has been giving recitals in different cities and hopes to perform regularly in the country..
There are more cases like his, like sopranos Viktoriia Holubova and Anna MishchenkThose who are able to appear on the Spanish stage thanks to the exclusive contracts of the Intermezzo Choir company, which provides reinforcements to the Colosseum and retains the ownership of the choir masses of the Teatro Real de Madrid and the Oviedo Opera and others. Thanks to Intermezzo, Mishchenko participated in various shows at the Madrid Coliseum, while Holubova did so at Campoamor in the capital of Asturias.
international response
Moreover, The international art community has responded generously, and there have been several benefit concerts held over the past year. around the world to raise money for the victims of the disaster.
There are also various initiatives that try to preserve the local heritage, as in Lviv. Lviv Philharmonic, because as soon as the war broke out, the people in charge of the community started digitizing the sheet music of local composers to save their music. – and its legacy – is a nationwide project of war. Although a very slow task due to its complexity, the aim is also to share sheet music with orchestras from all over the world and to maintain as stable artistic activity as possible.