Protests were held against the performance of Russian and Austrian opera singer Anna Netrebko at the Annual Music Festival held at the Hessian State Theater Wiesbaden in Germany. This is reported by the Telegram channel “DW in Russian”.
More than 200 people are said to have come to protest. Ukrainian teams refused to perform at the event.
The festival is dedicated to political prisoners around the world. Netrebko will voice Giuseppe Verdi’s Nabucco. According to the Frankfurter Rundschau newspaper, protesters find ridicule in the opera’s lyrics: “Fly on golden wings, think.” He sings in the chorus of “Va, pensiero” in the third act of the opera and tells of the Jews crying for their homeland lost in the Babylonian captivity.
At the same time, Uwe Erik Launefenberg, artistic director of the Hessian State Theater, insisted that Netrebko come to the festival. He stated that politicians do not have the right to interfere with the freedom of expression of art and to ban singers. “Anna Netrebko has faced similar accusations since the beginning of the war in Ukraine and it is naturally difficult for her. And yet he continues to create his art and does it perfectly,” she said.
Previously reportedThe Metropolitan Opera was ordered to pay singer Netrebko $200,000 for canceling performances.