After weeks of protest, clarity finally came on Monday: conductor Valery Gergjev will not be conducting this weekend in the southern Italian city of Caserta. Gergjev was invited for a concert with the Philharmonic Orchestra Giuseppe Verdi di Salerno and soloists from his orchestra of the Mariinsky Theater from St. Petersburg. The concert is said to have been the first in Europe, since Gergiev became persona non grata in 2022 for his close ties with Russian President Putin.
Gergjev never wanted to speak out against his raid in Ukraine. The Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra broke after 35 years of collaboration De Banden, the Gergjev Festival ceased to exist, Gergjev’s contract as chief conductor of the Münchner Philharmoniker was dissolved. His responsibilities were expanded in Russia. In addition to the Mariinsky Theater, he was also in charge of the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow in 2023, as a successor to theater director Vladimir Urin-who did sign an anti-war letter.
For three years it stopped in Europe around Gergiev. Outside of Russia he only conducted in China. Until Gergjev’s name this spring appeared in the planning of a European money subsidized Concerts series in Barcelona – but those concerts became quickly and in silence deleted. The second time, this week, the cancellation went less quickly and silently.
Music and politics
The organization of the Music Festival in the southern Italian city of Caserta, which booked Gergjev, argued that “politics should not be mixed with music.” It was supported in that vision by Governor Vincenzo the Luca of Campania province. He stated that “Cultural exchange the importance of peace” serves. Also the Israeli conductor Daniel Oeren is simply at the festival on Wednesday and Friday, “to keep the communication channels open, even with those who think differently than we do.”
That organization and politics nevertheless yielded to the protests against Gergievers was inevitable in view of the size of the fuss
The fact that organization and politics nevertheless yielded for the protests against Gergievers was inevitable in view of the size of the fuss. Human rights organizations and European Parliamentarians expressed themselves. Sixteen thousand people, including Nobel Prize winners, signed one open letter To Governor De Luca and Ursula von der Leyen, chairman of the European Commission, in which they called for cancellation and to further investigation into European financing of cultural events by active supporters of the Russian regime.
Joelia Navalnaja, widow of the murdered Russian opposition leader Aleksej Navalny, called the concert in the Italian newspaper La Repubblica “a big problem.” Gergiev, she wrote, “is a good friend of Putin (…), his henchman and supporter. (…) For years, Gergiev has supported Putin with an zeal that is worthy of the most noise goals. (…) He is not just an ally of the dictatorial regime: he has become an integral part of it.”
What does it mean that Gergjev’s return in Europe seemed near, while the war in Ukraine is still continuing? Threatened Rehabilitation of Vladimir Putins Lieveling Cirigent? For the time being, the displayed concert in Caserta seems to be a naive regional incident. Gergiev leads the two most important musical institutions of Russia, his role as an ambassador for Russia is raised above discussion. That also applies to another explained Putinsupporter, viola player Joeri Basjmet, whose you don’t hear anything outside of Russia – on a single curious incident after.
Career -technically, only operas soprano Anna Netrebko outside Russia is better. Her position is ambivalent: until the invasion she too was declared Putin supporter, she celebrated her 50th birthday in the Kremlin. In 2022 she took a distance. First of the invasion, later also from Putin. Her European concerts then first led to fuss. That protest already sounds less loud. Only the Metropolitan Opera in New York by intendant Peter Gelb Voordt in the rejection of Netrebko: she never outgrown her sympathy for Putin, gelb said this week in the Austrian newspaper Der Standard. But Netrebko is just welcome in Europe. This week she sings in Verona, later this season in Berlin and London.
Gergjev himself did not mix in the discourse. He was busy in the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow with the last opera of the season: Prokofjevs Semyon Kotko. Above the stage a screen with the image of a soldier and a Russian text that glorifies the ‘liberation’ of the Ukrainian region of Donbas.