#anna-netrebko

#anna-netrebko

The opera is about individuals caught up in the brutal mundanity of the machinery and power of a repressive state. Playing Tosca is the great diva Anna Netrebko, now an Austrian citizen but born Russian, and described in The Times as a symbol of cultural propaganda for the Russian regime'. The singer has criticised the war without attacking Putin personally. For individual artists caught up in this geopolitical nightmare the pressures are clearly immense.

A group of over 50 Ukrainian writers and artists, along with UK MPs and former New Zealand prime minister Helen Clark, urged the Royal Ballet and Opera House to cancel Anna Netrebko's performance, citing her as a symbol of cultural propaganda for Russia's oppressive regime. They emphasize that inviting her is a moral conflict amid Russia's war against Ukraine, where cultural erasure of Ukraine is being systematically promoted.