This week, Russian Anna Netrebko will perform on the stage of the Royal Opera in London. Former Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valerii Zaluzhnyi reacted to this news, noting that the artist has repeatedly stood next to Putin and supported his policies, so her aria will echo the destroyed Ukrainian cities and schools, writes UNN with reference to Zaluzhnyi's comment to DailyMail.
When the curtain rises at Covent Garden this week and Puccini's music plays, the audience will see a story of love and betrayal. The famous soprano Anna Netrebko will take the stage as Tosca – and for some, it will be an evening of high art. But for me and for millions of Ukrainians, every note, every tear will sound differently. Because we remember that for decades this singer stood next to Vladimir Putin, the man responsible for the death of thousands of Ukrainian children. Her voice on stage drowns out real screams – screams from destroyed maternity hospitals in Mariupol, schools in Kharkiv, kindergartens in Kramatorsk. And although Netrebko will sing about an imaginary tragedy, for us these sounds echo a real one. Tosca will cry the tears of Ukrainian children
He added that Netrebko "is not a victim of circumstances, as she sometimes tries to portray herself."
"She made her choice. In 2012, she was Putin's "confidant" in the presidential elections. She repeatedly met with him in the Kremlin, posed for official photos, and received state awards. In 2014, when Moscow was already waging war against Ukraine, she donated one million rubles to a theater in occupied Donetsk, met with the separatist leader, and posed with the flag of the so-called "Novorossiya" – territories in southern Ukraine that Putin is now seizing to unite with Russia," he emphasized, noting that "this was not a "gesture of mercy" on Netrebko's part, as she then claimed."
According to Zaluzhnyi, this was a demonstration of political loyalty. He emphasized that artists like Netrebko are the Kremlin's "soft power" and a tool that helps the world see Russia not as an aggressor, but as a country of "great traditions."
"Netrebko became one of the key symbols of this war. She represented Russia on world stages, embodying the "beauty and grandeur" that the Kremlin wanted to show the world. Her voice was supposed to show that Russia is civilized, modern, worthy of applause. And at the same time, this voice silenced the bombing of Grozny, Aleppo, Mariupol, Chernihiv, Kyiv. She was and remains a cultural instrument that legitimizes killings in Ukraine," he concluded.
According to Zaluzhnyi, for the Kremlin, the performance on the Covent Garden stage this week is not just a concert, but a signal that even after Bucha, Mariupol, and Kramatorsk, Russian artists who serve the dictator can once again perform on Europe's most prestigious stages.
Earlier, UNN wrote that Ukraine and the EU are urging prestigious opera houses and theater companies on the continent to curb the return of some Russian stars to stages across Europe. The Minister of Culture of Ukraine suggested: European theater companies should hire Ukrainian or European performers instead of Russian ones.