Kremlin critics laud the choice, as Moscow’s ambassador to Italy decries a ‘scandalous scenario’.
Italy’s Royal Palace of Caserta has introduced it cancelled a live performance by Russian maestro Valery Gergiev, a vocal backer of President Vladimir Putin, after an uproar from politicians and Kremlin critics.
The live performance scheduled for Sunday within the 18th-century palace close to Naples induced a heated debate in Italy, was slammed by Ukraine and led to requires protests by Russia’s exiled opposition.
Gergiev has not condemned Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, a stance for which he was fired from the Munich Philharmonic in March 2022. He has since been shunned by the West and has not performed concert events in Europe.
Days of uncertainty over the live performance ended with the abrupt announcement on Monday.
“The directorate of the Royal Palace of Caserta has ordered the cancellation of the symphony live performance carried out by Valery Gergiev, scheduled as a part of the Un’Property da Re competition for July 27,” stated a Caserta palace assertion.
It gave no official purpose for the choice.
Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of late Russian opposition chief Alexey Navalny, lauded the announcement as “excellent news”.
“No artist who helps the present dictatorship in Russia needs to be welcomed in Europe,” Navalnaya wrote on X.
Navalnaya’s group had campaigned in opposition to the live performance and stated in an announcement: “Putin’s friends shouldn’t be touring Europe like nothing occurred.”
Russia’s state TASS information company stated the 72-year-old maestro was not knowledgeable of the choice, quoting Gergiev as saying: “I wouldn’t have this info.”
‘Scandalous scenario’
Gergiev is the director of Russia’s Bolshoi and Mariinsky theatres, and earlier than the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, he often performed in main Western theatres.
Whereas Kremlin critics lauded the cancellation, Moscow’s ambassador to Italy known as it a “scandalous scenario” that was a part of Western politicians’ “coverage of ‘cancelling’ Russian tradition”.
In an announcement on the embassy’s Fb web page, Alexei Paramonov stated it was “unhappy” to observe Italy “subordinate its cultural coverage to the calls for of Ukrainians and different immigrants”.
Italian Tradition Minister Alessandro Giuli – who had warned that the live performance risked turning right into a propaganda occasion – stated the cancellation was “widespread sense” and geared toward “defending the values of the free world”.
Ukraine on Sunday urged organisers to drop the efficiency, calling Gergiev “Putin’s mouthpiece” who shouldn’t be welcomed wherever “so long as Russian forces proceed to commit atrocities” in Ukraine.
Recognised as one of many world’s main orchestra leaders, Gergiev is thought for conducting epic symphonies of Russian classical music by Pyotr Tchaikovsky, amongst different successes in Western opera homes.
The conductor has stayed silent on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and principally out of the general public eye since 2022, however has performed concert events in Asia.
