It seems there's very little that the Russian "propaganda" law isn't going to affect, and now the debate has come to the Metropolitan Opera. The Met season is supposed to open with Eugene Onegin, conducted by Valery Gergiev, an Ossetian and one of the more exciting conductors we have in the world these days, and starring Anna Netrebko, the leading lyric soprano in today's opera world (okay, that's arguable, but since very few of you are opera queens, it's just for identification). What's the problem? Netrebko and Gergiev have been vocal supporters of Putin.
This is going to sound depressingly familiar to those of you who have been following the developments concerning sports. There's a petition at change.org asking the Met to dedicate this performance to LGBT Russians, and Peter Gelb, the director of the Met, is behaving like the IOC in response to it. More below.
Okay. Big deal opera, big deal people, some doubt about where they stand. I know it's early in the morning, but here's the first 7 or so minutes from the letter scene (Netrebko's big moment in this opera) with Gergiev conducting, recorded at the Mariinsky Theater in Saint Petersburg. A large dose of Tchaikovsky's best music, too
As the change.org petition says:
Peter Illyich Tchaikowsky is the beloved composer most widely known to have been homosexual and to have suffered for it in his lifetime. For America's leading opera house to open its season with one of his works, performed by a conductor and a leading soprano who support Putin's recent laws against homosexual people and those who support them dishonors the work of a great artist and his legacy as well as the progress made in our own country to secure equality for all citizens.
And here we go. The artists? Here's Netrebko from the
Times.
“As an artist, it is my great joy to collaborate with all of my wonderful colleagues — regardless of their race, ethnicity, religion, gender, or sexual orientation. I have never and will never discriminate against anyone.”
She sent out a spokesperson to say that just because she supported Putin in an election there's no reason to think she supports everything Putin does. I guess that's fair. Gergiev, on the other hand, didn't return the reporter's call.
And the Met. The writer of the petition, the composer Andrew Rudin, has been linking ALL the news coverage to his petition, and here's the statement from Met management:
The Met is proud of its history as a creative base for LGBT singers, conductors, directors, designers, and choreographers. We also stand behind all of our artists, regardless of whether or not they wish to publicly express their personal political opinions. As an institution, the Met deplores the suppression of equal rights here or abroad. But since our mission is artistic, it is not appropriate for our performances to be used by us for political purposes, no matter how noble or right the cause.
No politics in opera. Yeah, right. Italians used the name of their most famous composer, while he was alive, as an ACRONYM to support unification under Garibaldi:
Vittorio
Emmanuel
Re
D'Italia; the big chorus "Va, pensiero" from one of his early operas,
Nabucco, is Italy's unofficial national anthem. Not political at all. Directors will set operas in different eras to make political points; this year's Ring Cycle at Bayreuth was about, roughly speaking, energy politics. No, this is the conservative literary theory New Criticism rearing its head again. Close readings, never mind the fact that T.S Eliot was an anti-semite.
By contrast, here's Gidon Kremer, the Latvian violinist, who is holding a concert in Berlin October 7 to commemorate
the anniversary of the death of Anna Politkovskaya, a Russian journalist and critic of the Kremlin who was killed in 2006.
Not political at all, no. When he was asked about the Met situation, he said:
I myself am not denying the obvious high artistic qualities of Anna Netrebko or Valery Gergiev, but I do feel a certain discomfort observing them offstage.
And Gelb is digging himself in deeper. He's
offended by the petition:
“What seems to be somewhat unfair about this petition is not its support of L.G.B.T. rights in Russia, but that they would choose the Met as a vehicle or target of their displeasure,” he said in an interview. “The Met has been a champion of L.G.B.T. art, and it seems like they’re barking up the wrong tree.”
You do know who your audience is, Mr. Gelb, no? Um, be a mensch here. If Gergiev has a problem, it's not like the Met has been reticent in cutting its ties with artists who cross it even at the peak of their careers.
I think you know what to do here.
UPDATE, 9:22 AM PDT: I probably didn't make this clear enough. I have no problem with anything Anna Netrebko said. I have a problem with Gelb, which I think you all understood. I don't think I explained my issue with Gergiev well enough. You might remember this from the Guardian in 2008. Gergiev is politically aware and his silence on this issue means more coming from him than it would coming from a less politically aware conductor.
I'll be away for a few hours. Play nicely.