Netrebko and Putin sent
Russian soprano sues the Metropolitan Opera in New York who canceled her concert
Anna Netrebko, the celebrated Russian soprano criticized for her past support for Russian President Vladimir Putin, sued and sought tens of thousands of dollars in damages from the Metropolitan Opera and the New York theater’s managing director, Peter Gelb, for canceling its performances. Although Netrebko actually condemned the war in Ukraine, but not the Russian president.
The lawsuit was filed with thein United States District Court in New York, reports the Associated Press. Netrebko is seeking compensation of at least $360,000 because she claims the Metropolitan Opera’s actions have caused her “intense mental anguish and emotional distress”, as well as “depression, humiliation, embarrassment, stress and anxiety”.
According to the singer’s lawyers, the Metropolitan Opera and Peter Gelb they used Netrebko “as a scapegoat in their campaign to distance themselves from Russia and support Ukraine”; but in this way the singer’s reputation was destroyed, because other theaters and cultural institutions in the United States also stopped collaborating with her. According to the complaint, Netrebko also had to sell off an apartment in New York
The soprano, which also has Austrian citizen, donated money to a theater in the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk in 2014, and had himself photographed with a pro-Russian rebel flag. After Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, she was urged by the theater to take a stand against Putin and the war; in the end she let herself be convinced and agreed to condemn the conflict, without contesting the Russian president and therefore she was defenestrated by the Met which, a month after the invasion, canceled all her subsequent exhibitions.
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