“I am against this war. I am Russian and I love my country, but I have many friends in Ukraine and the pain and suffering breaks my heart. I want this war to stop and for all people to live in peace. I hope so and I pray for that.” With this statement, the Austrian-Russian star singer Anna Netrebko spoke for the first time on Saturday via Instagram about the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
“Needed time to think”
Netrebko’s husband, Azerbaijani tenor Yusif Eyvazov, posted an almost identical statement on Instagram. Both say they took their time before commenting because the situation was too serious “to comment without really thinking about it.”
At the same time, Netrebko and Eyvazov opposed “forcing artists or any public figure to publicize their political views and insult their fatherland”. This should be a free choice. “I’m not a political person,” Netrebko explained. “I am an artist and my goal is to unite across political differences.”
Last year the soprano, who also lives in Vienna, celebrated her 50th birthday with a gala in the Kremlin Palace in Moscow. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov read out congratulations from Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Most recently, a discussion about artists who are known to be friendly to Putin had eased in the West. The Vienna Philharmonic invited the head of the Mariinsky Theater, Valery Gergiev, from a series of concerts in New York, and in Munich he was threatened with losing his position as chief conductor of the Munich Philharmonic.
Source: Nachrichten
