Valery Gergiev, in May 2013, during a performance in Saint Petersburg. Dmitry Lovetsky (AP)
The international career of the famous Russian conductor Valery Gergiev is at a crossroads after the invasion of Ukraine.
New York's Carnegie Hall has decided to cancel the musician's performances this weekend, when he was scheduled to conduct three concerts with the Vienna Philharmonic in this prestigious hall starting this Friday.
Gergiev, an emblematic figure of Russian music at an international level and a friend of President Vladimir Putin, has not wanted to publicly clarify his position regarding the war.
That may also cost him another dislike at the Scala in Milan, which threatens to suspend his participation in a production at the coliseum if he does not condemn the attack on Ukraine, as the city's mayor, Giuseppe Sala, announced Thursday.
Gergiev's position as director of the Munich Philharmonic, which he has held since 2015, is also in danger. The mayor of the German city, Dieter Reiter, has given him until February 28 to condemn the invasion of Ukraine, otherwise threatens to terminate his contract, Robert Braunmüller has reported in
Abendzeitung
.
More information
Valery Gergiev: the czar of Russian music challenges fear and the virus
The famous artist, 68, and director of the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg, has been very close to Putin lately.
Their relationship goes back a long way and arose in the years when the president of the Russian Federation was mayor of Saint Petersburg (1990-1996).
The director has always admired Putin's predisposition towards classical music and has publicly supported all his decisions.
He alleges that there are cultural peculiarities within Russian society that are not understood in the West.
He has never feared the consequences that this position could bring.
He was one of the first artists to support the invasion of Crimea, the law against homosexual propaganda or the conviction of the members of the group Pussy Riot.
He also directed the controversial concert that Russia organized in Palmyra, with the agreement of the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad,
after liberating the archaeological zone from the presence of the Islamic State.
Due to his influence and prestige, he has been awarded by Putin with several decorations, such as the Hero of Labor of the Russian Federation in May 2013.
More information
The last hour of the Russian invasion of Ukraine
At La Scala, Gergiev directs Tchaikovsky
's The Queen of Spades
, whose premiere was held on Wednesday without major protests, but with some booing from the stalls, according to the local newspaper
La Stampa.
Mayor Sala, who is also president of the board of trustees of La Scala, declared this Thursday to the media that he had sent the director an explicit request for him to "assume a clear position against the invasion."
In case of not receiving a response, the coliseum could "hire another teacher" for the next functions according to the councilor.
Carnegie Hall will also not receive Russian pianist Denis Matsuev, who was to perform alongside Gergiev and who also supported the annexation of Crimea.
The maestro will be replaced by Yannick Nézet-Séguin, musical director of the Metropolitan Opera in New York.
Faced with Gergiev's silence, other conductors have expressed their condemnation of the invasion of Ukraine.
Russian director Semyon Bychkov has condemned the attack unmitigatedly on his website: “Silence in the face of evil becomes his accomplice and ends up becoming his equal.
Russian aggression in Ukraine leads us to what my generation hoped would never happen again: war.”
So has Vladimir Yúrovski, musical director of the Bavarian State Opera and head of the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, who has acknowledged his perplexity at the Russian Federation's military attack against Ukraine: "I am deeply indignant about it, but I am also extremely sad as I am connected to both countries through my family history.”
It should be noted, moreover,
the statement released by the Ukrainian director Oksana Lyniv, recently appointed musical director of the Teatro Comunale de Bologna, where she states: “To all friends, supporters, international artists, festivals, organizations: How can you support us now?
Please share your statements and thoughts publicly!
(…) We need your active support right now!”
Elena Kovalskaya, director of the Meyerhold theater in Moscow, financed by the State, yesterday made her opinion very clear on the social network Facebook: she announced her resignation, described Putin as a "murderer" and stated that she does not want to "charge him", according to picked up by the
AP
agency
and
Business Insider.
