When the curtain falls on
Aida
in Verona this Thursday, Anna Netrebko will feel a little relieved.
She will have passed another chapter that she has brought her tail in the hardest year of her career, although she still has three days ahead of her, on the same stage, with
Turandot, Puccini
's last opera.
The Russian singer continues to arouse passions, although lately they are found.
They acclaim her, like last Monday at the Teatro Real in Madrid, where she was received with a standing ovation before opening her mouth, but they also stir her up, bait her or see how some theaters suspend their contracts, such as the New York Metropolitan .
She is not only persecuted by Putin's war for having been one of the greatest supporters of the Russian leader in the world of opera for decades.
Also racial controversies.
Netrebko arrived in Madrid on Monday to give a concert at the Real Universal Music Festival with her husband, Yusif Eyvazof.
Her triumph with a nearly full house relieved some of her stress, but Netrebko's toughest year is not over yet.
When last June 18 she appeared at the Verona Arena to play her role as the Verdian slave princess with her face painted black, she was rained down with furious criticism and slapstick on social media for her outdated
black face
.
Without going into her singing line, they described her as racist and insensitive.
They accused her of making fun of the black race on stage through a practice that, although in the opera was not questioned until now, today the times have marked her practice as anathema.
View this post on Instagram
A post shared by @anna_netrebko_yusi_tiago
The controversy rose in tone when the American soprano Angel Blue resigned from singing at the Italian festival this year in protest.
She was going to debut as
Traviata
, but she won't.
While Angel Blue didn't even think of painting her face white to play Violeta Valery, Netrebko could also have appeared on the scene in her Slavic look from Krasnodar, where the Russian soprano was born 50 years ago.
The soprano argues with those responsible for the Veronese festival that in Franco Zeffirelli's original staging, this is how it was done since it premiered in 2006 at La Scala in Milan.
And so, out of respect for the script and the stage director's original conception, he had decided to go for it.
More information
Anna Netrebko, instinct and heart
From the Verona Arena they did not see the gale coming.
Perhaps they would have been more in tune with the times after checking the reactions.
But far from rectifying, the artistic director, Cecilia Gasdia, has been unalterable and has refused to change what she claims was Zeffirelli's creative will.
He died in 2019 and what he would have decided is a mystery.
Something has become clear with the controversy: that in opera it sometimes takes decades to acclimatize to social changes.
More in places like Verona, little given to artistic risk and more dedicated to the circus of tourist attractions.
Angel Blue was clear: “The use of
black face
is the result of archaic theatrical traditions that have no place today.
It is offensive, humiliating and racist.
Enough is enough," the singer, born in Los Angeles 38 years ago, said in a statement.
Netrebko, however, continued in her thirteenth and posed for the networks dressed and made up in dark with Eyvazof.
She didn't comment.
But he launched a slaughter in the networks against the Californian soprano: “
Aida
's first performance was on June 18.
Why didn't you cancel immediately instead of waiting a month to do so?
Angel Blue, this is disgusting,” she snapped at him last week.
It is also true that, from this diatribe, fans have ended up knowing something more about both Angel Blue and Eyvazof.
Netrebko imposes it on his distributions and concerts.
If they want her to go anywhere, she offers two for one, as has already happened in Madrid on two occasions.
Together they cope better with setbacks.
And this year, after Putin invaded Ukraine, the Netrebko family's home has been full of bad news.
She has dealt with the situation as best she can.
Her theaters have demanded clarity and the singer, without anticipating it, has been involved in a dilemma: fidelity to Putin or save her career?
Netrebko has been one of the Russian cultural emblems of the last decades.
His image within his country only faltered when he also adopted Austrian nationality in 2006: "You don't know what a document from the European Union has fixed my life," he said in an interview with EL PAÍS.
She began as a promise with director Valeri Gergiev at the Mariinsky Theater in Saint Petersburg.
Gergiev is the central figure in the, until recently, very effective cultural diplomacy encouraged by the Russian president since he came to power.
He has more influence in his sphere than any culture minister and has also paid dearly with several cancellations this year.
Anna Netrebko greets Vladimir Putin in the presence of conductor Valeri Gergiev in May 2013. Sasha Mordovets (Getty Images)
Netrebko has consistently supported his country's politics.
After being launched by Gergiev as one of the young stars of the Mariinsky company, her career took off internationally in Salzburg in 2005. It was when she starred in an electrifying, sensual and provocative
Traviata
with Mexican Rolando Villazón.
From then on, it marked an era.
She has been number one on her voice charts for two decades.
Her seasons pivoted in the great theaters of the world—from Salzburg to the Milanese Scala and from the Met to London's Covent Garden, Berlin or the Paris Opera—one year in and the other too.
She successfully coped with the changes in her voice by re-adapting her to various repertoires and never dropped a step on her queen's pedestal.
She never questioned her stage prowess or her gifted vocals.
But everything has changed since February 24 last.
His first reaction was lukewarm in condemning Putin's action.
He had his contracts canceled at the New York Met immediately.
Peter Gelb, his artistic director, had been one of his greatest supporters in the world.
But Netrebko's words were not enough to prevent his fall from the poster not only in New York, but also in Zurich, Berlin, Baden-Baden or Hamburg, where his performance was moved to next September 7 pending rectification.
No one was satisfied with the first reactions of someone who celebrated her 50th birthday in the Kremlin in 2021 or who was chosen to sing the national anthem during the opening of the Sochi Winter Olympics in 2014. Her closeness to Putin was always considered more than obvious: “Pain and suffering break my heart.
However, it is not correct to force artists or other public figures to speak out politically and denounce their country of origin”, he assured as soon as the war began.
When he verified the cataclysm that was opening on his agenda, he was more forceful, although for many theaters it was already too late: “I expressly condemn the war against Ukraine and my thoughts are with the victims of this war and their families.
My position is clear.
I am not a member of any political party and I am not a supporter of any Russian leader.
I acknowledge and regret that actions or statements of mine in the past may have been misconstrued,” she stated.
But it didn't stop there.
He specified: “In fact, I have only met President Putin a handful of times in my life, mostly on the occasion of the awards ceremony in recognition of my art or at the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games.
Otherwise, I have never received any financial support from the Russian government and I live and am a tax resident in Austria.
I love my motherland, Russia, and I only seek peace and unity through my art.
After taking my announced break, I will return to performing at the end of May, initially in Europe.”
Putin?
Who is Putin?
Netrebko was thus clearly taking sides: saving his career above all else.
She anyway she was seriously touched.
Although it may be nothing more than a mere scratch, aware that she still has a few years of fulfillment ahead of her.
To relax, as she has told this newspaper once, she may take up some of the hobbies that elude her the most: shooting in the countryside with a Kalashnikov.
50% off
Subscribe to continue reading
read without limits
Keep reading
I'm already a subscriber
