The Italian music festival organizers cancelled a concert featuring Russian conductor Valerie Gergiev a few days after criticism from Kremlin critics and human rights activists.
Putin’s ally, Gergiev was scheduled to lead the Italian orchestra and soloists at the Marinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg at a performance at a former royal palace near Naples later this month.
The 72-year-old was banned from the western stage from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, and he refused to blame.
Italian Minister of Culture Alessandro Ziuri said cancellations by the organizers of the non-existent Da Les Festival were “common sense” and protected “the values of the free world.”
The Royal Palace of Caserta gave no official reason to cancel the concert on July 27th. It was being performed as part of a wider music program.
Ukraine on Sunday urged organizers to drop Gergiev’s performance, calling it a “Putin mouthpiece” that should not be welcomed anywhere “as long as the Russian troops continue to carry on the atrocities.”
Yulia Navalnaya, widow of late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalnaya, welcomed the cancellation and described it as “good news” in an X post.
“In Europe, artists who support Russia’s current dictatorship should not be welcomed,” she said.
However, the Italian ambassador to Moscow said the decision was a “scandalous situation” and was “part of a policy of “cancelling” Russian culture.
Gergiev, director of the theatres of Bolshoi and Marinsky Russian provincials, regularly played at Western venues before the invasion of Ukraine.
Institutions, including La Scala in Milan, the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra and the Carnegie Hall in New York, later cut ties with him.
The controversy over Gergiev’s appearance came last week when Italy reaffirmed its support for Ukraine and hosted heads of state across Europe to discuss ways to rebuild the country once the war was over.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni was a powerful and consistent critic of Vladimir Putin from the start. However, her Ministry of Culture was one of the supporters of the non-‘estate da re festival.
