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last mo.

Royal Opera House Under Pressure to Drop Anna Netrebko From Tosca

Signatories say her past pro-Kremlin gestures, including a 2014 photograph with a separatist flag, contradict the Opera House’s professed values.

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The forthcoming appearance of Anna Netrebko at Covent Garden has been opposed by MPs and Ukrainian artists

Overview

  • More than 50 Ukrainian writers and artists, a cross-party group of UK MPs and former New Zealand prime minister Helen Clark have written to CEO Alex Beard urging the withdrawal of Anna Netrebko from the 2025–26 season and next month’s Tosca.
  • Signatories label Netrebko a “longtime symbol of cultural propaganda,” citing her 2014 donation to Donetsk’s opera house and a photograph with the Novorossiya separatist flag.
  • MPs including John Whittingdale and Emily Thornberry have met with Alex Beard and submitted letters expressing concern over her failure to directly condemn Vladimir Putin.
  • Beard has defended the invitation by saying the Opera House’s support for Ukraine in 2022 aligned with global consensus and that its stance has since evolved alongside shifting geopolitics.
  • The Metropolitan Opera remains the only major house to exclude Netrebko while she has returned to stages such as La Scala and the Vienna State Opera and faced protests at a Regensburg festival.