Overview

• Royal Palace of Caserta management announced on July 21 that it would cancel Gergiev’s July 27 recital at the Un’Estate da Re festival following warnings of protest actions.
• Italy’s culture ministry warned last week that Gergiev’s performance faced potential exploitation as Russian propaganda and explicitly dissociated itself from the event.
• Ukrainian organizations and Russian opposition figures, including Julia Navalnaja, mobilized petitions and public appeals to block the Kremlin-aligned conductor’s appearance.
• European Parliament Vice President Pina Picierno praised the cancellation as a stand for democratic integrity, while the Russian embassy in Rome condemned it as yielding to political lobbying.
• Gergiev, a longtime confidant of Vladimir Putin who leads both the Bolshoi and Mariinsky theatres, has been shunned by major European cultural institutions since 2022 for refusing to denounce Russia’s war in Ukraine.