3 h. ago Tosca review – punchy new Puccini rises above the ‘Shame on you’ Russian soprano protests

Royal Opera House, LondonOutrage over the casting of Anna Netrebko didn’t make it to the inside of the auditorium – where roars of approval greeted this high-stakes game of blood-spattered conflict directed by Oliver MearsAfter a summer of institutional mishaps to raise the pulse of the most hardened spin doctor, the Royal Ballet and Opera’s new season was audible far beyond the venue. “Shame on you,” chanted protesters over a powerful PA system outside. Some, standing amid yellow and blue flags, simply held placards. “Art is not neutral,” read one. And indeed it isn’t, though opera’s entanglements in international geopolitics are rarely as visible as at Covent Garden in recent months. “It feels like crossing a picket line,” a colleague muttered grimly.But modern opera houses are well soundproofed. By the first interval of Oliver Mears’ new production of Puccini’s Tosca with Russian soprano Anna Netrebko in the title role, the protesters had dispersed. Controversial as Netrebko’s ca...

Events

3 h. ago Tosca at Royal Opera: the controversial return of Russian soprano Anna Netrebko

The new Tosca at Royal Opera marks the debut of Jakub Hrusa as music director but also the return of Anna Netrebko to the spotlight

Politics

4 h. ago Royal Opera appearance by Russian soprano Anna Netrebko draws pro

Dozens of Ukrainians and their supporters have demonstrated outside the Royal Opera House in London against a performance by Russian soprano Anna Netrebko

Politics

4 d. ago VALERII ZALUZHNYI: How Russian soprano's voice will drown out the real cries of Ukrainians as the Royal Opera House 'betrays' millions

The acclaimed soprano Anna Netrebko will step onto the stage as Tosca. But for me and for millions of Ukrainians, every note, every tear will sound different, writes Valerii Zaluzhnyi.

Events

4 d. ago The Royal Opera House is accused of 'betrayal' by Ukraine after allowing Russian soprano Anna Netrebko to perform on its world

War hero Valerii Zaluzhnyi, known as the 'Iron General', warns that her appearance at the Royal Opera House on Thursday is 'a test' by Vladimir Putin of Kyiv 's 'closest and most devoted ally'.

Politics

1 week ago Art and politics are not the same thing – but the Anna Netrebko case shows what happens when they collide | Martin Kettle

The arts and politics are bound to mix, but they are not the same thing. In the cold war, Soviet artists performed in the west. Should the Russian soprano, who has condemned the Ukraine invasion, be blocked from singing in London?It is one of my very earliest concert memories. In October 1965, my father drove us to Manchester to hear Mstislav Rostropovich play in the Free Trade Hall. Rostropovich played Dvořák’s cello concerto with the Moscow Philharmonic, who began the concert with a symphony by Tikhon Khrennikov and ended it with one by Brahms. I was smitten by Rostropovich’s noble playing. I had never heard a musician like him before.This was, though, a concert taking place slap-bang in the middle of the cold war. The Cuban missile crisis had taken place less than three years earlier. The Berlin Wall was still fairly new. The Vietnam war was deepening. That summer I had read The Spy Who Came in from the Cold. The movie version of Le Carré’s novel, with Richard Burton, was due out...

Politics

2 w. ago As Putin’s bombs fall on Ukraine, the Royal Opera House had a call to make about Anna Netrebko. It made the wrong one | Martin Kettle

The Russian soprano says she has condemned the war and has no affinity with this Kremlin. But hosting her still seems unwisePuccini’s Tosca is high on the list of operas I don’t much care if I never see again. So the fact that the Russian soprano Anna Netrebko, unquestionably one of our era’s exceptional opera singers, is due to sing Tosca in a new production at Covent Garden next month does not present me with a dilemma. I won’t be there anyway.It might be more difficult, I admit, if Netrebko was singing Verdi, where she is so outstanding. But this column is not about my taste in opera. It is about something of wider moral importance. Netrebko’s London performances pose complex questions but require straightforward answers. First, is it right for a prestigious British institution, the Royal Opera House, to be hiring Netrebko while the Ukraine war continues? The answer could in theory be yes, were she to repeat her opposition to the war, but on the current evidence it is no. Continu...

Politics