Russian superstar soprano Anna Netrebko -- shunned on some world stages since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine -- will appear at London’s Royal Opera House later this year. Netrebko, 53, will star in a production of Puccini’s “Tosca” from September 11, marking her return to Covent Garden after a six-year absence, the Royal Opera said on its website. She will also star in another production, “Turandot” later in the 25/26 season, it said.

“We have always been clear that Russian nationality does not equate to alignment of association with the current Kremlin regime,” a spokesperson for the Royal Opera House told AFP. “Anna has made clear statements condemning Putin’s war in Ukraine and has not returned to Russia since 2022,” the spokesperson said. New musical director Jakub Hrusa said he had invited Netrebko to London because the opera house should be “connected to the best singers”.

“She condemned the war and I have no reason not to take her statement seriously,” the Czech conductor told The Times daily. Hrusa takes over from Antonio Pappano who in 2023 defended Netrebko, warning against widespread “inept cancelling”. “You have to consider that these people have families in Russia. So one has to be careful what one says and how one attempts to cancel somebody from the horizon of their work and their life,” he said. Shortly after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Netrebko withdrew from upcoming roles at the New York Metropolitan Opera.

The institution said that she did so after “not complying with the Met’s condition that she repudiate her public support for (Russian President) Vladimir Putin while he wages war on Ukraine”. The prima donna had made pro-Kremlin comments over the years and in 2014 posed with a rebel flag in Ukraine’s Donetsk region. Following Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Netrebko put out statements critical of the war, but did not explicitly criticize the Russian president.

A month later she announced that she expressly condemned the “war against Ukraine” and regretted that past actions and statements could “in part be misconstrued”, prompting a Russian opera to drop her. Netrebko, who is also Austrian and lives in the Austrian capital Vienna, also had concerts cancelled in Taiwan and Prague in 2023. — AFP