Ukrainian Ambassador to Hungary Fegyir Sándor has asked the General Director of the Hungarian State Opera House Szilveszter Ókovács to cancel a scheduled performance by Russian Austrian opera singer Anna Netrebko. The letter by the Ambassador was shared by Ókovács himself on his social media page on Wednesday, 12 March, along with an open letter in response.
Netrebko’s show is scheduled for 23 March in Budapest, Hungary, just 12 days away from the date when the Ambassador reached out and asked for its cancellation. As Ókovács pointed out in his open letter, the show had been sold out for a long time.
Netrebko has had live performances called off before for her support for President Vladimir Putin of Russia—for example, in Lucerne, Switzerland, in June 2024. She also had her contract terminated by the Metropolitan Opera in New York City, New York, in August 2023. Evidently, her support for President Putin is the reason why Ambassador Sándor is asking to reconsider slating Netrebko’s performance in his letter. However, in his message, he also expressed his gratitude to Hungary for ‘recognizing Ukraine’s territorial integrity and condemning Russia’s armed aggression against Ukraine’.
‘Thank you for your letter, written in impeccable Hungarian, which I particularly appreciate,’ Director Ókovács started his open letter to the Ambassador.
‘However, I must, alas, take issue with its content. Opera is not a political product nor a military product. The artists are neither politicians nor soldiers. They do not sit in the depths of smoky rooms, they do not stand in front of monitors in tactical rooms. In a sense, the artist is a shoemaker, like Hans Sachs in Wagner: and no one bans cobblers in wartime either.
I am convinced that art has the power for good, and for that reason alone, muses should not be silent in times of war. Especially as Hungary is not a belligerent party and does not wish to play the role of a reluctant judge in an intractable fraternal conflict.
As for Anna Netrebko, she is the world’s greatest soprano today, who has been touring the world for the past three years. She has been celebrated on the stages of Milan, Paris, Berlin, Madrid, and Vienna, and also performed and toured in the United States…I would ask the Ambassador not to put the crosshairs on the Hungarian State Opera House and on the performance for which the highest ticket sales have been recorded in the 141-year history of the institution, which shows how much our compatriots also value Anna Netrebko’s art’, Director Ókovács’s open letter reads.
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