Russian conductor's Italian concert called off after outcry
Valery Gergiev, who has repeatedly expressed support for the Russian president, had been scheduled to lead a local orchestra at a music festival on 27 July at Reggia di Caserta, a former Bourbon palace close to Naples. But the management of the Unesco world heritage site said in a brief statement on Monday that his performance had been cancelled.
Gergiev's appearance, which would have been his first in Europe since Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, had been strongly endorsed by Vincenzo De Luca, the leftwing president of the Campania region. The regional authorities organise and fund the Un'Estate da Re festival – billed as a highlight of the summer season in southern Italy.
The cancellation came after more than 16,000 people, including Nobel laureates, Italian and international politicians and activists, signed a letter addressed to De Luca and the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, calling for Gergiev's appearance not to go ahead.
Yulia Navalnaya, the wife of Alexei Navalny who died in an Arctic prison last year, wrote in an op-ed published by La Repubblica last week that Gergiev's performance would be 'a gift to the dictator'. She said the 72-year-old was not only a 'dear friend' and supporter of Putin but also a 'promoter' of the Russian president's 'criminal policies'.
The concert sparked a clash between De Luca and Italy's culture minister, Alessandro Giuli, who warned that it risked sending the wrong message. 'Art is free and cannot be censored,' Giuli said in comments reported by Ansa. 'Propaganda, however, even if done with talent, is something else.'
The event's cancellation was celebrated by critics, with Pina Picierno, vice-president of the European parliament and among the signatories of the letter, writing on social media: 'We explained, we fought and we won!'
Riccardo Magi, leader of the small leftwing More Europe party, said Gergiev's performance would have been 'an intolerable humiliation for the victims of Putin's brutal war of aggression against Ukraine'.
Gergiev has repeatedly voiced support for Putin, appearing in a 2012 campaign ad, endorsing the annexation of Crimea in 2014 and conducting a patriotic concert in Syria's ancient city of Palmyra in 2016, after Russian forces helped the former dictator, Bashar al-Assad, recapture it.
Sign up to The Guide
Get our weekly pop culture email, free in your inbox every Friday
after newsletter promotion
Widely seen as one of Russia's most powerful cultural figures, Gergiev was fired from several European concerts, festivals and theatres, including Milan's La Scala, for refusing to condemn Putin over Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The last time he performed in Italy was at La Scala on 23 February 2022, hours after the invasion began.
Gergiev's US agent has been approached for comment.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Telegraph
30 minutes ago
- Telegraph
Russian tourists flock back to Europe
Russian tourists are returning to Europe in growing numbers, despite the war in Ukraine, with France, Italy and Spain their favoured holiday destinations. The three travel hotspots are all Nato and EU members and have imposed sanctions on Moscow. Hotel stays by Russians in Italy and France surged by more than 19 per cent in the past year, which Ukrainian diplomats branded 'disturbing' and a security risk. But France, which spearheads the 'coalition of the willing' nations supporting Ukraine with Britain, defends keeping borders open to rich Russian tourists, as does Italy. The trend was revealed by Telegraph analysis of data on hotel room stays and rentals on websites such as and Airbnb, and of visas issued to the EU's Schengen free-movement zone. Vsevolod Chentsov, Ukraine's ambassador to the EU, warned that ignoring the returning Russians would be 'short-sighted' and dangerous. He told the Telegraph: 'In the fourth year of Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine, it is extremely surprising to see statistics showing an increase in the number of visas issued to Russian citizens and a growth in tourist traffic from Russia to EU countries. 'We know that Russian society overwhelmingly supports the war. Moreover, it prefers to think that Russia is at war with the West and not with Ukraine, where the Russian army commits war crimes on massive scale.' He added: 'With increasing number of Russia's cyberattacks against EU member states, acts of sabotage and all sort of hybrid activities aimed at undermining European democracies, it is disturbing that Russian citizens can easily enjoy the benefits of travelling to Europe. 'Continuing to ignore this reality is short-sighted. It's a matter of European security.' Fires in warehouses known to be part of logistical supply chains have taken place across Europe, including in Britain, while there have also been reports of sabotaged train tracks. In the past, Russian spies posing as diplomats would be linked to these incidents, but since the 2018 poisoning of the Skripals, Moscow is known to also deploy agents on tourist visas. Stop EU visas for Russians Sir William Browder is an American-born English financier turned anti-Putin activist and campaigner. He urged France, Italy and Spain to stop issuing visas to Russians. 'Unless the Russians can demonstrate in a visa interview that they're opposed to the Putin regime, they shouldn't be allowed to come to Europe,' he said. European capitals have hit the Kremlin with waves of sanctions since Putin launched his illegal invasion in 2022. Both Britain and the EU closed their airspace to Russian airlines, triggering a drop in tourist numbers. There are still dozens of routes to Europe through Turkey, Georgia, Serbia and other countries. In order to get to Rome, for example, a Russian tourist would have to stop over in Turkey or the UAE and switch flights. The additional costs put the trip out of the reach of most ordinary Russians, but those that do make it to Europe also face difficulties because of the sanctions, which means their bank cards don't work. However, Istanbul's Ataturk airport is brimming with currency exchanges where Russians can swap roubles for euros to sustain their visits to Europe. 'There are many Russians who support the war, and particularly the Russians who have money,' Sir William said. 'What we absolutely don't want to do is allow these Russians to enjoy the privileges and resources of Europe, while at the same time they're supporting Putin's war efforts.' 'Europe should be open for people in the Russian opposition who are being persecuted, but no visa should be issued to Russian oligarchs or mini-garchs and others who support Putin, and I think we should err on the side of non visa issuance in that respect.' He said refusing visas would put pressure on Putin's regime and lessen the security risk posed by Russia's hybrid war against the West. Sanctions undermined Sir William said EU governments had to be consistent because if one country grants a Schengen visa, the supposed tourist can travel anywhere in the passport-free zone. Western governments have been reluctant to issue outright travel bans, except in the case of sanctioned individuals such as Putin's cronies and apparatchiks. In contrast, the Baltic nations and pro-Ukraine countries bordering Ukraine and Russia stopped issuing tourist visas to Russia or heavily restricted their numbers. Jan Lipavsky, foreign minister of the Czech Republic, accused those welcoming Russian holidaymakers of undermining the EU's sanctions against Moscow in return for wealthy tourists' cash. He told The Telegraph, 'It is deeply troubling to see some EU countries returning to business as usual with Russian tourists while Ukraine continues to suffer under brutal aggression. 'Czechia has taken a principled stance – we do not process any tourist visa applications and we believe this should be the standard across the European Union.' Mr Lipavsky said the numbers of tourists coming to the EU last year was 'totally excessive' and raised serious concerns 'not only from a security standpoint, but also from a moral one'. He said, 'At such volumes, we cannot rule out the possibility that individuals complicit in war crimes are among those vacationing in our resorts. That is unacceptable.' He added, 'I also see that some countries have a self-interested motive – they want the income from Russian tourism. It's not just about visa fees; it's about money spent on hotels, shopping, tickets and so on. Russians are known to spend a lot. 'This undermines the credibility of our sanctions regime and sends a confusing message about our values.' Lifeline for dissidents Andrei Soldatov is a senior fellow with the Center for European Policy Analysis think tank and a Russian investigative journalist specialising in the activities of the Kremlin's secret services. He said the visas were valuable for dissidents and families that wanted to visit them abroad. He said, 'it is a problem which doesn't have a simple solution. These are also the countries which help people with anti-Kremlin views move out. 'To make it safe for these people one needs to hide their applications in a stream of other applications. One cannot really expect a Russian dissident to come to a foreign embassy for a 'dissident visa', given the high level of repression in the country.' Popular locations Across the EU, visitor numbers are just a tenth of what they were in 2019, before the pandemic and the invasion, but this varies substantially across the bloc. In 2024, just six EU countries saw an increase in guest nights booked by Russians via websites such as Airbnb, according to figures from Eurostat. Italy saw the largest increase of 18.9 per cent, with 321,678 guest nights across the year, the highest in Europe. France remains the third most popular location for Russian tourists with 203,072 guest nights per year, which is an increase of 7.8 per cent - the fourth highest spike in Europe. Spain is second at 259,068 guest nights, down 3.6 per cent from the previous year, according to the figures obtained from the EU's statistics agency. There was a rise of 13 per cent in the number of nights booked by Russians in Hungary, which has a government that is notoriously soft on Putin. The UK, whose data differs slightly from the EU's, would rank seventh on the list for Russia visitors after Italy, Spain, France, Portugal, Greece and Cyprus. Unlike France and Italy, Britain saw its visitor numbers fall by around 1.3 per cent year-on-year, according to data from the Office for National Statistics. Other statistics, which look at nights across hotels rather than Airbnb-style websites, suggest that France is hosting 27 per cent of the level it was in 2019, compared to just 9.8 per cent in the United Kingdom. The UK has always required Russian tourists to apply for visas, including when it was part of the EU. It never joined Schengen. Schengen members also require that Russians obtain visas. There was an agreement, which made it faster and cheaper to obtain those tourist visas to enter the EU but it was suspended after Putin invaded Ukraine. Analysis of Schengen area visas also showed that Italy and France were leading the tourism rapprochement with Russia. Italy issued 152,254 Schengen area visas at its two Russian consulates last year, which was almost 19,000 more than in 2023. France issued a total of 123, 890, according to European Commission figures, 25,000 more than the year before. Spain issued 111,527, an increase of 15,000. Figures first reported by the EU Observer website showed a rebound in Schengen visas for Russians with 552,630 issued in total last year, an increase of nine per cent. Greece issued 59,703 visas and Hungary 23,382. Rome and Paris unrepentant 'Italy continues to regularly issue visas to Russian tourists who meet our requirements,' A spokesman for Antonio Tajani, the Italian minister of foreign affairs and deputy prime minister, said. 'Our opposition is to the Russian army's military operations in Ukraine, not to the Russian people.' The Elysée was presented with the statistics but did not respond to requests for comment. France has previously defended issuing visas to Russians. 'People-to-people relations and cultural ties can play a positive role in fostering mutual understanding and dialogue between populations,' the French foreign affairs ministry told EU Observer. 'We work hard at maintaining a differentiation between the regime responsible for the war and the population, its civil society, and the opposition,' it said. 'It is essential to maintain this window, to enable Russian society to get access to a plurality of reliable sources of information.' The British and Spanish government were asked for comment. The European Commission said they could not comment, despite being given 72 hours notice, because it was summer. Eurostat, the EU's statistics body, has collected data on the number of guest nights spent in 'collaborative economy platforms', which includes sites such as Airbnb and Expedia since 2018. The UK's Office for National Statistics has collected similar data since mid-2023, meaning pre-invasion figures are not available and there might be minor methodological differences between the two bodies. Data on broader hotel stays across Europe have not been updated for the entirety of Europe in 2024.
BreakingNews.ie
2 hours ago
- BreakingNews.ie
Drake concert cancelled due to ‘unforeseen' travel issues
Rapper Drake has had a concert at Co-Op Live cancelled due to 'unforeseen' travel issues. The Canadian musician was due to perform at Manchester's Co-Op Live Arena on Monday July 28, however, has had to reschedule the gig due to 'unforeseen ferry schedule and travel logistics'. Advertisement The 38-year old, whose full name is Aubrey Drake Graham, will instead perform at the venue on August 5th. Drake attending the UK premiere of Top Boy at the Hackney Picturehouse in London (Ian West/PA) The news was shared in a statement on the Co-Op live website, which said: 'Due to unforeseen ferry schedule and travel logistics, tomorrow's performance in Manchester on July 28th has been rescheduled. 'The good news is that Drake will now perform in Manchester on Tuesday, August 5th, and it's set to be an unforgettable night. 'All tickets remain valid for the new date—we can't wait to see you there!' Advertisement This comes after Drake released a new song, Which One, on Thursday with British rapper Central Cee. Drake is midway through the UK leg of his Some Special Shows 4 U tour with Partynextdoor, marking his first return to Europe in six years. Drake performing at the Wireless Festival in Finsbury Park, central London. Photo: Ian West/PA. Earlier this month Drake performed at Wireless Festival in London after signing a multi-million pound deal to top the bill each night of the three nights. The Canadian brought out UK heavyweights Dave, Central Cee and J Hus as surprise guests during one of his performances on the main stage in Finsbury Park. Advertisement He also performed with Lauryn Hill on one of the three nights. The five-time Grammy-award winning artist will head to mainland Europe in August with concerts scheduled in Amsterdam, Zurich, and Milan and Paris. The artist is best known for his hit songs One Dance, Hold On We're Going Home, and Hotline Bling.
The Guardian
3 hours ago
- The Guardian
Global moral consensus is just wishful thinking
In his opinion piece (From Gaza to Ukraine, peace always seems just out of reach – and the reason isn't only political, 20 July), Simon Tisdall says 'ending major conflicts, and easing the suffering of millions, is a moral imperative that demands a determined collective response from all concerned. That way lies peace. That way lies salvation'. If that is really the case then all hope is lost. There already is a 'determined collective response' from all concerned, which is a pledge to fight to the bitter end, whatever the cost to their victims in lives or suffering. For Vladimir Putin and Benjamin Netanyahu, freedom from moral constraints, incorporating manifestly immoral behaviour and open contempt for international law, is an existential necessity. To expect either of them to abandon the territorial ambitions on which they have staked their political futures lies somewhere between naivety and sheer wishful thinking. Given that, all talk of 'moral imperatives', without enforceable international law when their noble aspirations are breached, is no more than impotent bleating from the sidelines. The treaty to establish the international criminal court in 1998 failed to sign up China, India or the Gulf states. Indeed the map of those countries that have ratified the ICC looks suspiciously like the former Commonwealth, with the addition of South America. More significant are those countries who signed up to the treaty, but which have refused to ratify it, for various stated reasons, but ineluctably because their current politicians need immunity from its rulings – the former superpowers US and Russia, and Israel. None of their leaders could survive in office if they were made internationally accountable to enforceable laws with a clear moral basis. Sadly but paradoxically, the only people with the political and military clout to bring the war criminals to justice in the name of morality turn out to be the ones perpetuating the war crimes. Alex WatsonStroud, Gloucestershire Simon Tisdall rightly argues that peace remains elusive not just due to geopolitics, but a collapse in global moral consensus. Yet we must ask: has that consensus ever truly been global – or has it been curated through western lenses? Britain recently announced an inquiry into violent policing at Orgreave in 1984 and the subsequent collapsed prosecution of 95 miners, but still refuses to apologise for Jallianwala Bagh, where hundreds of unarmed Indians were massacred under imperial command in 1919. Where is the moral clarity? Tisdall speaks of the 'rules-based international order'. But when Donald Trump bombed Iranian nuclear sites – installations once fostered by Eisenhower's Atoms for Peace programme – where were the rules? Would the same be done to Pakistan or China? The west routinely turns a blind eye when its allies commit horrors. Yes, Russians ignore Ukraine. But did the UK not join the US in Iraq, a war based on phantom weapons of mass destruction? Have we ever truly atoned for the destruction of Falluja, or the millions displaced in Afghanistan? I agree that peace demands moral revitalisation. But that renewal must begin at home: in Washington, London, Paris. A world that arms first and negotiates never cannot preach morality. Diplomacy has been replaced by drone strikes, and summits by air raids. The UN has become a mute witness, bypassed by the very powers that once built it. Until we stop dividing the world into 'worthy victims' and 'collateral damage', there will be no peace. There is no lesser life. And there is no moral order unless it applies to all. Let truth precede justice. And only then will peace KalyanasundaramChennai, India Have an opinion on anything you've read in the Guardian today? Please email us your letter and it will be considered for publication in our letters section.
