ADVERTISEMENT An Italian classical music concert has uninvited a famous Russian conductor who’s known to be a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Valery Gergiev was meant to participate in A King’s Summer festival (Un’Estate da Re) on 27 July that’s organised by the Royal Palace of Caserta and held in the courtyard of the Vanvitellian Complex, close to Naples in southern Italy.
However, his inclusion in the event had been fiercely criticised by Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of the late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny who died in a Russian Arctic penal colony in 2021.
“This is good news. No artist who supports the current dictatorship in Russia should be welcome in Europe. It is precisely thanks to regime supporters like Gergiev that Putin tries to promote his image as a ‘decent person’ in the West,” Navalnaya wrote on X commenting on the cancellation of the concert.
“The free and unquestionable choice taken by the Directorate of the Reggia di Caserta has my full and convinced support,” commented Culture Minister Alessandro Giuli, who had already intervened on the issue, distancing himself from the decision to invite Gergiev to the festival and siding with those who described the concert as a boost to Russian propaganda.
‘While respect is due to the exceptional artistic quality of the event, the cancellation of the concert conducted by Maestro Gergiev obeys a logic of common sense and moral tension aimed at protecting the values of the free world,’ the ministry’s note reads.
Euro Chamber vice-president Pina Picierno, among the first voices to rise against Gergiev’s hosting in Italy, expressed satisfaction on X: ‘We explained, we fought, we believed and we won! Thanks to all of you, Campania will not host an ambassador of Putin. For those who want to, we will see you on Sunday evening with the flags of Europe, in front of the Reggia, to celebrate the strength and beauty of democracy’.
The Christian Association of Ukrainians in Italy also rejoiced. “This is a victory of common sense and human and Christian values over the Kremlin’s criminal policy. It is a small victory, but it is another step towards the common victory of good over evil,’ wrote association president Oles Horodetskyy.
The association was ready to organise protest initiatives and had already bought tickets for the first rows of the concert to make its dissent felt by Gergiev.
There has been no comment from Campania’s governor Vincenzo De Luca, who had described the affair as ‘disconcerting’, wondering where ‘the limit between freedom of expression of one’s opinion and propaganda’ was and emphasising his desire to confirm the concert despite international appeals.
Several Nobel Prize winners had even spoken out against the Russian maestro’s participation, with letters sent to European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen, Italian authorities and de Luca himself. An online petition had garnered more than 16,000 signatures.
Romanovsky’s case in Bologna
Meanwhile, media attention is rapidly shifting to a similar case involving authorities in Bologna.** The city is preparing to host the Ukrainian pianist and naturalised Italian Alexander Romanovsky as part of the CUBO summer festival,* that’s financed by Unipol.
Romanovsky became famous for having played for the (Russian) cameras on the rubble of the Mariupol theatre, which Moscow forces had bombed in the first weeks of the invasion of Ukraine, killing hundreds of civilians who had taken refuge there.
Italian journalist Marco Setaccioli has led much of the criticism demanding the cancellation of the 5 August event, citing Romanovsky’s appearances on pro-government Russian channels as evidence of his ‘willingness to lend himself to the Kremlin’s propaganda machine.’
In January 2024, La Sapienza University in Rome called off one of Romanovsky’s concerts in response to anger from pro-Ukraine activists and their supporters.
