Met Opera Cuts Ties With Pro-Putin Artists, Likely Ending Bolshoi Partnership
In a show of solidarity with Ukraine, the Metropolitan Opera has said it will no longer host or work with performers or companies “that support Putin or are supported by him.” In a Sunday statement, General Manager Peter Gelb said that while the company believed strongly “in the warm friendship and cultural exchange” between Russia and the U.S., the new policy would be in place “until the invasion and killing has been stopped, order has been restored and restitutions have been made.” The Times reported that Gelb’s announcement likely heralded the end of the Met’s five-year producing partnership with Moscow’s Bolshoi Theater. Gelb told the newspaper as much in a Sunday evening interview, saying the Met team was “scrambling” to figure out how to stage shows that had been scheduled to play in collaboration with the Russian company next season. Just two days prior, London’s Royal Opera House announced that it was shelving a planned Bolshoi residency this summer. “It’s terrible that artistic relationships, at least temporarily, are the collateral damage of these actions by Putin,” Gelb said.
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