Pro-Putin conductor Gergiev returns to conduct in Italy. Giuli: propaganda risk
Julija Navalnaja's denunciation: 'Complicit in Putin's crimes, don't let him run Caserta'
3' min read
3' min read
The controversy over the announced attendance of Russian conductor Valery Gergiev on 27 July at the 'Un'estate da Re' festival at the Reggia di Caserta, planned and financed by the Campania Region, was immediately ignited and is set to drag on. Gergiev, 72, conductor of the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg and the Bolshoi in Moscow, and considered a staunch supporter of President Vladimir Putin, has not stepped onto an Italian podium since 23 February 2022, when he conducted "The Queen of Spades" at La Scala on the very night Russia attacked Ukraine.
Giuli: art is free but with Gergiev there is a risk of propaganda
'Art is free and cannot be censored,' says the Minister of Culture, Alessandro Giuli, 'but propaganda, even if done with talent, is something else. This is why the concert by Putin's friend and advisor, Valery Gergiev, wanted, promoted and paid for by the Campania Region and to be held in the Reggia di Caserta, which is autonomous in its choice of which events to host, like all the autonomous institutes of the Ministry of Culture, risks - warns Giuli - passing the wrong message'.
In March 2022, the Russian maestro, whose relationship with Putin dates back to the early 1990s when Putin was in St. Petersburg, was dismissed from conducting La Scala's orchestra for failing to distance himself from the Russian aggression against Kiev, as Mayor Giuseppe Sala had asked him to do. A 'ban' also came later from other major cultural institutions in the United States and Europe, from Carnegie Hall to the Vienna Philharmonic via the Munich Philharmonic. he had turned to other markets, including China, where Russian artists and cultural groups were warmly welcomed. Meanwhile, Gergiev conducted several tours with the Mariinsky in China.
Julija Navalnaja, wife of Putin's dissident Navalny, has spoken on the matter: 'Valery Gergiev,' she writes in the pages of Repubblica, 'is not just a simple fellow-traveller of the dictatorial regime: he has become an integral part of it. Precisely for this reason he has never condemned Putin for the invasion of Ukraine,' she concludes, 'is this not enough to never invite him to international music festivals again?'
The intervention of Pina Picierno (Pd)
.Earlier in the day, Pd MEP and Vice-President of the European Parliament Pina Picierno had raised the shields, asking the governor Vincenzo De Luca 'to intervene to change the billboard and prevent taxpayers' money from ending up in the pockets of a supporter of a criminal regime'.
