The institution’s new director, Matthias Schulz, says he does not fear any negative reactions.
“I’m convinced that she deserves to be given this chance,” the future director of Zurich Opera told the media on Thursday at the presentation of the 2025/26 season. In his view, it is wrong to make scapegoats of artists simply because we cannot get to the people who are really responsible.
Protecting artists
“As a cultural institution, we have a responsibility to protect artists from false ideologisation,” says Matthias Schulz, who takes up his new post on 1 August. “I spoke to her personally about this before hiring her. In Zurich, Anna Netrebko is due to sing Donna Leonora in Giuseppe Verdi’s opera “La Force du Destin”, from 2 November.
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What’s behind Switzerland’s caution over unfreezing Russian assets to aid Ukraine?
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It’s unlikely Switzerland will unlock the Russian assets it holds to fund the war in Ukraine anytime soon.
In recent years, Anna Netrepko has only performed on stages in countries supporting Ukraine, added the director of the Zurich Opera. She has not sung in Russia. “That’s why we’re delighted that we can hear her again in Switzerland.” The soprano has also returned to the stage in Berlin, Milan and London, although not without protests.
Serial cancellations since 2022
After the invasion of Ukraine by Russian troops in February 2022, the singer was criticised. Several concerts and opera performances in which she was due to take part were cancelled in the United States and other Western countries.
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Kremlin critic: every handshake with Putin is ‘drenched in blood’
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Vladimir Kara-Murza, a Kremlin critic who survived two poisoning attempts and a prison term in Russia, talks to SWI swissinfo.ch in Geneva about the dangers of negotiating with Vladimir Putin.
The Russian soprano was no longer welcome in Switzerland either. Last June, a concert she was due to give at Lucerne’s KKL was cancelled at the request of the political authorities, who feared that her presence would lead to public disorder. The International Peace Conference in Ukraine was taking place the same month not far from there, at the Bürgenstock.
Crimea separatist sympathies
Anna Netrebko lives in Vienna. In 2014, the year the Russian army invaded Crimea, she celebrated her 50th birthday in the Kremlin. That same year, she appeared before the media wearing a pro-Russian separatist leader and a flag of New Russia, a colony of the former Russian Empire, which covered much of present-day Ukraine in the late 18th century.
According to her managers, the artist has made several statements in which “she opposes war and calls for peace in Ukraine”. On several occasions, she has distanced herself in writing from Putin.
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Anna Netrebko: Lucerne cancels concert of Russian soprano
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Russian star soprano Anna Netrebko will not be performing in Lucerne.
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Fewer Swiss twins after artificial insemination
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Multiple births following artificial insemination in Switzerland have fallen sharply over the last 20 years, shrinking from 17.4% in 2002 to 2.8% in 2023.
