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Pro-Putin Russian Opera Star Anna Netrebko Returns to London’s Royal Opera House After Six-Year Hiatus

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Maryna_kulakova
Maryna Kulakova
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Pro-Putin Russian Opera Star Anna Netrebko Returns to London’s Royal Opera House After Six-Year Hiatus
Anna Netrebko attends Metropolitan Opera Opening Night Gala, Premiere Of "Porgy and Bess" on September 23, 2019 in New York City. (Source: Getty Images)

Russian opera singer Anna Netrebko, a supporter of Russian leader Vladimir Putin and the self-proclaimed Luhansk and Donetsk People’s republics , will return to London’s Royal Opera House after a six-year hiatus.

She will open the season with a new production of Puccini’s Tosca, marking the start of Jakub Hrůša’s tenure as musical director. This was reported by Associated Press on April 2.

Netrebko, who has held Austrian citizenship since 2006, has long been a vocal ally of Putin, even serving as his trusted figure during elections and receiving state awards. In 2014, she publicly supported the self-proclaimed Luhansk and Donetsk People’s republics and was photographed with a flag associated with the so-called “Novorossiya .” In January 2023, she was added to Ukraine’s sanctions list.

Netrebko will perform in four shows of Tosca from September 11 to 21 in a new production by Oliver Mears, set in a modern-day, war-torn Rome, with Freddy De Tommaso and Gerald Finley also performing. Netrebko will also appear in Turandot from December 15 to 23, and in June 2026, she is scheduled for a solo concert.

Netrebko last performed at Covent Garden in April 2019. Her planned performances in Nabucco in January 2022 were canceled due to travel restrictions linked to the war in Ukraine. After the beginning of the full-scale invasion, she was dismissed from the Metropolitan Opera in New York, where she had been a principal soprano for nearly two decades.

Though her legal battles with the Metropolitan Opera continue, by fall 2022, she was still performing across Europe. In May 2023, La Scala in Milan reinstated her, but concerts in Tallinn and Lucerne were later canceled. She is scheduled for a gala concert with Palm Beach Opera in February 2025, marking her first US performance in over five years.

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The Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) is a separatist quasi-state entity located in Ukraine’s Donetsk region. It was declared in 2014 by armed groups under the control and support of Russia. All UN member states, except for Russia, North Korea, and Syria, regard the territory claimed by the DPR as an integral part of Ukraine.

Novorossiya (meaning "New Russia") is a historical term that refers to a region in the southeastern part of present-day Ukraine, which was once part of the Russian Empire. The term gained renewed prominence during the 2014 Russian attempted annexation of Crimea and the invasion of East of Ukraine, when Russian-backed forces in Donetsk and Luhansk declared the creation of the self-proclaimed "People's Republics" of Donetsk and Luhansk. These regions, along with parts of South of Ukraine, were referred to as Novorossiya by Russian politicians and media, as part of an effort to justify Russia's invasion.