The Met also said it would construct its own sets and costumes for next season’s new production of Wagner’s Lohengrin rather than share them with Moscow’s Bolshoi Opera, as originally planned.

The Met said Netrebko also will be replaced as Elisabetta in Verdi’s Don Carlo for five performances from 3 to 19 November. Netrebko will be replaced by the Ukrainian soprano Liudmyla Monastyrska in Puccini’s Turandot for five performances from 30 April to 14 May, including a 7 May performance broadcast to theaters worldwide. She has appeared in 192 performances at the house, the last a New Year’s Eve gala she starred in on 31 December 2019. Netrebko made her Met debut on 14 February 2002, in Prokofiev’s War and Peace and quickly became a house favorite. There was no immediate response from Netrebko to Gelb’s announcement. It is an extremely difficult decision for me, but I know that my audience will understand and respect this decision.” I have therefore decided to take a step back from performing for the time being. “This is not a time for me to make music and perform. “I am opposed to this senseless war of aggression and I am calling on Russia to end this war right now, to save all of us. Her next listed performance was at Barcelona’s Gran Teatre del Liceu on 3 April, followed by three concerts with her husband, Azerbaijani tenor Yusif Eyvazov, and a 13 April concert with the Berlin Philharmonic. On Tuesday, Netrebko withdrew from all her upcoming performances. She was photographed in 2014 holding the flag of the Russian-controlled territories in Ukraine after giving a 1m rouble donation (then $18,500) to the opera house in Donetsk, a Ukrainian city controlled by pro-Russia separatists.

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