Italy cancels pro-Kremlin conductor Gergiev's concert after backlash

The management of the Royal Palace of Caserta in Italy announced on Monday that it had cancelled a concert featuring Russian conductor and "Putin’s friend" Valery Gergiev.

As reported by Ansa, the concert was scheduled for 27 July as part of the Un’Estate da Re (Summer of the King) festival.

The announcement of the concert provoked a strong reaction, drawing criticism from the Italian central government, Russian dissidents and Ukrainian organisations.

The 72-year-old conductor, invited by the regional government of Campania, has never spoken out against Russia’s war against Ukraine.

The performance at the former Bourbon royal palace in northern Naples would have effectively marked the end of Gergiev’s de facto ban from performing on European stages since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

After 24 February 2022, Gergiev was suspended from most of the major European music institutions with which he was associated as principal or guest conductor. A longtime ally of Putin, he lost his position as chief conductor of the Munich Philharmonic, a post he had held since 2015.

The Vienna and Rotterdam Philharmonics, the festivals in Edinburgh, Verbier and Prague, the La Scala theatre in Milan and others also ended cooperation with him.

Amid the controversy, Minister of Culture Alessandro Giuli stated that art should be free from censorship, but stressed that in Gergiev’s case, it was not about art but about propaganda.

Last year, several Russian ballet performances in Sweden were cancelled due to their links with the Kremlin.