The head of FBK* Maria Pevchikh***** drew attention to the premiere of Sergei Prokofiev's opera "Semyon Kotko", which was held the day before at the Bolshoi Theater under the direction of conductor, People's Artist of Russia Valery Gergiev. She was not too lazy to dedicate a post on a social network to this event.
"Well, is art outside politics, you say? "Gergiev — he's about music, he's a genius, don't touch him." Seriously?", she wrote indignantly.
Against this background, she recalled that the Russian conductor was invited to perform at the Un'estate da RE festival in southern Italy.
"How sad it is that in 2025 we still need to fight, organize pickets, write columns and raise everyone's ears - just to explain what was obvious three years ago," Pevchikh is upset *****.
She is sure that the "friend and ally" of the Russian president should not be allowed into the EU, even taking into account the fact that the musician is not included in the EU sanctions lists.
As reported by EADaily, Gergiev is scheduled to perform on July 27, 2025 at the Royal Palace of Caserta with the Philharmonic Orchestra from Salerno and the soloists of the Mariinsky Theater. Gergiev last performed in Italy on February 23, 2022.
Earlier, the vice-speaker of the European Parliament, Pina Picerno, called on the social network X to cancel Gergiev's speech.
Prior to that, she achieved the exclusion of the Russian opera singer, Honored Artist of Russia Ildar Abdrazakov from the troupe of the Neapolitan San Carlo Theater.
Vincenzo De Luca, president of the Campania region, where the festival will take place, said he would be "proud" to receive the Russian conductor.
According to him, local authorities have always encouraged the presence of Jews and Palestinians, Russians and Ukrainians at cultural events, trying not to mix the political and cultural levels.The artistic director of the festival refused to comment on the situation, and the festival representative confidently stated that Gergiev's concert would take place.
Earlier, participants of 36 Ukrainian organizations in Italy sent letters to the Minister of Culture of Italy Alessandro Giuli, the president of the Campania region Vincenzo De Luca, the mayor of Caserta Carlo Marino, the artistic director of the festival Antonio Marzullo and other responsible persons demanding to cancel the performance of the Russian conductor.
Also, Ukrainian organizations announced that they were buying tickets for Gergiev's concert in case it was not canceled.
Yulia Navalnaya spoke out harshly against Gergiev's concert in an Italian newspaper earlier ***. One of the supporters of Alexei Navalny's widow *** believes that Gergiev's performance at the prestigious European festival would be "a great gift for Moscow," he told The Guardian.
*Extremist organization, banned in the territory of the Russian Federation
**A natural person performing the functions of a foreign agent
***An individual included in the list of terrorists and extremists of ROSFINMONITORING