The Metropolitan Opera will pay Anna Netrebko $ 200 thousand for the cancellation of performances

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A US court ordered the Metropolitan Opera to pay $200,000 to opera singer Anna Netrebko for canceling her performances after she refused to publicly condemn Vladimir Putin for invading Ukraine. The New York Times writes about it.

The judge came to the conclusion that the theater must pay in full for the 13 performances canceled on his initiative, since the contract implied payment regardless of whether they took place or not.

Representatives of the Metropolitan Opera insisted that they should not pay , since Netrebko refused to comply with their demand to publicly condemn Putin for the invasion and thereby, in their opinion, violated the clause of the agreement regulating the public behavior of the parties. The judge in his decision noted that Netrebko has the right to support Putin, and this fact itself is not something reprehensible or illegal.

At the same time, the judge refused to pay Netrebko an additional $400,000, which she could receive as a fee for participation in future productions, since this contract was not officially agreed. Netrebko also received a $30,000 fine for “extremely inappropriate” statements – in particular, for the fact that the singer called critics “evil, like blind aggressors”.

Before the war, Netrebko repeatedly publicly supported Vladimir Putin. In particular, she was his confidant in the elections. After the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Netrebko initially did not publicly comment on his actions, which is why the largest Western venues, such as the Metropolitan Opera and the Bavarian Opera, began to refuse to cooperate with her.

On March 30, more than a month after the start of the war, Netrebko condemned the invasion and stressed that she was not an ally of the Russian leadership. After that, her performances began to be canceled in Russia.

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