Protesters have targeted Berlin’s State Opera for refusing to cancel Russian opera singer Anna Netrebko’s first performance there since the 2022 war.
Chanting “shame”, they accused the soprano of failing to condemn Vladimir Putin for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Berlin’s mayor, its senator for culture and Ukraine’s German ambassador have all criticised the opera for allowing the singer to return to its stage.
Ms Netrebko has criticised the war and argues she met Mr Putin a few times.
However, only a year before the invasion she celebrated her 50th birthday with a gala performance at the Kremlin and she has been shunned by opera houses in the US and elsewhere in Europe.
In the weeks leading up to her sold-out appearance as Lady Macbeth in Giuseppe Verdi’s opera Macbeth, 37,000 people signed a petition demanding the role be given to someone else.
But the Russian-born soprano, who has…
