The Met in NYC Opened Tonight to a Protest Because of Their Russian Theme Show
The Metropolitan Opera’s Russian-themed opening night gala drew a Russian-themed protest on Monday evening, as critics of Russia’s new law placing restrictions on the discussion of homosexuality denounced the Met for declining to dedicate the performance to gay rights.
Michelle V. Agins/The New York Times
Sister Lotti Da, passing out leaflets, was among the demonstrators in front of the Metropolitan Opera on Monday.
It made for a vivid tableau. Limousines disgorged opera patrons in black tie and ball gowns into a few dozen protesters picketing outside Lincoln Center, who were chanting and holding a 50-foot-long rainbow banner that said “Support Russian Gays!”
At issue was the long-planned new production of Tchaikovsky’s “Eugene Onegin” with which the Met opened its season, featuring some of the opera world’s most sought-after Russian artists. It was conducted by Valery Gergiev, the artistic director of the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg, and starred Anna Netrebko, the Russian diva. Both are supporters of President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, who in June signed a law banning “propaganda on nontraditional sexual relationships,” drawing worldwide attention to the difficulties that gay people face in Russia.
The seeds for the protests on Monday night were planted when Andrew Rudin, a composer who is gay, started an online petition urging the Met to dedicate the performance to gay rights in Russia. The petition, which has been signed by more than 9,000 people, noted that Tchaikovsky, a gay Russian composer, was being performed by artists who supported a Russian government that had passed antigay laws.
“Here’s a chance for the Met, in an entirely benign and positive way, to use its great cultural influence to be relevant, and to do something positive,” Mr. Rudin said in an interview on Monday.
Peter Gelb, the general manager of the Met, declined, writing in an opinion article for Bloomberg News over the weekend that while he was confident that “many members of our company join me in personally deploring the tyranny of Russia’s new antigay laws,” it would not be appropriate to dedicate the opera’s performances to political causes.
“We respect the right of activists to picket our opening night and we realize that we’ve provided them with a platform to further raise awareness about serious human rights issues abroad,” Mr. Gelb wrote. A printout of the article was inserted into the opening night programs.
One of the organizers of the protest, Bill Dobbs, said, “This is a way to pressure Putin, because Putin is using culture, and the Olympics, to divert from human rights abuses.”
Ms. Netrebko said in a statement on Facebook that: “As an artist, it is my great joy to collaborate with all of my wonderful colleagues — regardless of their race, ethnicity, religion, gender or sexual orientation. I have never and will never discriminate against anyone.”
“Some people said I have to say more, but that is the maximum I can say right now,” she later told The Associated Press. “In my next life, when I will be a politician, we talk!”
Mr. Gergiev was a strong supporter of Mr. Putin in the last election, and was honored by Mr. Putin this spring with a revived Soviet-era title, Hero of Labor, around the time he opened a new $700 million theater, the Mariinsky II. He has declined to comment.
The Met has taken political stands in the past, the protesters noted: in 1961, its general manager, Rudolf Bing, announced that the company would no longer play to segregated audiences in the South on its tours. A year later, it played to an integrated audience in Atlanta for the first time.
This was reported as is in The NewYork Times
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