Soprano Anna Netrebko, as soon as amongst the Metropolitan Opera’s largest field workplace attracts, sued the corporate and normal supervisor Peter Gelb on Friday, alleging defamation, breach of contract and different violations associated to the establishment’s resolution to drop her following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The swimsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, asks for at the least $360,000 in damages for misplaced efficiency and rehearsal charges. Netrebko claims the Met triggered ”extreme psychological anguish and emotional misery” that included “depression, humiliation, embarrassment, stress and anxiety, and emotional pain and suffering.”
The Met dropped the Russian soprano from future engagements shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. Gelb had demanded she repudiate Russia President President Vladimir Putin.
“Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Met and Peter Gelb have used Anna Netrebko as a scapegoat in their campaign to distance themselves from Russia and to support Ukraine,” the administration of the 51-year-old soprano stated in an announcement.
There was no fast response to Netrebko‘s swimsuit from the Met or Gelb.
The American Guild of Musical Artists filed a grievance on Netrebko‘s behalf and arbitrator Howard C. Edelman ruled in February that the Met violated the union’s collective bargaining settlement when it canceled offers with Netrebko to look in Verdi’s “Don Carlo” and “La Forza del Destino” and Giordano’s ”Andrea Chénier.” He awarded her compensation for the misplaced performances, which the union calculated at $209,103.48.
Netrebko, who made her Met debut in 2002, was as a consequence of obtain the Met’s prime price of $17,000 per efficiency, the swimsuit stated.
Edelman’s resolution stated Netrebko voluntarily withdrew from performances of Wagner’s “Lohengrin” and Puccini’s “Turandot” and was not owed for these.
The lawsuit alleges breach of further agreements for 40 performances of Puccini’s “Tosca” and Tchaikovsky’s “Pique Dame (The Queen of Spades”)” in the course of the 2024-25 season and Puccini’s “Manon Lescaut” and Verdi’s “Macbeth” in 2025-26. Going past the scope of the arbitration, the swimsuit claims Netrebko was discriminated towards due to nationwide origin.
Netrebko alleges the Met and Gelb “harmed Netrebko’s relationship among audiences, including by encouraging protests against her performances” and “reputation caused by Gelb and the Met has caused other opera houses and cultural institutions in the United States to refrain from hiring Netrebko.” It stated Netrebko was compelled to promote her New York City condo at a loss.
The swimsuit stated “due to the Met’s requirement that Netrebko issue public statements opposing the actions of Russian government, Russian politicians have denounced Netrebko, Russian theater companies have canceled contracts with her, Russian audiences have criticized her on her social media channels and in the Russian press, and Netrebko and her family and friends in Russia have suffered the risk of harm, retaliation, and retribution by the Russian government.”
While absent from the U.S., Netrebko opened the one centesimal anniversary season of Italy’s Arena di Verona in June with a brand new manufacturing of Verdi’s “Aida.”
She is scheduled to look this month on the Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and her 2023-24 season contains engagements with Berlin’s Staatsoper unter den Linden, the Vienna State Opera, Milan’s Teatro alla Scala and the Paris Opéra.
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