Martin Kettle accurately highlights the moral dilemma faced by the Royal Opera House in hiring the Russian soprano Anna Netrebko for the upcoming performances of Tosca (As Putin’s bombs fall on Ukraine, the Royal Opera House had a call to make about Anna Netrebko. It made the wrong one, 28 August). He goes on to place the ball in Netrebko’s court by suggesting she should withdraw from the performances or “say something unambiguous for the British audience in opposition to Putin’s continuing war”. He later acknowledges that Netrebko stated her opposition to the war at its outset and that she was attacked for her stance by the Russian regime.
Must this happen again? As Pussy Riot’s Nadya Tolokonnikova pointed out, when speaking in a 2022 Guardian interview of how she was “pretty much ready to die” when she went on hunger strike: “If you fight with a dictator, you have to show them that you are ready to fight to the end.” Members of Pussy Riot were separated from their children and endured appalling conditions in prison.
