Russian soprano Anna Netrebko is at the Met Opera because of her support for Putin

Soprano Anna Netrebko withdrew from her future engagements with the Metropolitan Opera rather than declining her support for Russian President Vladimir Putin, costing the company one of its best singers and the best box-office hits.

“It is a great artistic loss for the Met and the Opera,” said Peter Gelb, the Met’s general manager, in a statement Thursday. “Anna is one of the greatest singers in Met history, but with Putin killing innocent victims in Ukraine, there was no way forward.”

Gelb said on Sunday that the Met would not hire artists who support Putin.

The Met has repeatedly tried in recent days to persuade Netrebko to reject Putin but failed to convince her, said a person familiar with developments, who spoke on condition of anonymity because that detail was not disclosed.

The Met’s decision followed the collapse of the international career of Russian conductor Valery Gergiev, who was close to Putin as artistic director and general director of the Mariinsky in St. Petersburg.

The invasion of Ukraine has led to a demonstration of solidarity in Ukraine art and culture world with Ukrainians and a backlash against the Russian government and those associated with it, who will not oppose Putin’s actions. The domino effects have also reached the international sports world.

Netrebko, a 50-year-old from Krasnodar, received the People’s Artist of Russia award from Putin in 2008.

She was photographed with a Novorussian flag in 2014 after giving a 1 million ruble ($18,500 at the time) donation to the Opera House in Donetsk, a Ukrainian city controlled by pro-Russian separatists.

On Tuesday, Netrebko withdrew from all of her upcoming performances. Her next performance was at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona on April 3, followed by three concerts with her husband, Azerbaijani tenor Yusif Eyvazov, and a concert with the Berlin Philharmonic on April 13.

“I am against this senseless war of aggression and call on Russia to stop this war immediately to save us all. We need peace now,” she said. “This is not the time for me to make music and perform. I have therefore decided to withdraw from performances for the time being. It’s an extremely difficult decision for me, but I know my audience will understand and respect that decision.”

There was no immediate reaction from Netrebko to Yellow’s announcement.

Netrebko made her Met debut on February 14, 2002 in Prokofiev’s War and Peace and quickly became a crowd pleaser. She has appeared in 192 performances at the house, most recently at a New Year’s Eve gala in which she starred on December 31, 2019.

Netrebko will be replaced by Ukrainian soprano Liudmyla Monastyrska in Puccini’s Turandot for five performances from April 30 to May 14, including a performance on May 7, which will be broadcast to cinemas worldwide. The Met said Netrebko will also be replaced as Elisabetta in Verdi’s Don Carlo for five performances from November 3-19.

The Met also said it would construct its own sets and costumes for next season New production of Wagner’s “Lohengrin” rather than sharing it with Moscow’s Bolshoi Opera as originally planned.

Gergiev was fired this week as chief conductor of the Munich Philharmonic, and the Gergiev Festival, an annual event since 1996, was canceled by the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, where he was principal guest conductor from 1995 to 2008. He was too with the Vienna Philharmonicthe Edinburgh Festival in Scotland and the Teatro alla Scala in Milan.