Hundreds of protesters gathered outside London’s Royal Opera House demanding the cancellation of concerts by Russian opera singer Anna Netrebko, after organizers ignored calls to remove her from the program, Radio Svoboda reported on 7 September.

Ukraine’s Ambassador to the United Kingdom Valeriy Zaluzhnyi also spoke out against Netrebko’s participation in the season.

All tickets for the events have already been sold out. Her first appearance at the British Royal Opera in the 2025/26 season is planned for 11 September.

Protesters stood outside the opera house with Ukrainian and British flags, holding cardboard signs calling for the concerts to be cancelled and the soprano to be replaced.

“As an Englishman, I feel ashamed of the Royal Opera’s hypocrisy, and how they have betrayed Ukraine. This is a disgrace to the British nation. This affects me very strongly because Anna is close to Putin, and Russian artists are generally allowed to perform while Ukrainian artists sacrifice their lives,” protester Steven Lacy told Radio Svoboda.

In a column for British newspaper Daily Mail, Valeriy Zaluzhnyi emphasized that Netrebko’s participation is unacceptable for Ukrainians, and the singer herself is not a victim of circumstances as she presents herself:

“Her voice on stage drowns out the real cries – the cries from destroyed maternity hospitals in Mariupol, schools in Kharkiv, kindergartens in Kramatorsk. And while Netrebko will sing about an imagined tragedy, for us these sounds echo a real one. Tosca will be weeping with the tears of Ukrainian children.”

He added that Netrebko’s voice on the international stage is an instrument of cultural influence that “legitimizes murders in Ukraine.”

“This is not just a cultural occasion. This is a test. Will we allow Putin to use art as a curtain to hide his crimes? Will we allow his closest allies to stand on the world’s stages as if nothing has happened? Russia always tries to smuggle betrayal into the very soul. It does so under beautiful words, under music, under the guise of culture. But behind this mask of high art lie blood and ruins,” Valeriy Zaluzhnyi wrote.

Earlier, more than 50 Ukrainian cultural figures, British, French and New Zealand politicians and activists signed an appeal to the opera administration not to allow Netrebko on the London stage.

Among the signatories were diplomat Serhiy Kyslytsia, writers Andriy Kurkov, Serhiy Zhadan, Kateryna Babkina, former New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark, Holodomor researcher Daria Mattingly, political science professor Olga Onuch, British politician Alex Sobel and many others.

“The Royal Opera now faces a defining choice: between status and responsibility, between profit and values, between silence and conscience. We call on you, as you have consistently done, to remain on the ethical side of art and history,” the letter stated.

About Anna Netrebko

Anna Netrebko is a Russian opera singer who has also held Austrian citizenship since 2006, where she currently lives. She was Putin’s trusted person in elections and received awards from him. In 2014, the singer supported the pseudo-republics “L/DNR” and was photographed with the flag of the so-called “Novorossiya.” In 2022, under pressure from her European agents, she published an anti-war statement, hoping to continue her career in Europe.

In January 2023, she was included in Ukraine’s sanctions list. After the start of the full-scale war in Ukraine, Netrebko was fired from the Metropolitan Opera in New York due to her connection with the Kremlin.

Anna Netrebko filed a complaint against the Metropolitan Opera’s actions with the American Guild of Musical Artists, which represents opera performers. An arbitrator in this case ordered the institution to pay her over $200,000 for 13 cancelled performances. Later, the singer continued to sue, demanding at least $360,000 for discrimination based on nationality, defamation and breach of contract. The Metropolitan was able to challenge her claims.

She was later denied participation in a concert in Stuttgart. The singer was also removed from performances at the Bavarian Opera and Milan’s La Scala.

However, already in autumn 2022, Netrebko continued performing in Europe and worldwide. Her schedule then included performances in Milan, Verona, Belgrade, Baden-Baden, Berlin and other cities.

In May 2023, the famous Milan theater La Scala returned Netrebko to its stage.

But not all countries agree to show audiences performances by Putin’s admirer again. In August 2023, Tallinn, Estonia cancelled a concert by Netrebko and her husband Yusif Eyvazov. Also in early May 2024, a performance by the pro-Putin opera singer was cancelled by the Culture and Congress Centre (KKL) in the Swiss city of Lucern.

In February 2025, Anna Netrebko performed at a gala concert with Palm Beach Opera in Florida. This was her first performance in the United States in over five years.

The Russian opera singer last appeared on an American stage before the pandemic, in 2019. For almost two decades, she was a prima donna of the Metropolitan Opera.

On 7 September, several hundred demonstrators gathered outside London’s Royal Opera House to protest scheduled performances by Russian soprano Anna Netrebko, according to Radio Liberty.

The opera singer is set to perform four shows in Giacomo Puccini’s “Tosca” beginning 11 September, with all tickets already sold out.

Why protesters want her canceled?

The opposition stems from Netrebko’s documented ties to the Kremlin, Radio Liberty reports.

She served as Vladimir Putin’s proxy in the 2012 presidential elections and was photographed in 2014 with separatist leader Oleg Tsarev, holding a flag of the so-called “Novorossiya” in Russian-occupied territory.

That same year, she donated one million rubles to a Donetsk opera theater already under Russian control. At the time, she stated she “simply wanted to support art.”

“As an Englishman, I feel shame for the Royal Opera’s hypocrisy,” protester Steven Lacey told Radio Liberty. “Russian artists are allowed to perform while Ukrainian artists are sacrificing their lives.”

Cultural and political figures demand her removal

Opposition to Netrebko’s appearance extends beyond street protests. Fifty prominent Ukrainian and international figures signed an open letter demanding her removal from the London performances, published by the Guardian.

Signatories include Ukraine’s Deputy Foreign Minister Serhiy Kyslytsia, writers Andriy Kurkov and Serhiy Zhadan, and British MP Alex Sobel.

They describe her as “a long-standing symbol of cultural propaganda for a regime responsible for serious war crimes.” The signatories also criticized statements by the Royal Opera’s executive director suggesting that previous support for Ukraine reflected a “global consensus at the time” that has since changed due to the “complex geopolitical situation.”

However, Netrebko claims she opposes the war. After the Metropolitan Opera in New York fired her in March 2022 for refusing to distance herself from Putin, she posted on Facebook condemning the full-scale invasion. She insisted she never received Russian government funding and isn’t allied with any Russian leader. Later, the Bavarian State Opera in Munich also terminated her contracts following protests.

The Royal Opera House stands nearly alone among top-tier institutions in maintaining her engagement.

Zaluzhnyi calls her “soft power” to mask Russian crimes

Ukraine’s Ambassador to the UK and former Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces Valerii Zaluzhnyi wrote in the Daily Mail that Netrebko “is not a victim of circumstance” but “made her choice” through decades of supporting Putin.

He argued that “artists like Netrebko are the Kremlin’s ‘soft power‘” designed to present Russia as civilized while masking its aggression.

“Her voice on stage drowns out the real cries – the cries from destroyed maternity hospitals in Mariupol, schools in Kharkiv, kindergartens in Kramatorsk,” he writes.

Zaluzhnyi described her upcoming performance as a test of whether the West will “allow Putin to use art as a curtain to hide his crimes” and permit “his closest allies to stand on the world’s stages as if nothing has happened.”

“It is proof that even after Bucha, Mariupol, Kramatorsk, Russian artists with a past in service to a dictator can once again take to Europe’s finest stages,” he states.

Zaluzhnyi emphasized that he is not calling for censorship, but rather for memory and honesty. 

Netrebko’s first performance is scheduled for 11 September, with Czech conductor Jakub Hrůša leading the production. The sold-out shows suggest public appetite remains strong, even as institutional and diplomatic pressure mounts.