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.