Putin’s Maestro, and the Limits of Cultural Exchange in Wartime
The New York Times
The Russian conductor Valery Gergiev and the diva Anna Netrebko have lost engagements because of their ties to Putin, as geopolitics and music collide once again.
A conductor, perceived to be aligned with the opposition in wartime, pushed from his podium in disgrace.
Another, two decades later, offered a prestigious position, only to withdraw under pressure after protests of his ties to a despised foreign regime.
The first, Karl Muck, a German-Swiss maestro, led the Boston Symphony Orchestra until he was arrested and interned, in what is now widely viewed as a shameful example of anti-German hysteria at the start of World War I.
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