The Royal Opera House in London has become the center of a scandal after announcing the program for its new cinema season. In it, Anna Netrebko, a Russian opera diva known for her support of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s regime and Russian soldiers and collaborators, will play the lead role in the Tosca performance, Espreso reports.
Netrebko, a trusted figure in Putin’s election campaigns, is included in Ukraine’s sanctions list and is also listed in the Myrotvorets database as an accomplice to the occupiers during the Donbas war. Her concerts have been repeatedly canceled across Europe, in Switzerland, the Czech Republic, and Germany, due to her ties with the Kremlin and her involvement in propaganda.
Netrebko’s performance is scheduled for 1 October 2025. This particular production will open the cinema season, which is set to be broadcast in 1,500 cinemas worldwide. Ukraine’s First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Serhii Kyslytsia, has harshly criticized the theatre’s decision, calling it a “global disgrace.”
Despite this, London chose Netrebko to open the season, overshadowing the appointment of the theatre’s new music director, Jakub Hrůša. At a time when the world is fighting for moral clarity in the realm of culture, the theatre appears to still be playing by the old rules.
The masterpiece that never was: five lives behind Russia’s hidden cultural massacre
Since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale war, the Russians have killed 208 artists and 107 Ukrainian and foreign journalists.
In June 2025, Ukrainian actor-turned-soldier Yurii Felipenko, who was 32, was killed in action. The actor began his screen career in 2014, appeared in numerous famous Ukrainian TV series, and also performed extensively at Kyiv’s Academic Drama Theater.
“Yura is gone. Yura was, without exaggeration, my world, my soul, my light. It’s impossible to convey this loss. I feel like I’ve been destroyed,” his wife Kateryna wrote on Instagram.
His role involved operating drones, a critical component of modern warfare.
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