"In the last few days," a world-class opera company announced on March 21, "we have received more and more demands not to allow Russian members of the ensembles, as well as Russian guests, to perform."
In language redolent of the long forgotten Golden Age of the American Civil Rights movement, the company's announcement boldly declared, "We strictly reject these demands for separation, as well as a world view that classifies people as 'good' or 'bad' only on the basis of their origin. Current developments must not lead to the exclusion of individuals from cultural creation solely on the basis of their nationality."
Kudos to the Vienna State Opera for defending these foundational principles of a free society.
On this side of the Atlantic, however, things are far bleaker for the performing arts, particularly in our decaying cultural capitals.
On Feb. 27, New York's Metropolitan Opera, once the world's leading opera house, stated that it would sever relations with Russian artists who supported or were supported by their nation's government in response to its invasion of Ukraine.
A few days later, ironically during a run of Giuseppe Verdi's opera "Don Carlos," which features the Spanish Inquisition in a role so evil that Roman Catholics once protested it, the Met expanded its position to exclude all Russian artists who failed to denounce their government publicly.
At the Met, this mandatory declaration of faith applied even to the superstar soprano Anna Netrebko, arguably the company's greatest asset and only remaining artist who could reliably attract a sell-out audience.
Netrebko, to be clear, had unequivocally condemned Russia's invasion.
"I am opposed to this war," she wrote on Facebook a day before the Met's initial statement, "I want this war to end and for people to be able to live in peace. This is what I hope and pray for."
This was not good enough for her New York employer, however.
On March 3, the Met announced that Ms. Netrebko had "withdrawn" from her scheduled performances this season and next season after "not complying with the Met's condition that she repudiate her public support for Vladimir Putin," even though she has not voiced such support.
In an interview quoted the same day in The New York Times, the Met's general manager Peter Gelb stated that he saw no way that Ms. Netrebko could ever return to the Met, presumably even if the war ends or if Putin's regime collapses, both of which are distinctly possible.
Sadly, this is not the first time the Met has subordinated art and finances to woke virtue signaling aimed at its shrinking and far from universally sympathetic audience of New Yorkers who have not yet moved to Florida.
In 2018, the company fired its celebrated music director James Levine over decades-old sexual harassment allegations that were never proved. Levine sued for breach of contract and defamation, eventually receiving a $3.5 million settlement even as the Met suffered massive revenue losses during the pandemic.
In 2019, the Met secured star singer Plácido Domingo's withdrawal from performance amid similar unproved allegations, shabbily noting his departure after an outstanding 51-year association with the house on a flimsy strip of paper announcing a cast change. Domingo continues to enjoy a distinguished European career (Levine was scheduled for European performances but died in March 2021), yet American fans can no longer pay to hear him in their own country.
When the Met returned to regular performance in September 2021, its opening night gala performance of a new opera by a Black composer, based on the tedious memoirs of New York Times columnist Charles M. Blow, proved so unpopular that some tickets were offered at just $25 for a fundraising event that usually commands as much as $1,500.
In addition to his heedless lack of artistic sense and financial acumen, Gelb appears to have been ignorant or unconcerned with the consequences Ms. Netrebko would have faced if she had made the Met's required political declaration.
A new Russian law announced before the soprano's removal makes public criticism of the Russian government and its policies — including using the words "war" or "invasion" in reference to Ukraine — a criminal act punishable by up to 15 years in prison.
The law applies retroactively, and a subsequent amendment allows for it to be applied to Russians outside of Russia, who can be tried in absentia and imprisoned should they ever return.
In addition to these Draconian edicts, which would have made Ms. Netrebko a criminal in her country had she issued the Met's required statement, Russian dissenters and their family members, friends and associates have long faced serious "unofficial" consequences for expressing criticism, including loss of employment, unrelated legal trouble, harassment, assault, and, in some cases, death in suspicious circumstances.
It is believed that more than 15,000 Russians have already been arrested for protesting against the war, while as many as 250,000 others have fled the country, often in distressed circumstances and in fear of arrest.
In a terrible irony, like Ms. Netrebko, many of those fleeing now face discrimination abroad simply because they are Russian.
Under New York's comprehensive civil rights laws, which protect all "persons" in New York State and City from prejudicial treatment on the basis of nationality or ethnicity, Ms. Netrebko may have a legal case against the Met.
On its face, the Met, a New York employer, has required employees of only one nationality — Russians — to make a prescribed political statement as a condition of continued employment.
Imagine if the Met had required Black employees to denounce Black Lives Matter protests as BLM "activists" torched much of Fifth Avenue in the summer of 2020, or demanded that Jewish employees publicly denounce Israel over recent events in the Middle East.
Surely, the lawsuits and popular opprobrium would have been enormous, but none of this probably matters to the Met's management, which, even as the Inquisition menaces liberty on stage, seems to favor unquestioned adherence to woke dictates and perfect conformity from its artists.
For true artistic freedom, it might be time to pack one's bags for Austria. Vienna is charming in the springtime.
Paul du Quenoy is president of the Palm Beach Freedom Institute. He holds a Ph.D. in history from Georgetown University. Read more — Here.
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