Italy’s Royal Palace of Caserta announced on Monday, July 21st, that it was cancelling a weekend concert of pro-Kremlin maestro Valery Gergiev—a vocal supporter of Russian President Vladimir Putin—after an uproar from politicians and Kremlin critics.
Gergiev has not condemned Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, a stance for which he was fired from the Munich Philharmonic in March 2022. He has not played a concert in Europe since.
The scheduling of the concert in the 18th century palace near Naples—now a museum—had caused a heated debate in Italy, with Ukraine condemning the move and Russia’s exiled opposition calling for protests.
Days of uncertainty over whether the concert would take place ended with an abrupt cancellation, for which the Royal Palace of Caserta gave no official reason.
Moscow’s ambassador to Italy, Alexei Paramonov, slammed the move as a “scandalous situation.”
In a statement on the Russian embassy’s Facebook account, Paramonov railed against Western politicians’ “policy of cancelling Russian culture.”
He also said it was sad to watch Italy “subordinate its cultural policy to the demands of Ukrainians and other immigrants.”
Italian Culture Minister Alessandro Giuli—who had earlier warned that the concert risked turning into a propaganda event—said the cancellation was “common sense” and aimed at “protecting the values of the free world.”
