Lately, I have been reading quite a bit by the yapping great and the good, calling for the wonderful Russian soprano, Anna Netrebko's coming performance of Tosca at Covent Garden to be cancelled.
As the Observer, that well known mountain or morality puts it:
"Three years on, as nightly Russian bombardments of Ukrainian cities continue, Netrebko is due to return to London to play Tosca at Covent Garden".
Shock! Horror!
https://observer.co.uk/news/national/article/anna-netrebkos-putin-problem-looms-over-royal-opera-return

Funnily enough, I never heard a peep about zionist and genocide supporter Khatia Buniatishvili, who regularly plays in Israel and was playing in the Albert Hall last night, let alone any critic calling for her performance to be cancelled.

quote:
Laundering Zionism through classical music
(This is a fairly long read if you follow the link)

While self-describing as ‘apolitical’, the MSO is embarking on a grand European tour, headlining an overtly pro-Israel pianist, with the backing and patronage of multiple Zionist donors, reasserting itself as a thoroughly Zionist institution.

The following text was written in collaboration with anonymous members of the classical music industry, and with First Nations consultation.

Recent context
On August 11 2024, during a solo recital for the MSO, pianist Jayson Gillham introduced and performed a piece of music dedicated to Palestinian journalists killed in Gaza1.

In response to Gillham’s on-stage comments, the MSO immediately cancelled his next performance and emailed2 patrons to assure them that he would no longer be appearing:

It has been a priority for us to address this difficult situation today … In standing for humanity and peace we seek for every one of our performances to be a welcome and safe place for all.

In a later attempt to explain the cancellation of Gillham, the MSO stated that ‘a concert platform is not an appropriate stage for political comment’.

This, of course, was disingenuous. The MSO often associates itself with overtly political causes. For example, the orchestra held a fundraising concert for Ukraine in 2022, and also threw its support behind the Voice to Parliament campaign.

Nowhere are the politics of the MSO more apparent than in its upcoming Zionist-funded propaganda tour of Europe, which begins next month (August 2025).

According to MSO Chair, Edgar Myer:

The decision to embark on the Europe tour heralds our first return to the region in more than 10 years. The opportunity to perform on some of the world’s great stages serves to promote the cultural identity of our city, showcasing the best of Australian arts to a global audience.

Despite Myer’s hubris, the MSO is currently both financially and reputationally embattled. In 2024, the orchestra made an AUD3.3 million loss3.

In August of that year, while Gillham received overwhelming public support, the MSO deleted the names and biographies of its managers and directors from its website, and closed its call centre to inbound calls.

Currently, the orchestra is attempting to explain its act of political discrimination against Gillham in the Australian court, having failed in its bid to have the case thrown out.

The orchestra is not attempting to repair the damage it has caused locally with principled audience members, with musicians who withdrew from scheduled MSO performances in solidarity with Gillham, or with Gillham himself.

Rather, with this tour, it is doubling down on its Zionism, hypocrisy, and political alignment with US imperialist interests.

Zionists at the MSO
The MSO’s European tour is supported by the Gandel Foundation and the ‘MSO Europe Circle Partners’.

On 13 October 2023, during the first week of the Zionist entity’s current genocidal campaign, Gandel Foundation patriarch John Gandel told the Financial Review that Israel had ‘no choice’ but to go ‘all out’ in Gaza. Hundreds of Palestinian families were already pulling bodies from the rubble.

John Gandel and his wife Pauline are long-time billionaire associates of current Zionist leader Benjamin Netanyahu, contributing to his rise through occupation politics from the beginning of his career.

In the Australian colony, the Gandels fund and collaborate with occupation lobbyists and propagandists, including the Zionist Federation of Australia (ZFA) and the United Israel Appeal (UIA).

The ZFA is an openly genocidal anti-Palestinian hate group with close ties to the the Australian government and media. Their primary activities are lobbyism, propaganda, disinformation, and the vitriolic targeting of Palestinians and their allies...

https://mattchun.substack.com/p/laundering-zionism-through-classical