"Failing to comply with Met conditions to repudiate her official support for Vladimir Putin's war in Ukraine, soprano Anna Netrebko has withdrawn from her upcoming concerts at the Met for Puccini's 'Turandot' in April and May as well as for Verdi's + Don Carlos + in the next season," the Opera said in a statement, adding that Ukrainian soprano Liudmyla Monastyrska would replace her for the opera "Turandot".

Met Opera director Peter Gelb lamented a “great artistic loss for the Met and for the opera”. Certainly “Anna is one of the greatest singers in the history of the Met, but Putin killing innocent victims, he there was no solution", regretted the leader of the prestigious Manhattan establishment.

He said in an email to AFP that he found it "difficult to imagine a scenario that would see Anna return to the Met".

The famous Russian soprano had already announced Tuesday in a press release sent to Germany that she was retiring from the stage "until further notice", but without further details.

She was due to perform on Wednesday at the Elbe Philharmonic in Hamburg but her concert has been postponed to September 2022. The singer was due to perform in March at La Scala in Milan and then in Zürich.

Aged 50, the diva has appeared in the greatest operas including "Rigoletto" or "La traviata" by Verdi, "The Capulets and the Montagues" by Bellini or "War and Peace" by Prokofiev.

In February 2014, she performed the Olympic anthem at the opening ceremony of the Sochi Games in Russia.

Anna Netrebko is considered the biggest opera star of the past ten years.

In New York, she performed several times solo at the Met Opera, in front of a full house.

Pressure is increasing on Russian artists, a week after the outbreak of war in Ukraine, to distance themselves from President Vladimir Putin, under penalty of being personae non gratae on Western stages.

The world of classical music was thus shaken on March 1 by the dismissal of conductor Valery Gergiev, a close associate of the Kremlin, from the management of the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra.

The Met Opera specified that Anna Netrebko would therefore be replaced for "Turandot" by the Ukrainian soprano Liudmyla Monastyrska in April and May.

For the role of Elisabeth de Valois for the "Don Carlo" concert in 2022-2023, a replacement will be announced later, according to the Met.

Liudmyla Monastyrska has previously sung "Turandot" at the Ukrainian National Opera and the Russian Bolshoi and made her debut at the Met Opera in New York in 2012.

© 2022 AFP