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ARTS IN ITALY HIT BY RUSSIA'S WAR ON UKRAINE
ITALIAN CULTURE HAS BEEN IMPACTED BY THE RUSSIAN INVASION OF UKRAINE
It is not everyday that a 19th-century Russian novelist becomes a trending topic on Twitter but this is what happened in Italy in early March.
When the Bicocca university in Milan chose to drop a course on Fëdor Dostoevsky – against the backdrop of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine – all of a sudden the author of Crime and Punishment was the unlikely focus of public debate.
Bicocca informed Professor Paolo Nori that it had cancelled his lecture series, the night before it was due to begin, “to avoid any controversy, in a moment of high tension.” An emotional Nori read out the contents of the email during an Instagram live video in which he slammed the university’s decision as “ridiculous”, saying “even dead Russians” are now the target of censorship in Italy.
The university faced such a backlash that it reinstated the course the next day, stressing that it was “open to dialogue and listening even in this very difficult period.”
A few weeks later the Neapolitan street artist Jorit reignited the controversy by painting a giant portrait of Dostoevsky on the walls of a high school in Naples. “Only with culture can the
Andy Devane
Rome opera house lights up in the colours of the Ukraine flag.
causes of wars be understood and peace be built” – Jorit stated – “Culture is a universal value, of the ‘human tribe’, for which Dostoevsky is a heritage of humanity.”
The world of Italian opera also found itself embroiled in the fallout from the Russian invasion. On 24 February, hours after missiles started to rain down on Ukraine, Milan’s centreleft mayor Beppe Sala issued an ultimatum to Russian conductor Valery Gergiev who was scheduled to conduct several stagings of Tchaikovsky’s Pique Dame at La Scala in March.
The world-renowned conductor – a close friend of Russian president Vladimir Putin – was asked to make a choice: either condemn Russia’s war or don’t come back to La Scala. The mayor, who heads the board at the Milan opera house, demanded that Gergiev “take a clear position against this invasion.”
After six days of silence from the Russian conductor, and with only three days left before the next performance, the mayor “ruled out” Gergiev’s return to La Scala. It was the latest blow for the music director of the Mariinsky Theatre and one of Russia’s leading cultural ambassadors. The 68-year-old has since been dropped from a string of concerts and prestigious positions with philharmonic orchestras around the world.
Russian soprano Anna Netrebko also stepped away from La Scala, in solidarity with Gergiev, announcing that neither she nor her Azerbaijani husband Yusif Eyvazov would appear in the March production of Cilea’s opera Adriana Lecouvreur. Unlike Gergiev, however, Netrebko made it clear that she is opposed to the war and wants it to end and “for people to be able to live in peace.”
She also stressed that “forcing artists, or any public figure, to voice their political opinions in public and to denounce their homeland is not right. This should be a free choice.” Underlining that she is “not an expert in politics”, Netrebko said: “I am an artist and my purpose is to unite people across political divides.”
The façades of the opera houses in Rome and Milan are among Italy’s many landmarks to have been illuminated in the blue and yellow colours of the Ukrainian flag, in a show of support for the people of Ukraine.
The new musical director at Bologna’s Teatro Comunale, Ukrainian conductor Oksana Lyniv, released a video statement at the outset of the Russian invasion. Lyniv, who earlier this year became the first female conductor ever to be appointed as musical director of an Italian opera house, said that “everybody who keeps silent... is supporting the dictator” who has “shown his real face”, adding that Ukraine “will never give up”.
In late March Lyniv conducted Puccini’s Turandot, directed by Chinese activist Ai Weiwei, at Teatro dell’Opera di Roma. “At each rehearsal I find myself remembering my Ukrainian colleagues, because the last Turandot I directed was the one at the Odessa Opera House”, she told weekly Italian magazine Famiglia Cristiana before opening night.
Several high-profile exhibitions in Italy also got caught in the crossfire from the invasion of Ukraine and the growing international sanctions on Russia.
On 9 March the Hermitage in St Petersburg sought an immediate return of its masterpieces on loan to art institutions in Milan and Rome, however five days later it toned down its demands, allowing the works to stay in Italy for “several more weeks”. The mitigated deal between the Hermitage and the Russian culture ministry came after mediation talks by the Ermitage Italia Foundation.
Two Milan exhibitions were affected: Grand Tour at the Gallerie d’Italia which contains 25 pieces from the Russian museum including Canova’s Winged Cupid, and a Titian show at Palazzo Reale, due to end in June, featuring Young Woman with Feather Hat by the Venetian master. In Rome, Picasso’s Young Woman is on loan from
The musical director at Bologna’s Teatro Comunale, conductor Oksana Lyniv from Ukraine.
Titian show at Palazzo Reale in Milan featuring Young Woman with Feather Hat. Photo ANSA.
the Hermitage to the Alda Fendi Foundation at Palazzo Rhinoceros, with the display due to end in May.
The Hermitage works at Gallerie d’Italia were allowed to remain until the exhibition’s end on 27 March, and while no date was given for the return of the works on loan to Palazzo Reale and Fondazione Fendi, there was “certainly no longer talk of immediate withdrawal”, reported online art newspaper Finestre sull’Arte.
Hermitage director Mikhail Piotrovskij, quoted by Italian newspaper La Stampa, stated: “We are very sorry that cultural relations between our countries have collapsed in such ‘darkness’. We always say that the bridges of culture are blown up last. Now the time has come to protect them.”
In mid-March, after the bombing of a theatre in the besieged Ukrainian city of Mariupol made international headlines, the Italian government offered to rebuild it.
Announcing the news on Twitter, culture minister Dario Franceschini said the Italian cabinet had approved his proposal to “offer Ukraine the resources and means” to reconstruct the theatre as soon as possible, adding that theatres everywhere belong to all of humanity.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky wasted little time in thanking the culture minister, replying on Twitter: “You set a good example to follow. Together we will rebuild the country to the last brick.”
