A Russian journalist, Anastasia Butsko, followed the bass-baritone during the Bayreuth rehearsals for The Flying Dutchman, from which he was ultimately ejected for having a swastika tattoo.
He was the first Russian ever to win a title role at Bayreuth. A month ago, he said to her: ’This is a dangerous adventure for me. We must do everything to get out of here alive.’
We wonder what he meant by that. He also referred to the tattoos on his body as ‘a second passport’ and spoke of a childhood history of severe depression.
UPDATE: The Met stands by Nikitin (and other swastika tales). LATE EXTRA: Nikitin gives ‘the last interview‘ of his life.
Here is the Russian text:
Подробная статья на эту тему, на русском языке.
Российский певец Евгений Никитин, исполнитель главной партии в опере Вагнера “Летучий голландец”, покинул Байройт. Причиной этого стала татуировка на груди певца. Точка зрения Анастасии Буцко.
Гром грянул не совсем среди ясного неба. Некоторое напряжение чувствовалось в Байройте уже во время генеральной репетиции 18 июля. Журналисты с изумлением узнали, что во время прогона нельзя снимать сцены с участием русского Голландца – Евгения Никитина. “Как же так? “Голландец” без Голландца?” – возмущались коллеги. Потом исполнителя титульной партии, в отличие от режиссера, дирижера и исполнительницы партии Сенты, не выпустили к журналистам во время привычных предпремьерных интервью. Что тоже неслыханно.
Журналистская братия решила, что дело в кризисе вокально-художественного характера: во время самой репетиции Евгений Никитин был явно напряжен, звучал хуже, чем его партнеры. При этом под костюм у него было одето стыдливое трико, скрывающее татуировки, а татуированные руки были старательно загримированы.
И все равно новость о том, что в Байройте певец отстранен от роли за нацистскую татуировку, произвела эффект разорвавшейся бомбы.
“Не забудем, не простим?”
В пресловутом интервью передаче “Aspekte” телеканала ZDF Евгений Никитин говорит о “грехах молодости”, о том, что, мол, “у всех были татуировки” и “какой же металл без татух”. Конечно, не у каждого металлиста на груди изображена свастика. Нет никаких сомнений, что это большое свинство, и что певцу за это дело давно и очень сильно стыдно. Он давно дистанцировался от себя былого и поверх свастики нанесена новая татуировка. Однако, очевидно, Никитин не в полной мере подозревал о степени вреда, который этот “грех” может нанести его только, по сути, начинающейся международной карьере. Иначе он, конечно, позаботился бы о том, чтобы удалить провоцирующее его видео с канала Youtube (где оно и было найдено журналистами ZDF), воспользовался бы услугами косметической хирургии для ликвидации последствий “греха” (это не так сложно) и позаботился бы о лучшей пиар-поддержке.
Разница контекстов
Сейчас, конечно, поздновато “пить “Боржоми” и плакать по волосам, снявши голову. Не оправдывая людей, которые накалывают себе свастику (хоть бы и во времена алкоголизированной юности), хотелось бы, однако, указать на некоторые несоответствия. Режиссер Ян Филипп Глогер (Jan Philipp Gloger), в большой степени принимавший решение об отстранении Никитина от роли, говорит во всех интервью о том, что цель его постановок “заставить людей более внимательно и бережно относиться друг к другу”. Он же отзывался до сих пор о Евгении как о “мощном человеке с разновекторной биографией”, с которым именно в силу этой биографии “особенно интересно работать именно над этой ролью”. Напомню, что Голландец – это в некоторой степени воплощение зла, которому дается редкий шанс на преображение.
Но почему же Глогер не познакомился поближе со своим первым певцом? Почему не поинтересовался, например, его детством, проведенным в Мурманске. Евгений рассказывает, что уже в молодые годы страдал от тяжелых депрессий, особенно во время полярных ночей. Или юностью, которую, как признался сам певец в интервью DW, он “провел на улице, понаделав ошибок”. Или самим временем, на которое пришлась эта юность: шальными 90-ми годами в распавшемся Советском Союзе, когда ныне 30-летний Глогер еще был подростком и ходил в лучшую гимназию городка Хаген?
В том же интервью DW Евгений признался, что татуировки на теле – это его “второй паспорт”. Например, на тыльной стороне одной из рук изображен паук в паутине: татуировка наркоманов-героинистов. Благодаря музыке (и покровительству Валерия Гергиева) Евгений вырвался из этого мрака. Молодец! Бесчеловечно и бессовестно попрекать его сегодня грехами молодости. Кстати, и репортер телеканала ZDF, невольно спровоцировавший отставку Никитина, весьма благодушно рассказывал о “повзрослевшем и исправившемся экс-панке”.
Специфика Байройта и “защита Тилемана”?
Нервозность руководства Байройтского фестиваля понятна и тысячу раз объяснима: да, спектакли до сих пор идут все в том же зале, где сидел не только Вагнер (тоже тот еще провозвестник политкорректности), но и Гитлер, и вся нацистская верхушка. Да, фестиваль только-только “отмылся” от коричневой грязи и очень не хочет допустить даже малейшего подозрения в подобных грехах. Но то, что ради этой цели в мгновение ока ставится крест, возможно, на всей карьере молодого певца, непростительно и вызывает сомнения в том, что за фасадом политкорректности скрывается истинное признание гуманистических ценностей.
Раз уж на то пошло, то можно предположить, что устранение Никитина стало и мерой по защите ключевой фигуры Байройтского фестиваля – дирижера Кристиана Тилемана (Christian Thielemann), чья, скажем так, патриотическая ориентация и резкие высказывания нередко оказывались на грани фола. Видимо, в свете поднявшегося скандала сочетание в одном спектакле Тилемана и Никитина показалось слишком опасным. Но тогда это тем более некрасиво по отношению к российскому певцу.
И все-таки об искусстве
За всем этим сумбуром хочется сказать несколько слов о музыке. Евгений Никитин – первый русский певец, который все-таки дотянул до байройтского уровня. Ну, или, скажем так, почти дотянул: несмотря на шесть недель тщательной полировки роли звучал Евгений, как уже было сказано, не блестяще. Да, это была только репетиция. Но все-таки нельзя исключать, что у певца, для которого от байройтского дебюта зависело так много, сдали нервы, и он почувствовал себя чисто физически не в состоянии к испытанию премьерой на Зеленом холме. “Это для меня опасное приключение, – сказал Евгений в беседе с DW месяц назад. – Надо сделать все, чтобы уйти оттуда живым!”. Как в воду глядел.
Проклятие “Голландца”?
Раз в семь лет сходит вагнеровский “Голландец” на землю. Раз в семь лет дается ему шанс на то, что тяготеющее над ним вековое проклятие будет снято. Для этого его, как известно, должна навеки полюбить чистая сердцем девушка. Трудно сказать, как теперь Евгению Никитину, несостоявшемуся байройтскому Голландцу, снимать проклятие свастики. Остается надеяться, что шанс на это появится у него раньше, чем через семь лет.
Дата 21.07.2012
Автор Анастасия Буцко
Редактор Вадим Шаталин
http://www.dw.de/dw/article/0,,16117…-4786-x
This is strange. The text implies there were major artistic problems between Nikitin and the conductor/director team.
Then Bayreuth did not want to release any pictures with Nikitin from the rehearsal with press attendance, very unusual. That was days before the ZDF broadcast and BamS publication of the old swastica tattoo.
So maybe the real turn of events was they wanted to get rid of him on short notice and to look not stupid why so short before the premiere, they launched this fatal swastika report? I hope not.
It’s true that the conflicts Nikitin had at Bayreuth predate any discussion of his tattoos. Could it be that the news reports about the tattoos were merely a way of getting rid of him?
There is a suggestion in the above article in Russian that Thieleman resented Nikitin’s presence. There is an interesting constellation between Bayreuth’s history, Thieleman’s nationalism and rightwing politics, and the engagement of a Russian singer. Germans that, shall we say, hold to older values, despise Russians. During WWII, eighty percent of the Wehrmacht was engaged on the Eastern front. In essence, it was the Russians (along with other Soviet countries) who defeated the Third Reich. It was the Russian led military who occupied Berlin and who commented atrocities such as mass rape.
Hence the irony of a Russian singer working with a nationalistic, rightwing, German conductor in a place with Bayreuth’s history. Perhaps digging up the old photos of Nikitin’s swastika tattoos, which some time ago were completely covered by other tattoos, was merely a shot below the belt to eliminate a Russian at Bayreuth. Christian’s close relationship with Eva and Katarina Wagner is well-known. Could they be that sinister?
In any case, this whole story just doesn’t add up and there is probably much more to be uncovered than chest tattoos. The events seem to fuel the suspicians that fairly or unfairly haunt both Bayreuth and Thieleman. As an example, see the photo included in this report by Operachic about Thieleman:
http://operachic.typepad.com/opera_chic/2009/10/herr-doktor-thielemann-takes-dresden-without-firing-a-shot.html
Interesting point. A good friend of mine – a remarkable woman who is a few years older than me – grew up in post-war Germany, and spent most of her adult life working through personal and cultural baggage. A few years ago, she got talking with a Soviet WWII veteran who served on the frontline in the final days. He told her that the Germans were so short of soldiers by then, that they were sending teenage boys into the frontline.
This fellow and his colleagues must have had some humanity about them, as they just took the weapons off these boys and sent them back.
About half of Germany’s six million casualties in WWII occurred during the last 10 months of the war. Their soldiers no longer had the necessary weapons or personnel to defend themselves. It was just a slaughter on the Eastern Front because Hitler had to have his Gotterdammerung and wouldn’t surrender. And the atrocities committed by the Russians in the areas they were occupying (though far less severe than those committed by the Germans when they had the advantage) only exacerbated the matter. And after victory, the Russians divided Germany. This history is relevant since Nikitin is the first Russian who was to sing in Germany’s holy temple of culture and national identity. What a sad failure this has been. I hope all concerned will try again. Bayreuth should be a place where the world comes together.
Bayreuth IS a place where the world comes together. Just look at the “Jahrhundert-Ring” in 1976 and it’s protagonists and many other productions. Yet not Russia, that’s true, but only a matter of time.
It is not correct that “the Russians divided Germany.”
Plans to divide Germany after the allied victory were drafted at the conference in Tehran 1943 and finalized en detail in Jalta in February 1945, months before the final victory, and by the big three allies, US, Britain and the Soviets.
Also you are wrong with the hyperbole, that Bayreuth were “Germany’s holy temple of culture and national identity”. That’s really bollocks.
The Russians built the wall.
That’s going to carry us off topic, but no, it’s not that simple. Germany was effectively divided in the years 1947-1949, and then mostly by unilateral actions of the western allies, Währungsreform, Trizone, Constitution of the Federal Republic etc. Western allies and the Soviets could not agree on most matters in the allied control board. But to say that’s just the fault of the Russkies is wrong.
The wall in 1961 was just a desperate measure of the East Germans, and last nail into the coffin of German division, to stabilize a country bleeding to death from an Exodus of qualified people.
If Thielemann dislikes Russians so much, he’s not going to have much fun in Baden-Baden.
Which is maybe why he is going to Salzburg instead?
Admittedly there appears to be something in this entire story which doesn’t quite add up.
But let’s not get into wild consiracy theories.
If Thielemann had had any objections to Nikitin, artistic or otherwise, why wait until the Generalproble to get rid of him?
Just days before the premiere: that can only reflect badly on the festival itself, particuarly Katharina and Eva and, by reflection, on Thielemann, too.
The last thing the festival needs at this stage is bad publicity like this.
Without wishing to dis Samuel Youn, Nikitin has much more charisma as a singer and would be, as the FAZ puts it, the ideal Dutchman.
And why is Nikitin now giving interview after interview about his tattoos. If there were, indeed, more “sinister” reasons as you suggest, wouldn’t he be only too eager to spill the beans now that he’s safely out of Bayreuth’s reach?
Based on decades of working as a professional musician in Germany, the possible scenario I suggest would not be unusual, and certainly not wild. When personal animosities exist among classical musicians, they will resort to about anything to discredit their opponents.
The first step is to try to create insecurity in the musician, to make him or her feel inadequate – usually as a form of mobbing. This was clearly the first stage in this fiasco. Based on what Nikitin has said, they made him feel inadequate even though he is a great singer with a lot of professional experience. When even this wouldn’t work to get rid of him, they played the tattoo card. I seriously doubt any of this had anything to do with Nikitin’s musicianship. He is just not the type to take Thieleman’s abuse and things evolved to their current point. Especially notable has been Thieleman’s eagerness to bring up the swastika issue. That aspect of German history has never been one of his more sensitive concerns. Why the sudden change?
And actually, the late date of Nikitin’s dismissal only makes my theory more plausible. The tattoo was well-known so why did they bring it up so late? And if musicianship had been a problem, it would have been clear much earlier in the rehearsals. It appears to me that the issue was getting rid of a Russian who wouldn’t be bullied at all costs. They could not bear the idea of him performing.
As for Nikitin not addressing these issues in interviews, musicians treated this way often do not fully know what was going on behind the scenes. The motives for the specious criticisms are by necessity kept hidden.
There are likely variances to the details, but I think this general scenario is worth investigating. In any case, something once again stinks in Bayreuth.
Interesting on at least a couple of counts. Firstly, applying Ockham’s razor, or the principle of parsimony, the tattoo – or more specifically the timing of the publicity about it – is the simplest explanation. It probably suffices on its own: even with the tattoo being known about beforehand, in the absence of timely adverse publicity, it wouldn’t necessarily have been an issue. That is, I think timely adverse publicity alone suffices to explain the phenomenon in the context of contemporary Germany.
On the other hand, I have seen first hand dysfunctional dynamics and the levels of orchestrated skulduggery that so-called professional people can get up to (not in the music field). I have seen all you describe and more, and personally helped see off a number of troublemakers over a period of years, from peers to senior managers. I should note I didn’t make it a mission to do so. I simply buggered up their every move (with a few exceptions when I gave the wrong people the benefit of doubt), especially when they tried to destroy one or two very good people (on the other hand, I always DID make it my mission to foster good people: bastardry will occur regardless of what we do, but good people need fostering). I did pay a price though, but that’s another story.
The point is, that both scenarios are feasible, as is a combination. When you are in a favoured position, allowances can be made that, should the situation change, become the very basis for your downfall.
When you put it like that, William, it certainly sounds credible.
I dare say we’ll never get to the bottom of this.
But if Thielemann so disliked Niktin, for whatever reason, why was he hired in the first place?
They must have done their research about him before offering him a contract.
And Thielemann, given his position on the Grüner Hügel and the fact that he was already down to conduct Holländer, will have had a say in the screening of candidates.
It’s not as if Nikitin, for all his credits as a singer, is already a household name where Thielemann couldn’t exactly say no.
That’s where I don’t get it.
And waiting until the Generalprobe still doesn’t add up, especially when they come up with a replacement as anodyne, (Sorry, Samuel!) as Youn.
I can believe that Thielemann might be prone to such behind-the-scene politicking. But Katharina and Eva?
They’re just bumbling fools. They’re simply not smart enough for such machinations.
Actually, conductors often aren’t closely involved with hiring singers at opera houses. The artistic director generally selects singers, stage designers, stage directors, conductors, and choreographers.
Sometimes the GMD is also the artistic director of a house, but that is rare. I seriously doubt Katarina would surrender that much authority to any conductor, even Thieleman. Another reason conductors are often not involved is that singers often have to be booked years in advance due to their full schedules. And even when conductors might pick singers or soloists, the dynamic can still go bad once work begins.
We might also remember that Thieleman stormed away from the Munich Phil exactly because they would not let him determine who the guest conductors would be. (The Munich Phil suffered terribly because Celibidachi would only allow hack guest conductors. He did not want any competition. They did not want to be put in that position again.) Thileman is an old-style, authoritarian conductor who feels he should have absolute control concerning with whom he works and virtually every other matter. I suspect this is what is behind this conflict.
I don’t think its Eva’s and Katrina’s style to treat Nikitin so shabbily. I can’t say for sure, but I think they are very decent people. Thieleman on the other hand, has had many serious disputes with musicians and administrators and this conflict with Nikitin seems to fit a pattern. That’s why I think Thieleman might be behind this. Due to nationalistic sensibilities, he is a German darling and the Wagner’s are in his thrall. I have the suspicion that he pushed Eva and Katarina into this fiasco. They would do well not to let people like Thieleman push them into shabby behavior.
@ William, please be careful not to get carried away by your own conjecture. Just because it makes sense (to you) doesn’t mean it is factually true. Could be, but we don’t know.
“Due to nationalistic sensibilities, he is a German darling”
I don’t like these types of subtle yet strong insults. Even if Thielemann stands for a certain type of interpretation, deeply rooted in German musical (!) culture, that doesn’t make it nationalistic.
@ Wanderer: Rightly or wrongly, many view Thieleman as nationalistic and right-wing. Here are four discussions of this topic among countless examples:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/4722625/Why-were-awash-with-sorry-soaps.html
http://mostlyopera.blogspot.com/2008/12/christian-thielemann.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2001/jan/04/artsfeatures1
http://www.oocities.org/vienna/5000/feature/0401thielemann.html
@ William. I know that there is much chatter about this. But is it true? Despite all the rumors there is nothing from Thielemann himself that could nurture such categorization. If you actually hear him speak and read his interviews, he always voices views, that are in line with his self proclaimed “liberal-conservative” position. (that is “liberal” in the original sense, not the bastardized American sense)
Above links are useless in learning about Thielemann’s actual positions. It’s as relevant as teenager forums who debate if Justin Biber is gay or not.
The mistake many make is to draw conjecture from Thielemann’s preferred repertoire (German titans), his relationship to Wagner and Bayreuth and his upbringing in a traditional national-conservative family in West-Berlin to him being “nationalistic” and “right-wing”.
But I’m very curious to learn your thoughts or read your quotes, that might challenge my position on this.
@ Wanderer: My only suggestion for oh-so-innocent Mr. Thielemann would be that if he doesn’t want the peaches, he should stop shaking the tree…
shaking what tree? what are you talking about? Give us some facts or don’t say anything.
“oh-so-innocent”, what do you mean? Is he not innocent? Has he committed some crime?
I don’t get it. Maybe you just don’t like him?
The issue of Thielemann’s nationalism and right-wing politics is difficult to discuss. He knows where the limits are, of course, and treads them very carefully. The journalist in the above article in Russian puts it well, when he says, Thielemann’s “patriotic attitude and harsh words are often on the brink of a foul.” He skillfully treads the brink, and this is followed by the inevitable, and seemingly disingenuous denials of his supporters.
His purported comments about “the Jewish mess in Berlin” have hardly helped matters. Many found his denial that he made the statement implausible, and in fact, he lost a slander suit related to the issue. It was difficult not to think a race card was being utilized by some in his power struggles with Barenboim.
Sometimes Thielemann’s comments scream with ironies. When he took over the Munich Phil he said he was going to take the orchestra “back to its roots.” Never mind that the Munich Phil was known as “The Orchestra of the Fascist Movement,” we are to instead take this as an emphasis on romantic German composers. The roots should be carefully selected — and carefully delininated in such comments. These sorts of curious statements seem to happen a little too frequently. Combined with his old-fashioned, authoritarian behavior, it seems little wonder that eyebrows are raised.
All of this might pass, but then there is the indefinable way he stresses his admiration for Wagner, Strauss, and Pfitzner – all composers closely associated with National Socialism. For decades, Pfitzner was something of an untouchable due to his anti-Semitism and close collaboration with the Reich. I can see rehabilitating his music (some of which is stunningly beautiful,) but it is ironic that Pfitzner is championed by someone whose “patriotic attitude and harsh words are often on the brink of a foul.”
And then there is his close relationship to Bayreuth and the Wagner family which is inevitably seen as another piece in the puzzle (though I don’t see that way.) And to that is added his especially close relationship with the Vienna Philharmonic, an orchestra known for its sexist and racist employment practices. Does it all add up to something a bit creepy? For many it does.
It wouldn’t be hard for Thielemann to solve this image problem. Why not champion the music of some of the survivors. Several were very good composers. Why not add some Schonberg to his regular repertoire? Gestures like these seem obvious, and yet they are for the most part oddly absent.
After the wall came down, a new German nationalism evolved of which Thielemann is a part. In fact, I think he is consciously using this new German nationalism as a sort a trademark and alliance to build his career. But as I say, this all lies within the realm of plausible deniability – a task his supporters eagerly embrace. That is what makes Thielemann’s game so interesting and so clever.
OK, let’s look at your opinions.
-the “jewish mess” accusation: I think you should be very careful with this. It’s a grave insult to blame him for it if he didn’t say it. One should say such things only if one is absolutely certain about it and you aren’t. So using this rumor says more about you than about him. He said he didn’t say this. I lived in Berlin in those years and I’m well connected there. This rumor did neither originate there, nor was it an issue. It must come from somewhere else. SInce it is speculative it could be as likely an attempt to discredit Thielemann.
-taking the Much Phil “back to it’s roots”.
Again it says much about you, but nothing about Thielemann, that you see their roots in the Nazi time, when in fact their roots are at the turn from 19th to 20th century, with Felix Weingartner and Gustav Mahler.
-likes Wagner, Strauss and Pfitzner: can we dismiss liking Wagner and Strauss right away, because that’s hardly an indication of right-wing sympathies or nationalism. Almost everybody likes them. Remains Pfitzner. Indeed, but is it possible to just like his music? Anyway, you get one point for Pfitzner.
-close relationship to Wagner and Bayreuth: you dismissed it yourself.
-close to Vienna Phil: so was Leonard Bernstein, Carlos Kleiber and many others. Vienna Phil is just a damn fantastic orchestra. WHich conductor would not like to have a close relationship with them? You get no points here. Creepy? Lenny creepy? Solti creepy? Gustav Mahler creepy? They all enjoyed close relationships to the Vienna Phil. Vienna Phil racist? Give me a break, laughable, I know a few Sinti&Roma in their ranks.
-then as a last effort you cling to the logical fallacy, that because Thielemann does not actively promote music of Holocaust survivors or Schönberg, he must be nationalostic and whatever.
No points here. Hogwash.
-New German nationalism after the wall came down? Where, manifested in what?
You have really achieved only to collect a pile of hogwash and empty conjecture, plus Pfitzner.
Seriously, could it be, that you simply can’t stand a German conductor, proud of his German musical heritage, successful and continuing in that German tradition of orchestra culture, sound and interpretation? Something that you would gladly grant any protagonist of another nation who makes good use of his national culture, but not to a German. Right?
P.S. Let me add on a more compassionate note: I do understand many of your thoughts and suspicions. But I’m tired of these speculative debates. I know Thielemann well enough to understand that he has a personal life and a professional life. And that in his personal life he is a very special character with a very special past. But I simply don’t see him as a political figure. He grew up in a national-conservative environment and Sigmund Freud would have something to say about his very special relationship to his own mother, who still travels with her boy as much as possible. Let’s concentrate on music and on what people actually say and do.
Thielemann personally casted Nikitin two years ago in Munich, together with one of the Wagner sisters. That’s a fact. The rest I don’t know, but something smells.
Courtesy of Emil Archambault in an earlier post (http://www.artsjournal.com/slippeddisc/2012/07/just-in-yevgeny-nikitin-i-never-wanted-a-swastika-tattoo.html), the following link (http://intermezzo.typepad.com/intermezzo/2012/07/nazi-singer-kicked-out-of-bayreuth.html ) which some or all of you may have read already, gives a context that brings me back to the timing of the publicity as the simplest explanation
It says Bayreuth “actively centred pre-production marketing around…Nikitin’s tattoos”. This brings us back to Ockham’s razor, and the possible simplest explanation for a given phenomenon. There is a saying that where conspiracy and incompetence are two possible explanations, incompetence is typically the best bet. In this case, maybe their own marketing simply backfired on them. That does happen, and rapid, damage control backpedaling is probably the most common response.
I have followed this story with great interest and a number of points come to mind which other readers may or may not agree with.
Mr Nikitin has,as I understand it,.frankly said that he regrets what happened in his youth and wishes that he had never had the tattoo and has done his best to cover it up.The irony of all this that is that the criticism has come from Bayreuth of all places which of all the music festivals had the closest connection to Hitler and his entourage
Mr Nikitin has at least apologised for his error of judgment but I am not aware of Bayreuth ever issuing an apology for it’s even BIGGER error of judgment
If Bayreuth wished to make a complete break with it’s somewhat murky past why engage artists such as Furtwangler;Karajan,Krauss,Bohm,Scwarzkopf etc all of whom had a much closer connection to the Nazi party than does this young man.
Perhaps Bayreuth should remember this Biblical phrase “Let him who is without sin amongst you cast the first stone”
“If Bayreuth wished to make a complete break with it’s somewhat murky past why engage artists such as Furtwangler;Karajan,Krauss,Bohm,Scwarzkopf etc all of whom had a much closer connection to the Nazi party than does this young man”
In this instance common sense prevailed and they still booked these people! The clear break with their murky past was expressed in the forward looking nature of some of the directors : Wieland Wagner ( the most talented of the clan) and Patrice Cherau are the most famous ones to spring to mind.
I think you and I are in agreement each in our different ways.What I think we are saying is that artistic excellence takes precedence,or have I misunderstood you,in which case I apologise.Surely,however,by the same principle if Mr Nitikin was engaged because he was considered to be the best singer for the part then your quite correctly expressed views of common sense and artistic excellence should apply just as much to Mr Nikitin as they did for example to Karajan who in his youth (Just about the same age as Mr Nikitin is now) was a Nazi Party card holder,which I am inclined to think was a far worse crime,in the great scheme of things, than a tattooed swastika as stupid as that is
As Oscar Wilde once said, “Life imitates art far more than art imitates life.” We sing our worlds into being. Totalitarian attitudes in art create totalitarian societies. Fortunately, some artists create more humanistic visions. In “The Idea of Order at Key West” Wallace Stevens expressed a similar idea:
“And when she sang, the sea,
Whatever self it had, became the self
That was her song, for she was the maker. Then we,
As we beheld her striding there alone,
Knew that there never was a world for her
Except the one she sang and, singing, made.”
yes, we are indeed in agreement….sorry if i may’ve caused confusion!
Hi Geoff
Thanks for your kind reply. Much appreciated
Regards
In this Deutsche Welle article (http://www.dw.de/dw/article/0,,16118550,00.html) it says:
“However, the singer, in an interview with DW, revealed that he was asked a year ago to have all his tattoos photographed and to submit the pictures to the festival, which he’d done. Nikitin had initially assumed that his body ornaments were to be “integrated into the artistic concept.”
It seem to me this should absolutely rule out the swastika as a real reason for the break up. So, why he did not fight back? Why doesn’t he threaten by lawsuit? What comes to my mind is what the Bayreuth clan was doing (or at least trying to do) to the famous Croatian mezzo Milka Trnina after she disobeyed Cosima and sang the first out of Bayreuth Kundry in NY.
The PR in Nikitin’s defense is a disaster. He himself and his agents are unable to do the most obvious things. First a clear statement, that today there is no swastika on his body. Others had to find this out, he could have simply stated that. Many new outlets are unaware of that fact and keep stating that he currently has a swastika tattoo, which is untrue.
Then this idiotic press release from someone in Petersburg, that the tattoo in the old video clip was an unfinished substage of a full 8 pointed star. Who was going to believe that nonsense? Unfinished for almost 20 years? As much as I feel sorry for Nikitin, as much I must say he is in a hole and keeps shoveling. Where is his agency IMG in this? Are they sleeping?
Those looking forward to a greater Russian presence in Bayreuth might remember that Kirill Petrenko will conduct the new Ring in 2013.