Conductor Ivan Velikanov was suspended from performing at the Moscow Golden Mask festival after he delivered an anti-war speech to the Nizhny Novgorod audience and performed Beethoven’s Ode to Joy.
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On February 25, at the Nizhny Novgorod Opera, before the performance of The Marriage of Figaro, Velikanov announced that the musicians were for peace, they were against war, after which the Ode to Joy was performed, which “expresses the ideas of peace best of all.” Conductor notedthat it was exclusively his initiative, the Nizhny Novgorod Opera House was not aware.
The anti-war speech caused Velikonov to be suspended from conducting Le nozze di Figaro on March 1 in Moscow at the Golden Mask festival. Instead, Fabio Mastrangelo stood up for the conductor’s bullets,
The play “The Marriage of Figaro” by the Nizhny Novgorod Opera and Ballet Theater received seven nominations for the Russian national theater award “Golden Mask”. The stage director of the performance, Ivan Velikanov, was nominated in the Opera / Conductor’s category, but since he did not participate in the festival, the jury did not consider his candidacy.
