Anna Netrebko and Yusif Eyvazov’s Lucerne concert has been canceled.

In a statement, the KKL Culture said, “The KKL Lucerne is not available for Anna Netrebko’s concert on June 1, 2024. Public perception of the soloist remains controversial. Due to the temporal and geographical proximity of Ms. Netrebko’s performance to the Ukraine peace conference, a threat to public order had to be expected. For this reason, the KKL Luzern was asked by the cantonal and municipal authorities to cancel the concert.”

It added, “With regard to tickets purchased directly from the KKL Luzern in advance, purchasers of these tickets will be informed as soon as possible about the next steps.”

In response to the cancelation Netrebko’s management issued the following statement and said, “The KKL in Lucerne has today announced its unilateral cancellation of Anna Netrebko’s and Yusif Eyvazov’s concert scheduled for 1 June 2024, contrary to their contractual obligations with the promoters. We regret this decision. This concert has been on sale for years, after having been postponed. The reason given by the hall is that the combination of a recently scheduled peace conference for Ukraine and Anna Netrebko’s long-standing performance will threaten the public order – even though the conference is taking place two weeks after the June 1 concert. Unless the KKL possesses powers of precognition, we disagree, with two years of past experience to support our position. Anna Netrebko has been residing in Austria since 2006, since when she has been holding both Russian and Austrian citizenship. In March 2022, after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Anna Netrebko made several statements declaring her opposition to the war and calling for peace in Ukraine. Since then, her position has not varied nor has she returned to Russia. Despite some peaceful demonstrations of Ukrainian activists exercising their right to free speech, none of Anna Netrebko’s almost 100 performances since March 2022 have led to a disturbance of the public order. KKL’s programming choices as recently as last year discredit their actions which, combined with the publicly available facts stated here, makes their decision today that much more perplexing.”

This is the latest cancelation for Netrebko this season. Earlier in October 2023, the soprano’s Prague concert was canceled due to political pressures.

Netrebko condemned the war in Ukraine repeatedly and distanced herself from Putin. She has not returned or performed in Russia since the war began in February 2022 and was called a traitor in her native country. She returns to the stage on May 4 for a production of Puccini’s “Turandot” in Wiesbaden.