Metropolitan Opera Board Members Among Sponsors of Anna Netrebko Gala in Palm Beach
By Francisco Salazar(Credit: © 2023 Olga Rubio Dalmau)
On Feb. 3, 2025, superstar soprano Anna Netrebko is expected to return to the United States for the first time in five years performing a gala at the Palm Beach Opera.
The gala, which is the company’s yearly fundraiser, will see the diva perform alongside pianist Ángel Rodriguez in an intimate recital program.
The gala will be chaired by Veronica Atkins, who is a Lifetime Grand Patron of the company. She is also listed as the Grand Gala Benefactor. But more interesting, she is one of the managing directors of the Metropolitan Opera Board, the company that let Netrebko go. The last time Netrebko performed in the United States was in 2019, when she sang at a New Year’s Eve gala at the Metropolitan Opera. She was set to return for performances of “Turandot” in a later season but was dropped from the Metropolitan Opera in 2022 when the war in Ukraine began.
But the Met Opera connection with this concert does not end there.
The gala council also includes Dr. Frayda Lindemann, who is also listed as a Platinum Sponsor for the gala but is also on the Metropolitan Opera’s Executive Committee and one of its Managing Directors. Together with her late husband George Lindemann, she established the famed Lindemann Young Artist Development Program at the Metropolitan Opera.
The irony of all is this is that when the concert was first announced, Metropolitan Opera General Director Peter Gelb called the decision to hire Netrebko an “unfortunate decision” and he felt that Netrebko had made a “disingenuous effort to distance herself from the Russian war effort.” Netrebko and the Met Opera are currently embroiled in a lawsuit.
The gala council for the performance also includes many of the Palm Beach Opera’s board members.
Past Palm Beach Opera galas have featured Luciano Pavarotti, Plácido Domingo, José Carreras, Renée Fleming, Bryn Terfel, Isabel Leonard, and Piotr Beczala, among others.
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