Has The Metropolitan Opera Violated Anti-Discrimination Laws by Firing a Russian Singer?
by Alan M. Dershowitz • May 5, 2022 at 4:30 pm
The law of New York and many other jurisdictions prohibits employment discrimination based on national origin. Anna Netrebko's firing would seem on its face illegal. Had she been born in the Donbas region of Ukraine instead of across the border in Russia, she would not have been fired even if she had refused to condemn the war or Putin.
She did condemn the war but refused to condemn Putin personally. If she had, she would be endangering her family, friends and her own ability to ever return safely to her homeland.
Netrebko is an Austrian citizen, but her country of origin is Russia.
"Forcing artists, or any public figure, to voice their political opinions in public and to denounce their homeland is not right.... I am not a political person.... I am an artist and my purpose is to unite people across political divides." — Anna Netrebko, quoted in The New York Times, March 2, 2022.
"She's damned if she does, and damned if she doesn't." — Simon Morrison, Princeton Professor of Music, The New York Times, April 1, 2022.
[W]e want artists to speak out — when we agree with what they are saying. But in this age of quickly changing criteria for cancellation....
I had planned to see the Metropolitan Opera's production of Turandot staring Anna Netrebko. But the Met fired her on the ground that she is Russian and did not sufficiently condemn Vladimir Putin for waging war in Ukraine. She did condemn the war, but refused to condemn Putin personally. If she had, she would be endangering her family, friends and her own ability to ever return safely to her homeland. Netrebko is an Austrian citizen, but her country of origin is Russia.
