La Monnaie Opera in Brussels has reportedly dropped Georgian soprano Tamar Iveri from their upcoming production of Verdi’s ‘Un Ballo in Maschera’ following media focus on her on anti-gay comments that appeared on the singer’s Facebook page.
Earlier Story: Will Opera Australia Support Tamar Iveri?
Last year a letter was posted on the soprano’s Facebook page that described LGBTIQ activists at International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia as part of the “Fecal Mass” being delivered to Georgia by the West. The letter was attributed to Iveri, but yesterday she blamed the comments on her husband.
Iveri has said that her concern was that the LGBTIQ parade was occurring at the same time as a service to honour soldiers killed in Afghanistan and that she feared a clash between the two groups. The singer’s claims however are not standing up to a lot of scrutiny as it has been highlighted that the service for the soldiers actually occurred a day earlier.
A Georgian gay rights group Identoba has also highlighted that Iveri previously offered them an apology for her comments but made no mention of her husband being behind the post. In her previous apology Irveri had said that she wrote the letter without having all the facts due to her busy rehearsal schedule. Today the Georgian group withdrew their acceptance of her previous apology because of her change of story.
Opera Australia who have brought the singer to Australia for performances of ‘Othello’ in Sydney and ‘Tosca’ in Melbourne are standing by the singer and have announced that their rehearsal schedule with the soprano will continue despite a significant number of complaints from the wider community.
A petition on the website AllOut which calls for the performer’s visa to be revoked has gained 3,945 signatures.
OIP Staff
