Gergijev was invited to the Un'Estate da Re festival in southern Italy on July 27. But his participation is now cancelled, the festival management announces.
The concert would have been the first in Europe for Valerij Gergijev since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Italy thus broke an extensive EU ban on pro-Kremlin artists after the invitation was approved by Vincenzo De Luca, left-oriented regional chief in Campania. De Luca meant that culture "should not be affected by politics and political logic".
The decision received massive criticism, among other things from regime-critical Aleksej Navalnyj's widow Julija Navalnaja.
The 72-year-old Gergijev has repeatedly expressed his support for Putin, including by participating in a campaign film in 2012, supporting the annexation of Crimea in 2014 and conducting a patriotic concert in the ancient city of Palmyra in Syria in 2016 after Russian forces helped Bashar al-Assad retake the city.
In 2022, he was excluded from the Royal Musical Academy because he has not taken a stand against Russia's invasion. The same year, he was also fired from the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra for the same reason.
In 2023, he became the new head of the world-famous Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow.
