A pianist so controversial for her pro-Putin stance in Ukraine that venues have shunned her is scheduled to be a guest artist when an orchestra season kicks off later this month in Durban and Johannesburg.
Valentina Lisitsa, dubbed “the Queen of Rachmaninoff”, even played in the ruins of Mariupol on May 9 last year – Russia’s Victory Day – in commemoration of the city having been taken over by Russian forces after that country invaded its neighbour in February.
The KZN Philharmonic Orchestra and the Johannesburg Philharmonic Orchestra will also have Justus Frantz as the conductor at their opening of the World Symphony Series Spring Season on October 19 and October 26 respectively.
Frantz has also been labelled a Putin sympathiser, according to Wikipedia.
Bongani Tembe, CEO and artistic director of the KZN Philharmonic Orchestra, could not be reached for comment in spite of attempts all week by the “Independent on Saturday” to do so, by email and by phone.
The Durban concert, which will include the Johannesburg Philharmonic Orchestra, will mark the KZN orchestra’s 40th anniversary.
The Ukrainian Association of SA said it hoped that no South African tax money would be spent to bring “propagandists of military aggression” to South Africa.
“Three out of four concerts feature Russian musicians who are not welcomed into many countries around the world,” said the association’s Durban representative, Katya Fedkina.
“As of September 13, 2023, Unesco has verified damage to 289 sites since February 24, 2022 – 120 religious sites, 27 museums, 109 buildings of historical and/or artistic interest. Hundreds of Ukrainian musicians have been killed in this war
“Russia should stop the war and those who support the military aggression should not be welcomed to a free, independent country like South Africa.“
Lisitsa, who is Ukraine-born and of mixed Ukrainian, Russian and Polish descent and rose to fame on YouTube, first attracted controversy in April 2015 when the Toronto Symphony Orchestra cancelled concerts with her, citing her provocative online remarks, according to Wikipedia. The move prompted discussion about whether such a sanction could lead to artists’ self-censoring for fear of not getting contracts.
This was the year after the Maidan Revolution in which Ukrainians protested against former President Viktor Yanukovych’s preference for closer ties with Russia rather than the EU, and Russia’s annexation of Crimea.
According to lavocedinewyork.com, an Italian digital daily in the US, her postings had been described as “hate speech”. In response, she commented that “satire and hyperbole (are) the best literary tools to combat the lies”.
Last year, a scheduled concert at Venice’s storied La Fenice opera house was cancelled by organisers after news of her standpoints emerged.
“The pianist, Valentina Lisitsa, performed in front of the Ukrainian Embassy in Moscow on May 2, 2022, to commemorate victims of 2014 Trade Unions House fire,” the website read.
“She then performed in ruins in Mariupol on May 9, 2022, one of the scenes of alleged Russian war crimes.”
The website reddit.com posted some of the tweets that, it said, the Canadian orchestra found offensive. One was of three pigs viewed from behind, their protruding testicles in Ukraine’s national colours and the wording “here are the faces of the leaders”.
Another showed an African traditional dance and the wording: “New school year begins with teachers forced to wear Ukrainian tribal dress, a truely European custom”.
Another with a woman lying passed on out on a park bench painted in Ukrainian colours, her legs wide open and her dress up and holding the Ukrainian flag, with the words: “Kiev. Parade is over. Guests left. The hangover.” (A collection of Valentina Lisitsa’s controversial tweets that resulted in the cancellation of her concert in Toronto can be seen at r/classicalmusic (reddit.com)
A less crude remark, expressing her views, reads: “‘Doctor EU’ attempted to separate conjoined twins Russia/Ukraine with a meat cleaver. And no anaesthesia.”
According to Wikipedia, conductor Frantz came under criticism after justifying the Annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation in 2014, calling it “making amends for historical wrongdoing” and labelling himself a Putinversteher (Putin sympathiser, literally: “Putin understander”).
“He repeatedly criticised the sanctions imposed on Russia, referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin as a ‘cultivated man’.
“In February 2023, Frantz was one of the initial signers of a petition calling for an end to military support to Ukraine in the wake of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.”
“The Independent on Saturday” emailed both artists through their personal websites, asking for their comments, but received no responses.
South Africa’s Department of International Relations and Co-operation said it was not even aware of the musicians’ visit to South Africa.
“The organisers did not consult us when they arranged this show,” said Dirco spokesperson Clayson Monyela, adding that to drag performers into the political arena was “a bit unfair”.
“I am not even sure if the organisers are aware of the players’ political views.”
He said they would attract publicity “because of the raging war between Ukraine and Russia”.
“But if we had to follow every big or small musicians’ political views on social media, offstage or even onstage, I suspect many musicians would be cancelled.”
By the time of going to press, the Russian Embassy in Pretoria confirmed receipt of an email asking whether the two were coming to South Africa with sponsorship from Moscow but could not say when any answer would be forthcoming.
The Ukraine Embassy said South Africans needed to be aware that co-operation with Russian artists was “absolutely inappropriate now, while Ukrainian people are struggling for the democratic future of the world”.
“Russian culture is a significant part of Russian identity that showed its most terrible features during the invasion of Ukraine: cruelty and inhumanity. Who knows, if Lisitsa’s performance at Durban Playhouse Opera Theatre is not cancelled, whether the images of raped Ukrainian women, murdered Ukrainian children, and ruined Ukrainian cities will not appear in the imagination of those who will listen to her play?” it said in a statement.
Protesting about the Toronto event being cancelled in 2015, Lisitsa wrote on Facebook at the time, that the people of Ukraine were rising in fury against their corrupt rulers, for a better life.
Under the Twitter (now X) handle “NedoUkraïnka”, she wrote: “I took to Twitter in order to get the other side of the story heard, the one you never see in the mainstream media – the plight of my people, the good and bad things that were happening in Ukraine. I translated news stories from Ukrainian language websites, I translated eyewitness accounts of atrocities…. I became really good in unmasking fakes published by Western media in order to make one side of the civil war look whiter and softer than Easter bunny, and another – as subhumans, not worthy of mercy, the ‘collateral damage’.
“But with time my activities attracted a lot of vicious haters. I was a particularly important ‘target’ because of being Ukrainian, thus – a traitor. I thought I knew hate – my playing on YouTube certainly ‘attracted’ a fair share of hate mail. But I was mistaken. Death threats, wishes for my family to die, calling me ‘paid Kremlin wh*re’ … the list goes on and on.”