ROME, July 21. /TASS/. Ukrainians and pro-Ukrainian activists were buying up front row seats to disrupt Russian conductor Valery Gergiev's now cancelled concert at the Royal Palace of Caserta near Naples, Italy, the Il Fatto Quotidiano newspaper reported.
Concert tickets started at 10 euros (about 12 US dollars). According to the paper, Ukrainian instigators also intended to stage protests near the Royal Palace of Caserta, where Gergiev was set to take the stage on July 27 as part of the Un’Estate da Re (Summer of the King) festival with the Giuseppe Verdi Philharmonic Orchestra of Salerno alongside soloists from Russia's Mariinsky Theatre. The program included works by composers like Italian Giuseppe Verdi, Russian Pyotr Tchaikovsky and French Maurice Ravel.
On July 21, the administration of the Royal Palace of Caserta announced the cancellation of the artist’s performance.
European Parliament Vice President Pina Picierno, the representative of Italy’s opposition Democratic Party, had earlier called for the event’s cancellation on her X social media page. She had previously also employed political pressure to cancel events involving Russian artists. Several pro-Ukrainian activists in Italy had also demanded the Caserta concert be canceled.
In turn, Vincenzo De Luca, the governor of the southern Italian region of Campania, had said, commenting on the calls, that the position of the regional authorities was to maintain a dialogue with all.
Speaking about the situation with the concert and its cancellation, Russian Ambassador to Italy Alexey Paramonov noted that the Italian authorities were allowing the Ukrainian immigrant community to dictate their cultural policy against previous promises to uphold the sovereignty and national interests of the country.