Valery Gergiev, the star Russian maestro who has been shunned in the West because of his close ties to President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, will appear this month at a festival in Italy, his first engagement in Western Europe since Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Mr. Gergiev, a staunch ally of Mr. Putin who has helped promote the president’s policies, is set to conduct on July 27 at the Royal Palace of Caserta, a historic site north of Naples, the Un’Estate da RE festival announced last week. He will lead an orchestra from Salerno, Italy, in a program featuring performers from the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg, which Mr. Gergiev leads.
The announcement drew protests from Italian politicians and activists, who expressed concern that Mr. Gergiev was being allowed to perform again in the West. Mr. Gergiev, whose extensive international career once made him one of the busiest maestros in the world, has been declared unwelcome in the United States and Europe since the Russian invasion.
Mr. Gergiev did not respond to a request for comment.
The decision to engage Mr. Gergiev also drew criticism because the festival is bankrolled by the European Union. Its funding flows, via Italy’s national government, to a company owned by the Campania region, where the festival takes place. The company funds several cultural events throughout the region, including Un’Estate da RE.
Pina Picierno, a left-leaning Italian politician who serves as a vice president of the European Parliament, said that it was “unacceptable that European funds are being used to finance the performance of a Kremlin supporter.” In a post on X, she called on the festival and on regional officials “to take immediate action to prevent Valery Gergiev’s participation and ensure that taxpayers’ money does not end up in the pockets of a supporter of a criminal regime.”
Vincenzo De Luca, the center-left president of the Campania region, defended the festival’s decision to engage Mr. Gergiev in a statement. He said the invitation showed that “dialogue between people can grow and the values of human solidarity can develop.”
In a telephone interview on Monday, Ms. Picierno, who has been under police protection for the past month because of her work to fight Russian propaganda and disinformation, called on the European Union to ensure that its funds would not be used to support “initiatives linked to personalities close to regimes contrary to European values.”
Mr. Gergiev, 72, once endorsed Mr. Putin’s re-election and has appeared at concerts in Russia and abroad to promote his policies. The men have known each other since the early 1990s, when Mr. Putin was an official in St. Petersburg. After Russia invaded Ukraine, Mr. Gergiev was fired by the Munich Philharmonic, where he had been chief conductor, because of his long record of support for Mr. Putin.
At the same time, Mr. Gergiev has continued to expand influence over the Russian cultural scene. He was tapped in 2023 to lead the storied Bolshoi Theater in Moscow, in addition to his duties at the Mariinsky.
After the invasion, many cultural institutions in the United States and Europe rushed to cut ties with Russian artists and institutions closely aligned with Mr. Putin, upending decades of cultural exchange that had endured even during the depths of the Cold War.
The ballet companies of the Bolshoi and Mariinsky theaters also faced cancellations of performances in London, Madrid, New York and elsewhere. And several star Russian musicians with ties to Mr. Putin lost work in the West in the months after the invasion, including the pianist Denis Matsuev and the soprano Anna Netrebko. (Ms. Netrebko, one of the world’s biggest opera stars, has since returned to top concert halls and opera houses in Paris, Berlin and elsewhere in Europe, and she performed at a gala for Palm Beach Opera in Florida in February, her first American appearance since 2019.)
While the West was off limits for Mr. Gergiev, he had turned to other markets, including China, where Russian artists and cultural groups have been warmly received. He has led several tours with the Mariinsky in China since the invasion.
Javier C. Hernández is a Times reporter who covers classical music, opera and dance in New York City and beyond.
Elisabetta Povoledo is a Times reporter based in Rome, covering Italy, the Vatican and the culture of the region. She has been a journalist for 35 years.
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