In Germany, they refused to cancel Netrebko and Russian culture. The singer's concert in Essen was a complete sell-out. The evening of June 27 in Essen was hot - due to record temperatures and the arrival of opera diva Anna Netrebko. All seats in the Essen Philharmonic, which accommodates up to 2,000 spectators, were sold out in advance for the singer's concert. An hour and a half before the event, a picket began in the square in front of the philharmonic, where participants held Ukrainian flags and signs, including "No applause for war propaganda." Netrebko publicly condemned the war of the Russian Federation against Ukraine, but critics remind that the singer was a trusted person of Vladimir Putin in 2012, and in 2014, she donated money to the Donetsk Theater through one of the leaders of pro-Russian separatists, Oleg Tsarev, who used it for a propaganda campaign. "This singer, who received Austrian citizenship in 2006 and has been living in Vienna, has not performed in Russia since 2022, clearly distancing herself from the war right after it began. The program she presented, which included opera arias and chamber vocal works and was performed in collaboration with brilliant musicians, set the highest artistic standards, made an indelible impression on the audience, and strengthened the reputation of the Essen Philharmonic as a concert hall of global significance," said DW the director of the philharmonic in Essen, Marie Babette Nirenz. On tour, Anna Netrebko is accompanied by pianist Pavel Nebolsin, Russian opera singer - mezzo-soprano Elena Maximova, and cellist Kurt Mitterfellner. They performed selected arias and duets, works by Rimsky-Korsakov, Rachmaninoff, Tchaikovsky, Strauss, Offenbach, and Dvořák. About a third of the program was performed in Russian, Deutsche Welle reports.