Philip Glass Accuses Sevastopol Opera and Ballet Theatre in Crimea of Piracy
The production is schedule to run on July 29th and 30th.
By: Blair Ingenthron Jul. 26, 2024
Philip Glass has accused Sevastopol Opera and Ballet Theatre of piracy. The theatre is located in Russia-annexed Crimea.
"It has come to my attention that a ballet entitled Wuthering Heights featuring my music and using my name in its advertising and promotion is to premiere" at the Sevastopol Opera and Ballet Theatre, Glass wrote on X.
"The use of my music and the use of my name without my consent... is an act of piracy," he says.
Read the full statement here:
— Philip Glass (@philipglass) July 25, 2024
The performances, scheduled for July 29 and 30, 2024 are set to open the VIII Festival of Opera and Ballet “Chersonesos.”
British dancer Jonah Cook choreographed the ballet, and says that the production uses "string music by Philip Glass and Hildur Guðnadóttir", an Icelandic composer.
A press release for the production credits the music as "original composition by Tatyana Shatkovskaya, and music of PG, HG, and others."
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to the editor:
I see your writer has quoted directly from, and linked to, my edited translation of the local press release in Sevastopol in my Facebook information group Sergei Polunin Universe.
Is it normal for journalists to rely on an intermediary source (I could be editing and mistranslating. I don’t speak Russian myself so cannot vouch for the accuracy of the translation tool that I used.)
I assume you therefore have no idea of international law where NATO’s sanctions and the removal of Russia from Swift, prevent payments for music rights being made from entities inside Russia to entities outside, and vice versa also of course.
So Philip Glass is complaining about an impossible situation created by his own government. (Every action has a reaction and the consequences in this case hurt Western musicians.)
“Be guided accordingly”