Italy appeared in the tour schedule of the opera singer Vasily Ladyuk. On November 10 and 12, 2023, he will perform the opera Don Carlos on the stage of the Piacenza City Theater. Previously, Ladyuk performed at La Scala, the Metropolitan Opera, opera houses in Belgium, Spain and Japan, but after the start of a full-scale war in Ukraine, foreign theaters stopped inviting him.
The Piacenza theater responded to The Insider's inquiry that Ladyuc had been identified as a member of the Don Carlos opera back in 2020. The response says that this was done “before the start of the conflict,” however, Ladyuk spoke in the annexed Crimea in 2017 and met with Vladimir Putin there, for which he was included in the “Peacemaker”. Don Carlos is a co-production of the Teatro Piacenza with the theaters of Rimini, Reggio Emilia and Modena. A spokeswoman for Piacenza told The Insider that she will be in touch with the rest of the theaters by Monday, March 20, and will be able to answer the question more fully. The news will be updated.
In the musical environment of Russia, Ladyuk is known as the "Lubyansky baritone" for his constant participation in the closed corporate parties of the FSB and the FSO. In 2020, he was awarded the FSB Prize in the Musical Art nomination – as it is said, "for active personal participation in patriotic creative projects, assisting security agencies in the spiritual and moral education of employees." On May 10, 2022, the Lubyansky Baritone opened the Lessons of History gala concert, where Oleg Gazmanov, Grigory Leps, Lyube, Stas Mikhailov and other performers known for their active support of the war against Ukraine performed in addition to him.
Ladyuk's long-term sponsor is the Lukoil Charitable Foundation, which is run by the wife of the owner of the oil company, Nelli Alekperova. Lukoil itself is not yet under European sanctions, but the European Parliament is actively calling for this. In early February 2023, the deputies said that he should be subject to restrictions along with Rosatom.