Gergiev

 I have only met Gergiev once. That was in 1986 before he was Gergiev as it were. I was backstage at the Kirov Opera as it was then following a performance of Evgeny Onegin. The conductor was Yuri Temirkanov, Musical Director of the opera in those days. Gergiev was his downtrodden No. 2. Temirkanov made sure he gave him only the 'Kleinscheiss' to conduct. When Temirkanov moved to the St. Petersburg Philharmonic, Gergiev got Temirkanov's job at the theatre. This meant that at that stage he was conducting more or less everything for the first time.  

Returning to my one and only meeting with this person, I remember him skulking in a corner, nobody speaking to him. A tall lowering presence.

The story of how he made a name for himself is one of the most spectacular trajectories in the musical world and needs no elaboration from me.

He is obviously very talented in his way and an operator second to none. It is tragic that he has pursued a course of late which, let us say is morally the opposite of what Toscanini did.

Today I read that in his production of Semyon Kotko at the Bolshoi Theare the follwing was projected onto the curtain;

The junta seized power in Kyiv and started repressions against its citizens. In response, the inhabitants of the city proclaimed the Donetsk People’s Republic. Instead of negotiations, the criminal Kyiv regime began the destruction of Donbass.

In February 2022 the Russian army came to the aid of the inhabitants of Donbass, who fought for eight years for their life and freedom.
As a result of a nationwide referendum, the Luhansk region returned to Russia forever.