After withdrawing from the Bayreuth Wagner Festival last month following the appearance of a tattoo during a program broadcast on German television, Russian bass-baritone Evgeny Nikitin now says the image was not a swastika.
After withdrawing from the Bayreuth Wagner Festival last month following the appearance of a tattoo during a program broadcast on German television, Russian bass-baritone Evgeny Nikitin now says the image was not a swastika.
The singer who quit the Bayreuth opera festival when it emerged he once had at least one Nazi-related symbol tattooed on his body remains scheduled to sing a new production of Wagner's "Parsifal" at the Metropolitan Opera next season.
The Bayreuth opera festival says bass-baritone Samuel Youn has stepped in to take the lead role in "The Flying Dutchman," the annual event's opening production, after Evgeny Nikitin withdrew when it emerged he once had Nazi-related symbols tattooed on his body.
A Russian baritone who was due to sing the lead role in Richard Wagner's "The Flying Dutchman" when the annual Bayreuth opera festival opens next week has withdrawn from the event after it emerged that he once had Nazi-related symbols tattooed on his body.
A Russian baritone who was due to sing the lead role in Richard Wagner's "The Flying Dutchman" when the Bayreuth opera festival opens next week withdrew from the event Saturday after it emerged that he once had Nazi-related symbols tattooed on his body.
But in a statement released Wednesday through New York's Metropolitan Opera, Nikitin said, "While it is true that I have had a varied artistic life, including an interest in heavy metal music and Scandinavian mythology, which was the inspiration behind the tattoos I have on my body, it is inaccurate to state that I ever had a swastika tattoo. In fact, the tattoo that has been called into question and that was photographed in 2008 was still in progress at the time."
NEW YORK (AP) - After withdrawing from the Bayreuth Wagner Festival last month following the appearance of a tattoo during a program broadcast on German television, Russian bass-baritone Evgeny Nikitin now says the image was not a swastika.
