Met Opera Plays Ukrainian Anthem at 'Macbeth' After U.S.-Russia Oil Deal

On October 14, Metropolitan Opera General Manager Peter Gelb ordered the Ukrainian national anthem performed during a "Macbeth" staging at Lincoln Center. The action came one day after the Trump administration signed an oil deal with Russia.

Conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin led the Met Orchestra through the anthem. The full audience in the hall stood during the performance, according to the company's Instagram post.

Gelb tied the gesture directly to Washington's policy shift. He reaffirmed the Met's "unwavering support for Ukraine and its people in their fight for liberty in these particularly unjust times."

What has the Met done for Ukraine since 2022?

Russia's war began in February 2022. The company has logged at least six documented Ukraine-related actions across roughly 20 months.

• Co-founded the Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra with the Polish National Opera.
• Hosted a fundraiser with Ukraine's First Lady.
• Invited Ukrainian soldiers and the ambassador to a "Tosca" led by soprano Liudmyla Monastyrska.
• Flew the Ukrainian flag on the Lincoln Center facade for four weeks in spring 2023.
• Marked Ukrainian Independence Day on August 24, 2023.
• Received Ukraine's Order of Merit by Gelb in September 2023.

That record makes the Met one of the most publicly active U.S. cultural institutions on Ukraine since the invasion.

Where has the Met drawn the line on Russian artists?

Gelb has fired several Russian artists linked to Vladimir Putin. His stated standard: in Russia, Putin pays the bills, and Moscow-aligned performers carry that taint abroad.

Critics point to a selective application. Multiple artists currently on the Met's roster continue to appear alongside Valery Gergiev, a Putin ally, at state-run houses including the Mariinsky Theatre and the Bolshoi Theatre. Gelb has not applied one rule across the company.

What does the Oct. 14 gesture change?

The anthem places the Met on one side of an early foreign-policy pivot by the second Trump administration. It also exposes a contradiction the company has yet to resolve publicly: it stages solidarity with Kyiv while engaging artists tied to Moscow's cultural apparatus.

Watch the Met's next casting and contract disclosures. They will signal whether October 14 marks a turning point or a single-night statement.

A journalist's takeaway: the Met has built a 20-month Ukraine file that any peer opera house would struggle to match — and a Russia file it cannot fully defend.