The Russian opera singer Evgeny Nikitin was compelled to refuse from the star part in Richard Wagner's opera The Flying Dutchman expected to premier on July 25 at the Bayreuth Festival in Germany.

      A journalistic story about the singer on the German ZDF channel made a row: the reporters discerned traces of an old swastika tattoo (almost covered with another tattoo) on Nikitin’s chest visible on a video of his heavy metal band show.

      Following the broadcast Evgeny Nikitin posted a declaration on the website of the Bayreuth Festival saying that he made a tattoo in youth and presently considers it a serious mistake.

      The bass baritone Evgeny Nikitin has been singing in the Mariinsky Theater since the mid 1990s. He was supposed to become the first Russian opera singer to star at the Bayreuth Festival.

      The Bayreuth Music Festival is dedicated to Richard Wagner's works and was first time held in 1876. In the first half of the 20th century it gained popularity among the Nazi leaders of Germany. Opera performances still take place in the same hall where Hitler and all Nazi commanders used to sit. Since the festival’s revival in the 1950s its absolute dissociation from the Nazi reputation has been emphasized.

      

       Source: www.ridus.ru