Georgian soprano Tamar Iveri blames husband for anti-gay Facebook post

OPERA Australia is under pressure to sack Georgian soprano Tamar Iveri from its production of Otello over a homophobic Facebook post.

Georgian Soprano Tamar Iveri. From her Facebook page

OPERA Australia is under pressure to sack Georgian soprano Tamar Iveri from its production of Otello, opening on July 5, over a homophobic post from her Facebook account protesting against a gay pride march in the Georgian capital last year.

The company said in a statement: “Opera Australia has become aware in the past 24 hours, of the media and social media coverage of comments reported to have been made by soprano Tamar Iveri … Tamar Iveri has sought to clarify her views on this important issue, and has issued an apology and explanation on her own Facebook page … Rehearsals and performances at Opera Australia are continuing as planned.”

It was reported that La Monnaie Opera in Brussels has dropped Iveri from its production of Verdi’s Un Ballo in Maschera next year.

In a statement on Facebook Iveri said the original post — which used a phrase approximating to “fecal masses”, or “sewage” — was made from her account under her name by her “very religious” husband, who had a “tough attitude towards gay people”.

“I am shocked and saddened by the reports in the internet and in the Australian media calling me a homophobic,” her statement said. “For my entire career I have been working with gay people and some of them are very dear friends. All of them can confirm that I never lost a word that might associate me with homophobic ideas.”

Iveri, who is to play Desdemona in the OA production, said the march had been scheduled to pass through the grounds of Orthodox Church in Tbilisi on May 17, 2013, the same day as a commemoration for Georgian soldiers killed in Afghanistan.

“For that reason and because Georgia is a country where 90 per cent of the population are deeply religious, conservative Orthodox Christians I wanted to express my sincere doubts that a parade made sense under these circumstances, in the yard of an Orthodox church. I was worried that this would provoke people and lead to violence … Besides myself my husband was using my Facebook account at that time and he is a very religious man with a tough attitude towards gay people. He copied my text, changed it considerably and posted it under my name. You might imagine that I was not happy with that at all and I immediately deleted it when I saw the text about half an hour later. This text does not express my own opinion.”

She added that she had apologised to the Georgian LGBT community.

A Georgian website, however, purported to carry an interview from September last year with Iveri in which she stood by the post’s sentiments.

And Limelight magazine has linked to the website of Georgian LGBT organisation Identoba, to whom Iveri wrote an apology last year in which she made no mention of her husband using her account.

Identoba has now written to Iveri to express its disappointment that she has changed her story.

“Dear Mrs Iveri,” Identoba’s executive director Irakli Vacharadze writes, “You are world’s one of the most notable opera singers. But your career is probably pretty much over by now. You see, those rumours about gay mafia in opera world were true, after all and much more. Turns out, LGBT people are everywhere. Most recently, the whole country of Australia seems like they feel empathy towards, as you’d put it, ‘pervert people’ like myself … It’s never too late, Mrs Iveri. The history of homophobia and LGBT rights knows many great examples of activists who went through a painful journey of overcoming their own discontents and fought for the LGB equality. You could become one of those.”

The 2013 Facebook post said: “I was quite proud of the fact how Georgian society spat at the parade … Often, in certain cases, it is necessary to break jaws in order to be appreciated as a nation in the future, and to be taken into account seriously. Please, stop vigorous attempts to bring West’s ‘fecal masses’ in the mentality of the people by means of propaganda.”

Today, Iveri’s husband appeared to have issued his own apology on the singer’s Facebook page, saying his wife “knows that homophobia is unacceptable and alien to me”.

Opera Australia spokeswoman Imogen Corlette said the company could not comment beyond the posted statement, adding that “this is something that we are taking very seriously”.

OA sponsor Mazda Australia said it was “aware of the comments and media surrounding Tamar Iveri and her work with Opera Australia”.

“We acknowledge the community’s concerns and will seek more information on this matter.”

There are no rehearsals of Otello today.

The commentary on Opera Australia’s website and Facebook page has been universally damning of the company’s decision to keep Iveri in the cast.