Petition Wants Met Gala Dedicated to Gay Rights The furor over Russia's new law placing restrictions on the discussion of homosexuality has spread to the world of classical music, with some opera fans calling on the Metropolitan Opera to dedicate its opening-night gala performance of Tchaikovsky's "Eugene Onegin" to the support of gay people. The long-planned new production of "Eugene Onegin," which will open the Met season on Sept. 23, is to be conducted by Valery Gergiev, the artistic director of the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg and one of the foremost interpreters of the Russian repertory, and to star Anna Netrebko, the popular Russian diva, who will be opening the Met's season for the third year in a row. Both were vocal supporters of the 2012 campaign of President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, who in June signed the law banning "propaganda on nontraditional sexual relationships." An online petition, referring to what the organizer calls "Putin's recent laws against homosexual people and those who support them" and to Tchaikovsky's suffering because of his homosexuality, is calling on the Met to dedicate its Russian-theme opening night to the support of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered people. "I'm not asking them to be against anybody," said Andrew Rudin, the composer who started the petition. I'm asking them to be for somebody. The initial response was small by the standards of online activism. While a joke petition asking the White House to "begin construction of a Death Star by 2016" has gathered some 34,000 signatures, Mr. Rudin's opera petition had received only about 2,200 signatures by Monday - not enough people even to fill the opera house, which can hold nearly 4,000. But it spurred an impassioned online debate about the role of art in politics and the responsibilities of artists. And it attracted the signature of Bartlett Sher, the director of several critically acclaimed recent productions for the Met, including Offenbach's "Contes d'Hoffmann" and Donizetti's "Elisir d'Amore," both of which starred Ms. Netrebko. Mr. Sher said in an interview that he did not see the petition as anti-Met but rather as a chance to take a stand against Mr. Putin and the recent law. "I saw it as a chance for everyone who loves opera, and all of us who work in it, to stand up to a pig and a dictator, against a terrible position and a terrible man," he said. The Met's general manager, Peter Gelb, responded to the petition with a statement saying that the Met was proud of its history as a creative base for gay and lesbian singers, conductors, directors, designers and choreographers and adding that "we also stand behind all of our artists, regardless of whether or not they wish to publicly express their personal political opinions." "As an institution, the Met deplores the suppression of equal rights here or abroad," the statement said. But since our mission is artistic, it is not appropriate for our performances to be used by us for political purposes, no matter how noble or right the cause. Asked about the Met's response, Mr. Sher said that he supported the Met "in every way, as well as Anna." Ms. Netrebko said in a statement on Facebook this month: "As an artist, it is my great joy to collaborate with all of my wonderful colleagues - regardless of their race, ethnicity, religion, gender, or sexual orientation. I have never and will never discriminate against anyone. A spokesman for Ms. Netrebko, Sean Michael Gross, said that the singer would let the statement speak for itself. "I think it's preposterous to presume that anyone who endorses a candidate for public office agrees - or disagrees - with their public policy positions 100 percent once they're in office," he said. A representative of Mr. Gergiev - who was honored by Mr. Putin this spring with a revived Soviet-era title, Hero of Labor, around the time he opened a new $700 million theater, the Mariinsky II - did not return a call seeking comment. In Europe, Russia's freedoms and human rights record will be the focus of a concert that Gidon Kremer, the Latvian-born violinist and the founder of the Kremerata Baltica chamber orchestra, plans to hold in Berlin on Oct. 7 - the anniversary of the death of Anna Politkovskaya, a Russian journalist and critic of the Kremlin who was killed in 2006. Mr. Kremer said in an e-mail interview that his concert, which was in the works before the recent laws on homosexuality were passed, was intended as "a kind of a personal statement against injustice," and took issue with descriptions of the concert as an "anti-Putin" event. "I had my chance to spend my childhood in an authoritarian country," Mr. Kremer said. The trends Russia is heading in now make me worry and reminds me of those times. Asked about the situation at the Met, he said: "I myself am not denying the obvious high artistic qualities of Anna Netrebko or Valery Gergiev, but I do feel a certain discomfort observing them offstage. The identification with one's own country is more than honorable and understandable. Never would I criticize a real patriot nor deny that patriotism is a very natural attitude. We all should be able to love our native country. "What makes me feel odd is the way these feelings are presented," he said, "the way artists become spokesmen for politicians and those who are in power." Mr. Gelb said that he believed the focus on the Met was misplaced. "What seems to be somewhat unfair about this petition is not its support of L.G.B.T. rights in Russia, but that they would choose the Met as a vehicle or target of their displeasure," he said in an interview. The Met has been a champion of L.G.B.T. art, and it seems like they're barking up the wrong tree.