Singer Evgeny Nikitin insists tattoo that led to Bayreuth withdrawal was not swastika

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FILE - In this June 9, 2012 file photo Russian baritone Evgeny Nikitin poses at a hotel in Berlin, Germany. The 38-year-old opera singer dropped out in July from a new production of Wagner\'s "Die Fliegende Hollaender (The Flying Dutchman)" after a 2008 image of the tattoo, which appeared to be a swastika, was broadcast on German television. In a statement released Wednesday, Aug. 1, 2012 through New York\'s Metropolitan Opera, Nikitin insists the tattoo was not a swastika, and that it was "still in progress" at the time the video footage was made. (AP Photo/dapd, Christoph Soeder, File)

NEW YORK, N.Y. – After withdrawing from the Bayreuth Wagner Festival following the appearance of a tattoo during a program on German television, Russian bass-baritone Evgeny Nikitin (yev-GAY-nee ni-KEET-in) says the image was not a swastika.

The 38-year-old dropped out of a new production of Wagner’s “The Flying Dutchman” last month after the tattoo was broadcast. He remains scheduled to sing Klingsor in a new production of Wagner’s “Parsifal” that opens at New York’s Metropolitan Opera on Feb. 15 next year.

In a statement released Wednesday through the Met, Nikitin said, “It is inaccurate to state that I ever had a swastika tattoo.” He said the tattoo photographed in 2008 “was still in progress at the time” and was a star with eight points with a shield overlaid.

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