The online opera guide to Anna Netrebko
Read the short biography of Anna Netrebko and listen to highlights of her carreer. Anna Netrebko is a lyrical Soprano and most popular female opera singer in in the past 20 years. Since 2012, the lyrical soprano has also started singing roles of the more dramatic genre.
The ascent
Anna Netrebko was born in Krasnodar, Russia on 18 September 1971. She studied at the Rimski-Korsakov Conservatory in St. Petersburg. In 1993 she won the Glinka Singing Competition in Moscow. Valery Ghergiev supported her at the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg. Her American debut took place in 1995 with a sensational performance in “Ruslan and Ludmylla” in San Francisco. In 2002 she made her debut at the Metropolitan Opera an on many great opera houses. She was celebrated for her great voice as well as her winning charisma on stage. She began her long-term artistic partnership with Rolando Villazon. Among her most successful roles are Violetta in Traviata, Donna Anna in Don Giovanni and Adina in Elisir d’Amore.
Sempre libera (Traviata)
She has been the greatest female star of the opera scene since the beginning of our century and is a box-office magnet of all the major opera houses.
Since 2012, the lyrical soprano has also started singing roles of the more dramatic genre such as Elsa in Lohengrin, Leonora in Trovatore or Tosca in 2018. According to her, her voice has become darker and deeper.
D’amor sull’ali rosee (il Trovatore)
Her voice
The formerly purely lyrical voice has become a youthfully dramatic soprano. The voice is rich in sound and exuberant, bright red in the low and middle register, and safely controlled in the high register. (Kesting)
Highlights of her records
A wonderful recording from Il Trovatore with Anna Netrebko’s supernatural, wonderfully soft pianissimo passages.
D’amor sull’ali rosee – Netrebko
A very nice recording from Anna Netrebko of Antonia’s aria from Les contes d’Hoffmann.
Elle a fui la tourterelle
Listen to another beautiful Interpretation of this aria from Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor
Regnava nel silenzio…Quando rapito in estasi
And now we come to a recording of Anna Netrebko from the mad scene of Lucia di Lammermore in which a glass harmonica is used as an accompanying instrument (in Netrebkos Interpretation with the exception of the cadenza, which is played with flute), with which this aria was originally composed. It creates a fascinating, supernatural mood.
Il dolce suono riso
A real hype arose in 2005 about the Traviata by Netrebko and Villazon at the Salzburg Festival, the tickets were eight times overbooked and cost 3000 Euros on the black market. The reason was Anna Netrebko. Although she is not a coloratura soprano, she impressed you with her Violetta, especially in the third act.
Addio del passato
This scene is one of the emtional highlights of Andréa Chénier and reminds of the dramatic scene between Scarpia and Tosca in the famous second act. Maddalena mourns her family’s fate and begs Gérard to release Chénier. Gerard confesses Maddalena his love and she offers him a night if he releases Chénier.
La mamma morta
In 2017 Anna Netrebko made her debut in the role of Aida. The reviews from Salzburg and New York were excellent.
O patria
Listen to this beautiful duet from Massenets Manon with Anna Netrebko and Rolando Villazon.
Nous vivrons à Paris – Netrebko / Villazon
Anna Netrebko sings the Gavotte from Manon with the beautiful high Netrebko-tones but.
Obéissons… Profitons de la jeunesse
Listen to the finale of Manon with Rolando Villazon and Anna Netrebko, with a beautiful final picture, absolutely watch to the end.
Ah! des Grieux!.. O Manon! – Netrebko / Villazon
The next recording is from La Boheme, a performance at the Salzburg Festival.
Mi chiamano Mimi
Puccini demands a lot from the interpreter in this famous piece. He has written down more than 20 indications for the singer in the score, which always create different colours and tempos. Note, for example, in the next piece how Anna Netrebko sings the passage “E tu sai che memori ti struggi” (You, who still glows in memory) at about 1:45 and seductively reminds Marcello of the past nights of love. Musetta’s Waltz:
Quando m’em vo – Netrebko
See the finale of La Boheme in the production with Anna Netrebko and Rolando Villazon. Seldom do operatic deaths happen so undramatically and yet so sensitively as in this opera. Rodolfo’s famous last cries end the opera: Mimi ! Mimi !
Finale – Netrebko / Villazon
Next we hear a piece from Elisir d’amore. Donizetti opens this passage with a courtly waltz to portray the educated Adina and then changes to a simpler melody in the choir section.
Netrebko has received many good reviews with this role. Especially her acting was praised very much. Vocally, the role is at the limit, as Donizetti conceived it for a lyrical coloratura soprano.
Della crudele Isotta – Netrebko
We See an charming Anna Netrebko from the television recording of the Vienna State Opera of Elisir d’amore.
Una tenera ochiattina – Netrebko
We hear Netrebko’s interpretation of Casta Diva. Too bad she didn’t sing the Norma on stage!
Casta Diva – Netrebko
Anna Netrebkos is obviously trying hard to articulate the German well, which she also succeeds. In an interview with the FAZ, she confessed: “Now I’ll tell you a secret: I can’t memorize any German text. Perhaps my brain is too organized in Russian after all, it is simply not capable of it. French, Italian, I can sing all that, but German lyrics are too difficult for me. “Lonely in gloomy days”, okay, until then. Silenzio, end, I can’t remember how it goes on. I got a teleprompter for the Elsa in Dresden. Christian Thielemann had made it clear to me that it all depends on the words. He said he didn’t want to hear any musical lines from me, he wanted to hear tttexssssttt! Vowels! consonants! Elsa was really hard. Now I sing Puccini first. ”
Besides the piano passages, the expressive, colorful deep passages are particularly beautiful.
Einsam in trüben Tagen – Netrebko
Anna Netrebkos interpretation of Puccini’s aria from Gianni Schicchi.
O mio babbino caro – Netrebko
We hear an aria from Donizettis Don Pasquale in the interpretation by Anna Netrebko. Her Norina at the MET in New York was a great event. She was able to play her comedic and singing skills to the full. As already in Donizetti’s other Buffo masterpiece “Elisir d’amore” she was able to inspire the audience with her charisma and stage presence.
Quel guardo di cavaliere … son anch’io la virtu – Netrebko
We hear a beautiful recording with the dream couple of the 2000s Juan Diego Florez and Anna Netrebko, again in Donizetti’s Don Pasquale.
Tormami a dir che m’ami – Netrebko / Florez
We hear a beautiful recording with the dream couple of the 2000s Juan Diego Florez and Anna Netrebko, again in Donizetti’s Don Pasquale.
Tormami a dir che m’ami – Netrebko / Florez
Anna Netrebko’s letter scene from Tchajkovskys Eugen Onegin is simply great. She masters the intimate passages, her singing is subtle, the pianos are breathtaking, only to create ecstatic top tones a little later in great embers from the full throat.
Puskai pogibnu ya – Netrebko
We hear and see an excerpt from a scene of Eugen Onegin in a gala concert by Anna Netrebko and Dmitri Horostovsky from the Red Square in Moscow.
O! Kak mne tiazhelo – Netrebko/Hvorostovsky
The fact that Norina reads a love story is a contemporary side blow , since such “penny novels” were incredibly popular at the time. This piece is quite interesting from the point of view of music history. We know that Chopin admired Donizetti and he tried to imitate Donizetti’s Belcanto style on the piano. The first part of the well-known aria begins as in a Chopin Nocturne. Over a rocking 6/8 accompaniment, Norina sings a cantilena with emotional ritardandi. The following well-known theme is accompanied by a dotted rhythm. After a third part the dotted melody comes back goes up to a B and then in “vivasi ah” the aria ends with a high C followed by a 7 bars long trill. A wonderful aria for a virtuoso coloratura soprano.
We hear this aria in the interpretation by Anna Netrebko. Her Norina at the MET in New York was a great event. She was able to play her comedic and singing skills to the full. As already in Donizetti’s other Buffo masterpiece “Elisir d’amore” she was able to inspire the audience with her charisma and stage presence.
Quel guardo di cavaliere … son anch’io la virtu – Netrebko
A version of Anna Netrebko’s of this Puccini Classic.
O mio babbino caro
Anna Netrebko made her role debut as Elsa 2015 and received excellent reviews. Her voice has matured, become firmer and she combines Belcanto and Wagnerian music in this opera in an excellent way. She is obviously trying hard to articulate the German well, which she also succeeds. Besides the piano passages, the expressive, colorful deep passages are particularly beautiful.
Einsam in trüben Tagen – Netrebko
Netrebko’s interpretation of Bellini’s famous Aria. Too bad she didn’t sing Norma on stage!
Casta Diva – Netrebko
Probably the best Adriana Lecouvreur of the beginning of the 21st century is Anna Netrebko. With a darker, more mature voice, Anna Netrebko delighted audiences in New York and Salzburg in 2019, especially in the lyric parts of this opera.
Io son l’umile ancella – Netrebko
Anna Netrebko took on the role debut of Lady Macbeth in 2018. The role fitted perfectly into the development of her voice, which had become darker in previous years but kept the vocal power for this role.
Si colmi il calice (2) – Netrebko
Pace, pace is Leonora’s prayer, her plea for peace, which she will not achieve on earth and longs for her death (“Oh God, let me die”). Hardly any other aria lets the desperation of a woman feel so directly, and it offers the singer many opportunities to captivate the listener.
It begins with a shattering cry “Pace” (“Peace”), with a swelling sound, it must sound full of warmth and despair and immediately seize the listener. Her voice is accompanied by sighing wind instruments and the harp. In addition to the piano parts of the first part, the angelic (written in pianissimo!) high Bb in the middle part and the dramatic “maledizione” at the end form the great highlights of this aria.
Netrebko’s 2019 Forza in London was a triumph. Her almost mezzo-soprano voice triumphed in “Pace, pace”.
Pace, pace mio Dio – Netrebko
Peter Lutz, opera-inside, the online opera guide
Leave a Reply
Want to join the discussion?Feel free to contribute!