A N N A N E
T R E B K O
As
her compelling performances with leading opera companies and symphony
orchestras around the world continue to garner both popular and critical
acclaim, Anna Netrebko has confirmed her status as one of the music world's
most beloved stars. Her debut at the Bavarian State Opera prompted one critic
to write: "there is none lovelier, none who sings more excitingly, none more
charming - there were cheers, madness, and cries of 'the new Callas.'" A recent
performance in Vienna
brought similar praise when Die Presse
wrote, "with her Traviata she has now conquered the Vienna Staatsoper as well.
It really isn't a stretch to use the word 'miracle.' Here one singing actress
brought together everything that opera fans could until now only dream of."
It
was as a leading soprano of the Kirov Opera, guided by Valery Gergiev, that
Anna Netrebko was first introduced to audiences around the world, and many saw
her for the first time in her signature role of Natasha Rostova in Prokofiev's War
and Peace. This role brought her to the stages of the Royal Opera House,
Covent Garden, Milan's Teatro alla Scala and Madrid's Teatro Real,
and 21321t1911v it was as Natasha that Anna Netrebko made her Metropolitan Opera debut in
2002. These performances earned spectacular reviews, and according to The New York Observer, "[O]pening night
was the occasion of another major Met debut - that of Anna Netrebko.[T]his
delicately beautiful, slim soprano looked to be little older than a schoolgirl.
With a dancer's grace of movement and a voice of surprising power and
steely-edged purity, she didn't so much play the impetuous, love-struck heroine
as inhabit her.Audrey Hepburn with a voice."
Anna
Netrebko's early successes in Europe are highlighted by her sensational debut in
2002 at the Salzburg Festival in her first performances as Donna Anna in the
season-opening new production of Don Giovanni, under the
direction of Nikolaus Harnoncourt, and her debuts with the Vienna Staatsoper
and Munich's Bavarian
State Opera as Violetta Valéry in La traviata. The soprano has since
returned to the Vienna Staatsoper for performances of the title role in a new
production of Manon, opposite Roberto Alagna; the title role in Rom o et Juliette,
opposite Rolando Villazon; as Amina in Bellini's La sonnambula; as Donna
Anna; and Adina in L'elisir d'amore. She has returned to Munich for further performances with the Bavarian
State Opera as Violetta and as Gilda in Rigoletto as well as concert
performances at the Gasteig as Mimi in La boheme which were recorded by
Deutsche Grammophon for release in autumn 2007. Ms. Netrebko returned to the
Salzburg Festival to reprise the role of Donna Anna as well as for concert
performances of War and Peace and I
Capuleti e i Montecchi. In 2005 she triumphed in a spectacular new
production of La traviata opposite tenor Rolando Villazon, and she returned the
following season for performances as Susanna in a season-opening new production
of Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro to inaugurate the new Haus für Mozart on the
occasion of the 250th anniversary of the birth of Mozart. Ms.
Netrebko made her debut with the Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin in a new Vincent Paterson production
of Manon,
led by Daniel Barenboim. Audiences at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden have
heard her as Donna Anna in season-opening performances of Don Giovanni in 2004, a
role she reprised in 2007, Gilda, and Servilia in La clemenza di Tito
under the direction of Sir Colin Davis.
Since Anna
Netrebko made her widely-acclaimed Metropolitan Opera debut in 2002 as Natasha Rostova
she has returned for performances as Norina in a new Otto Schenk production of Don
Pasquale; her first performances as Elvira in I puritani; Gilda;
Musetta, and for a performance of La Bohème in what marked her first
appearance as Mimi outside Russia. She also joined the Metropolitan Opera on
tour to Japan
for performances as Donna Anna, and in April 2007 she starred in a sold-out
Metropolitan Opera Pension Fund Gala Concert with Rolando Villazon. The soprano
has been a favorite of Washington's
National Opera, appearing there as Ilia in Idomeneo opposite
Plácido Domingo, Susanna, and Gilda. She made her debut with Los Angeles
Opera in 2003 with her first performances in the title role of Lucia di
Lammermoor and returned for her first performances in the title roles in Rom o et Juliette and Manon, both opposite
Rolando Villazon After her debut with
San Francisco Opera as Lyudmila in Glinka's Ruslan and Lyudmila in
1995, audiences there have seen her in numerous roles including Zerlina in Don
Giovanni, Ilia, Musetta, Adina, Nannetta in Falstaff,
Louisa in Betrothal in a Monastery, and Marfa in
Rimsky-Korsakov's The Tsar's Bride.
Anna
Netrebko has also appeared throughout the world in concert and recital. In 2004
she made her debut at Berlin's
Waldbühne in front of an audience of 15,000 people with a concert of opera
arias and duets with Marcelo Alvarez. The performance was broadcast on German
television, and this event inspired an audience of 17,000 to see her in concert
in 2005 at Munich's
Königsplatz.
In July 2006, she returned to the Waldbühne joining Placido Domingo and
Rolando Villazon for a sold-out concert on the eve of football's World Cup
Final and released on DVD by Deutsche Grammophon.
Ms. Netrebko has appeared
extensively in concert with tenor Rolando Villazon including appearances at London's Barbican Hall, Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris, the Stadthalle in Vienna,
as well as an extensive 2007 tour in Germany. In 2005 Ms. Netrebko
returned to London's
Royal Albert Hall in a concert of arias led by Gianandrea Noseda, and she has
appeared at the Verbier Festival in a performance of Mahler's Fourth
Symphony under the direction of James Levine and for performances of
Pergolesi's Stabat Mater. The soprano was first seen with the
Maggio Musicale Festival in Florence
in concerts of Bach's Mass in b-minor, and she returned there for
Handel's Judas Maccabaeus. She appeared at the inaugural
performances of the Moscow Easter Festival in concerts led by Valery Gergiev,
and audiences in Italy
saw her most recently at the Tuscan Sun Festival in Cortona for a concert of
arias and duets with Dimitry Hvorostovsky.
Anna Netrebko
gave her United States
recital debut to a sold-out audience in San
Francisco's Herbst Theatre. The critics were unanimous
in opinion as one wrote, "[H]ere is a singer who simply has it all: a
voice of astounding purity, precision and scope, extensive dynamic and tonal
range, imagination, insight and wit -- all combined with a dazzling charisma
that makes it all but impossible to look away when she is performing." In
2007, she made her debut at New York's
Carnegie Hall in a sold-out concert of arias and duets with Dimitri
Hvorostovsky.
Anna Netrebko
begins the 2007-08 season with a prestigious
appearance as guest star for the BBC's 'Last Night of the Proms' at London's Royal Albert
Hall. Highlights of her operatic performances this season include her appearances
as Gounod's Juliette with the Metropolitan Opera; Violetta in her debut with
Deutsche Oper Berlin and in her return to the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden;
her debut with the Opéra de Paris as Bellini's Giulietta; Manon with the Vienna
Staatsoper; and further performances as Gounod's Juliette with the Salzburg
Festival slated for release on DVD. She also appears in concert performances of
Pergolesi's Stabat Mater at Vienna's
Musikverein and as Bellini's Giulietta at Vienna's
Konzerthaus, the latter slated for release on CD. She returns to her native Russia this season for a concert with the Berlin
Philharmonic and Sir Simon Rattle in Moscow and
returns to the Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin
for a concert led by Daniel Barenboim.
Since
making her 1994 Kirov Opera debut as Susanna, Anna Netrebko has appeared
frequently at the Mariinsky Theatre in performances of nearly all her leading
roles. She has also been featured in numerous concerts with Maestro Gergiev
including recent performances of Mahler's Second Symphony and
Fourth Symphony in St.
Petersburg. In 1998 Ms. Netrebko was first seen on the
stage of the Metropolitan Opera in performances with the Kirov Opera as
Lyudmila and Louisa.
In
2002, Anna Netrebko became an exclusive recording artist with Deutsche
Grammophon. Her first solo recording was released in 2003 and immediately
garnered popular and critical acclaim including editor's choice awards in Gramophone
Magazine and Opera News. Her second solo album of Italian opera
arias, Sempre libera, is a collaboration with
Claudio Abbado and was released in 2004. In October 2005, Deutsche Grammophon
released her portrayal of La traviata,
recorded live at the Salzburg Festival, and in 2006, the album garnered a
Grammy nomination and was awarded a Klassik Echo Award as Germany's best
selling album. In 2006, Anna Netrebko was featured on a compilation of Mozart
opera arias to commemorate the 250th anniversary of Mozart's birth
and her third solo recording, The Russian
Album, was released by Deutsche Grammophon and also garnered a Klassik Echo
Award as Germany's best selling album. That same year EMI Classics released a
DVD of her live performance as Adina performed at the Vienna Staatsoper
opposite Rolando Villazon, and Deutsche Grammophon released a DVD of her live
performance at the Waldbühne with Placido Domingo and Rolando Villazon as well
as a CD of operatic duets with Rolando Villazon. To date, all of her recordings
have earned platinum status in Germany
and Austria
in addition to many awards in other countries. Her recent album of operatic
duets made the best debut ever for a classical album when it surged to number
three in the German pop charts. In 1995 her performance as Lyudmila with the
Kirov Opera was recorded for DVD and CD by Philips Classics. She can also be
heard as Louisa in Betrothal in a Monastery and Ninetta in The
Love for Three Oranges, both available on Philips Classics.
Anna Netrebko
regularly graces the pages of fashion and society magazines including Vogue,
Elle, Vanity Fair, GQ, W Magazine, Harpers & Queen,
and Inquire. In 2007, Anna Netrebko was named to the "TIME 100 List" - Time magazine's list of the 100 most
influential people in the world. Later that year Anna Netrebko won the
Classical BRIT Award as "Singer of the Year." In November 2004 the American
news television program, '60 Minutes' aired a documentary on Anna Netrebko, and
in December 2004 she made the first of several guest appearances on Thomas
Gottschalk's 'Wetten Dass,' Germany's
most-watched television program. In October 2005, Anna Netrebko was awarded the
prestigious Echo Klassik Award for both "Album of the Year" (Sempre Libera) and "Female Artist of
the Year," and in 2003 she was awarded Opernwelt's Female Singer of the
Year.
Born
in Krasnodar,
Anna Netrebko received her vocal training at the St. Petersburg Conservatory.
After winning first prize in Moscow's
1993 National Glinka Competition, the soprano was invited by the famed
mezzo-soprano Irina Arkhipova to take part in a concert at the Bolshoi Opera.
In 2006 she was awarded Germany's
prestigious Bambi Award, and in 2005 Anna Netrebko was awarded the Russian
State Prize by President Putin - the country's highest award in the field of
arts and literature. Her studies
continue today with renowned soprano Renata Scotto.
A N N A N E T R E B K O
Season 2007-2008
Anna
Netrebko is an exclusive recording artist for Deutsche Grammophon
www.deutschegrammophon.com
Anna Netrebko
can also be heard in recording with Philips Classics
PLEASE DESTROY ANY
PREVIOUS BIOGRAPHICAL MATERIALS
Personal Direction:
JEFFREY D. VANDERVEEN,
Director
For more information about Anna Netrebko,
please visit her website at:
www.annanetrebko.com
08JDV07
