Intermezzo

Cleaning lady makes good

Keeping Vladimir Putin, Placido Domingo and Valery Gergiev at a safe arm's length whilst maintaining a tight grip on her champagne flute is just one of the skills a modern diva must master.

Anna Netrebko was in St Petersburg last night to star in a spectacular gala concert for the opening of the new Mariinsky II theatre. The multi-million-rouble modernist edifice is connected by a footbridge to the traditionally-styled old theatre, where the Austrian soprano used to scrub the floor in between singing lessons.

The concert, beamed live around the world, also featured Domingo, Ildar Abdrazakov, Olga Borodina, Alexei Markov, Evgeny Nikitin, René Pape, Ekaterina Semenchuk, Mikhail Petrenko, Sergei Semishkur, Yekaterina Kondaurova, Ulyana Lopatkina, Diana Vishneva, Olga Esina, Vladimir Shklyarov, Yuri Bashmet, Denis Matsuev and Leonidas Kavakos. It was conducted by Gergiev, celebrating his 60th birthday at the same time, and broadcast live.

You can watch the whole thing below - the music starts around 22 minutes in - or for the time-pressed try the brief news summary below that.

Royal Opera House 2013- 2014 season revealed

The ROH officially revealed full details of their 2013-14 season this morning. As most had slipped out one way or the other already, there are only one or two surprises - not all of them welcome.

There are seven new productions, and in celebration of Richard Strauss's 150th birthday there are three of his operas.

The most exciting new production, long-known, is Stefan Herheim's Les Vepres Siciliennes, conducted by Antonio Pappano and featuring Marina Poplavskaya, Erwin Schrott, Michael Volle and the inevitable Bryan Hymel.

Claus Guth's Die Frau Ohne Schatten comes fresh(ish) from La Scala with Johan Botha, Emily Magee, Michaela Schuster and Johan Reuter, and is conducted by Semyon Bychkov.

A new (to Covent Garden) Robert Carsen Carmelites conducted by Simon Rattle features Magdalena Kozena and Anna Prohaska.

Star-wise,  Juan Diego Florez is back in La fille du régiment, this time with Patrizia Ciofi, Ewa Podles - and future Downton Abbey star Dame Kiri te Kanawa.

Manon Lescaut features Jonas Kaufmann, together with Kristine Opolais and Christopher Maltman. There's a Faust revival with Joseph Calleja, Anna Netrebko, Bryn Terfel and Simon Keenlyside. Joyce DiDonato reprises her Maria Stuarda  in a new Leiser/Caurier production, with Carmen Giannattasio and Charles Castronovo. Karita Mattila makes her return to Covent Garden in Keith Warner's splendid Wozzeck, also featuring Simon Keenlyside, and Christof Loy's Ariadne auf Naxos, with Jane Archibald and Ruxandra Donose.

To compensate for his multiple London no-shows perhaps, Jonas Kaufmann also gives a main stage recital on 6 April.

Conductor wise, the major shock is that baritenor Placido Domingo will be let loose on Tosca.

Full details:

Anna Netrebko, bikini babe

Anna Netrebko gifts her Facebook fans a series of beachwear shots taken on her recent Miami vacation.

 

Wrong baby news

When the rumour was aired that Plácido Domingo would sing the baritone role of Luna in Il Trovatore, at the 2013 Salzburg Festival, most of us  suspected the Austrian press of slipping too much schnapps into their coffee.

But it turns out you can't keep an old baritenor down. Only the timing and location were wrong.

Plácido will sing his first Luna at the Staatsoper Berlin this November, under the baton of Daniel Barenboim.

At his side will be another debutant - Anna Netrebko, more predictably cast as Leonora.

Anna Netrebko gets something off her chest

Anna Netrebko has decided "after careful consideration, she will not be adding the role of Countess Almaviva to her repertoire."  That's what she's told the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden, who were hoping to snag her world debut in the role at next year's Whitsun Festival.

It sounds a sensible move - the former Susanna probably never dreamed her voice would grow and darken the way it has when she signed up for the part.

But with Baden-Baden unwilling to lose their audience-magnet, it's the opera that's changing, not the star. Don Giovanni is now scheduled instead. Director Philipp Himmelmann, conductor Thomas Hengelbrock and the Balthasar-Neumann-Ensemble remain on board.

If you can't be at the Met tonight..........

...........here's the next best thing. Anna Netrebko and Matthew Polenzani perform Poiché non sono amato at the dress rehearsal for L'elisir d'amore, which opens the Met season tonight. Now what's all that about dropping the -inas?

Anna butters some fresh roles

Anna Netrebko is changing career direction.

"The thing is, my voice changed a lot—enormously," she told the Wall Street Journal (though the image above is the October 2012 cover of Russian Tatler. In case you didn't guess).

Out go the lighter, ingenue roles - the "inas" as Anna calls them, to be replaced by parts more suited to Anna's bigger, darker voice.

Here's what's on the cards:

Anna Netrebko isn't reading this

Anna Netrebko discloses in an interview that she's happy without a computer, and wouldn't know how to turn one on. In fact, she's never looked at her own website.

She told the Kronen Zeitung that Erwin Schrott googled her once and came up with "Netrebko has got really fat and has no voice". After that, she realised it was better to avoid computers altogether.

She's advised her Twitter-addicted blogger of an other half to do the same, because it exhausts his energy when he get angry at what's been written. Good advice for all singers (and opera directors) I think.

Netrebko's dodgy tattoo

It seems there's more than one Russian singer with an unexplained tattoo.

Eagle eyed reviewers have spotted that Anna Netrebko is currently sporting a colourful piece of body art - on her neck.

They've speculated it's part of the punky persona she's created for Salzburg's new La bohème, in which she plays a thoroughly modern Mimi. Because it couldn't be a gesture of solidarity with her former classmate Evgeny Nikitin - could it?

Anna in Wonderland

Has director Damiano Michieletto been at the 'special' mushrooms? His new La bohème for the Salzburg Festival has an Alice in Wonderland feel. Sets are massively under or over scaled,  perspectives are distorted.

Anna Netrebko plays Mimi in a raspberry beret - the kind u find in a second hand store - and Nino Machaidze is Musetta in what look like the offcuts from Jonas Kaufmann's paw-worthy leopard print suit.

Free Anna Netrebko

On 19 May, the Bavarian State Opera website will be streaming I Capuleti e i Montecchi live - and free.

Vincent Boussard's stylish production, which I saw last year, features Vesselina Kasarova and Anna Netrebko as Romeo and Juliet. The sumptuous Christian Lacroix costumes are worth tuning in for all by themselves.

Streaming begins at 7pm CET (6pm UK).

Anna Netrebko's Cardinal sin

It looks like Anna Netrebko (recorded at Friday's Women in the World event at Lincoln Center) has a new style icon.

A step forward for Anna Netrebko

Anyone concerned about the outcome of the foot operation that kept Anna Netrebko out of La traviata at Covent Garden last week will be delighted to know that Anna is already back in heels and strutting her stuff as if nothing happened.

Together with Erwin Schrott, she was interviewed earlier today by the German TV host Thomas Gottschalk (here; starts at 13:30).  Warning - it's not exactly Paxmanesque - they politely rebuff Heidi/Seal comparisons and patiently explain why Erwin doesn't get jealous when Anna sings with Jonas Kaufmann. But their responses are in English, which may help.

Anna Netrebko out of Covent Garden Traviata

Anna Netrebko is pulling out of both her sold-out La traviata dates at the Royal Opera House (17 and 20 January) due to 'an urgent operation on her foot'.  Bunions? Verruca? The imagination wanders. Anna said a few months ago that she was moving on with her repertoire and withdrawing Violetta, so it could be that we've heard the last of her tubercular coughs.

Ermonela Jaho is likely to replace her, though Covent Garden haven't announced anything yet.

This follows high-profile cancellations over the holiday season at Dresden ('lack of preparation time') and La Scala (a 'bad cold'). Three German concerts in January with Erwin Schrott have also been cancelled and rescheduled for later in the year.

Anna expects to return to the stage later in January once she has fully recovered from the operation.

Erwin Schrott's Covent Garden Don Giovanni is unlikely to be affected, since he doesn't take over the role from Gerald Finley until 16 February.

**********************

*UPDATE*  5.1.12 - After six days combing the globe for a replacement, Covent Garden have finally announced that they have 'managed to secure' Ermonela Jaho for the two dates.

Look no blings

The only time Anna Netrebko felt sick during her pregnancy, she told Russian Vogue, was when she looked in her closet and saw some black and grey clothes.

"I'm from Krasnodar - I like colour!"

Like the pro she is, Anna bravely stifled her gag reflex to model a sombre selection of Cold War spy-chic for the magazine's November issue.

 

Photos - Peter Rigaud

Anna and Erwin say auf Wiedersehn to Dresden

Anna Netrebko and Erwin Schrott have withdrawn from their long-booked 2011 New Year's Eve and 30 December concerts at Dresden Semperoper, citing insufficient preparation time.

Having successfully stepped into last year's Dresden concerts with less than a week's notice, the excuse is an unexpected one.

They apparently hope the programme of of Franz Lehar operetta highlights can be rescheduled at a later date. That's a grain of comfort to ticket holders for the long sold out shows.

But the solution won't help the ZDF channel. They're due to broadcast the New Year's Eve concert in fierce competition with rivals ARD, who've snaffled the Berlin Phil. It's not clear at this stage whether ZDF had finalised contractual arrangements with Netrebko and Schrott.

Their replacements are Angela Denoke and Ana Maria Labin.

“F--k me, I’m famous!”

Best Anna Netrebko interview ever.

Anna Netrebko frocks out

 

Yesterday was the dress rehearsal of the Met's season-opener, a new Anna Bolena with Anna Netrebko in the title role.

With David McVicar in the driving seat, no-one will be surprised to learn the production has a traditional look. For inspiration, costume designer Jenny Tiramani referenced court portraits, tapestries, actual relics and even wills detailing the deceased's garments, as Vogue.com reveal in more detail.

By happy and flattering coincidence, the historically-accurate swathes of satin and velvet frame Anna's impressive acres of bosom heavage whilst shrouding the remainder of her voluptuous assets in mystery. 

Netrebko sings for beer

 

Champagne may be opera's tipple of choice, but at Dresden Semperoper they prefer lager.

A longstanding sponsorship deal with local brewer Radeberger Pilsner lends a distinctly less elitist touch to those ads in the back of the programme.

Now Radeberger and the Semperoper have snapped up Anna Netrebko for a special concert on 24 February 2012, where she's sharing the bill with cellist Jan Vogler.

It's so exclusive you can't even buy a ticket. Instead, Radeberger are giving them away - together with a night's hotel accommodation. Enter the draw here.

Anna is Erwin's woman (but she likes a bit of Jonas on the side)

Not nearly as toecurling as it could have been - bravo/a/i for trying.

That was perhaps the most experimental selection in the stream of greatest operatic hits at Anna and Erwin's blockbuster Waldbühne concert on Tuesday evening. Jonas Kaufmann joined them, and the entire highly-priced extravaganza was broadcast on the German channel ZDF.

You can watch the whole thing on ZDF's website (not all countries), or enjoy a few choice excerpts below.

Mortgage the garden shed and perhaps you too could catch them live in the Royal Albert Hall next year.