Anna Netrebko’s 2008-09 Season

Deutsche Grammophon releases Souvenirs

“This recording is like a bridal bouquet, bursting with variety and
colors,” says Anna Netrebko. “I want it to create a wonderful array of
emotions – passion, fun, love, tenderness.”

Anna Netrebko releases Souvenirs,
her fourth solo album for Deutsche Grammophon, worldwide this November.
On this recording she gives full rein to her lively sense of fun,
glamour, and joie de vivre. Following the example and in the tradition
of such opera luminaries as Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Joan Sutherland, and
Plácido Domingo, all of whom produced acclaimed recitals of lighter
music, Netrebko has put together this sparkling compilation of operetta
classics, seductive salon songs, and other charming melodies.

Souvenirs
is also the soprano’s most intimate recording yet, for – as the title
suggests – each of the tracks holds a cherished place in Netrebko’s
heart, and many of them come with a special memory. For example, “Heia,
in den Bergen” is from Kálmán’s Die Csárdásfürstin (The Gypsy
Princess), which was the first operetta Netrebko saw as a child in her
south Russian hometown of Krasnodar. Similarly, Solveig’s Song from Grieg’s Peer Gynt was the first piece that the 15-year-old Anna Netrebko learned as a student.

German and Norwegian are just two of the nine languages displayed on
this recording (or ten, if one counts the Andalusian dialect as
distinct from Spanish). Netrebko also sings here in French, Italian,
Russian, Czech, Yiddish, and Latin. Souvenirs includes works
by Léhar, Strauss, Dvorák, Rimsky-Korsakov, and Arditi, among others.
The recording also features special guest appearances by Polish tenor
Piotr Beczala (for Richard Heuberger’s Der Opernball “Im chambre séparée”), Elina Garanca (for Offenbach’s Les contes d’Hoffmann, Barcarolle), and by English boy soprano Andrew Swait (for Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Requiem, “Pie Jesu”). French maestro Emmanuel Villaume leads the Prague Philharmonia and the Prague Philharmonic Choir.

The physical CD of Souvenirs
will be available both in a standard version and in a deluxe edition.
The deluxe edition includes, in addition to the CD, a bonus DVD of
behind-the-scenes footage; a beautiful discography booklet; three
postcards; and a poster of Anna Netrebko.

Souvenirs
will be released in the US on November 11 and on proximate dates in
other markets. Deutsche Grammophon has launched a microsite for the
album, which can be found along with an e-player to preview tracks from
the recording, at www.deutschegrammophon.com/netrebko-Souvenirs-deluxe.
For airplay or review copies, please contact Rebecca Davis, Director of
Publicity, at Universal Music Classical at (212) 333-8237 or [email protected].

Netrebko’s return to the stage

In January 2009, Anna Netrebko makes her highly-anticipated return to
the stage, following a six-month maternity leave, to sing the title
role in Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor, first at the
Mariinksy Theater in St. Petersburg and then at the Metropolitan Opera
in New York. (The Russian soprano and her fiancé, bass-baritone Erwin
Schrott, gave birth to their son, Tiago Aruã Schrott, on September 5,
2008.) The Metropolitan Opera production opens on January 26 and will
mark the first time Netrebko has performed the role in New York. She
will be partnered onstage with tenor Rolando Villazón in their first
joint appearances at the Met since April 2007, when the Met celebrated
its 40th anniversary at Lincoln Center with a gala featuring the star
singers.

On February 7, Lucia di Lammermoor will be transmitted by The Met: Live in HD to movie theaters worldwide – Netrebko’s third consecutive Live in HD transmission from the Met. All four of her Met performances of Lucia are sold out.

Other Season Highlights

Following her Met Lucia, Anna Netrebko continues on to London’s Royal Opera House Covent Garden for performances of Bellini’s I Capuleti e i Montecchi
opposite Latvian mezzo-soprano Elina Garanca in March 2009. The
occasion marks Netrebko’s first performance of the bel canto role since
her triumphal debut at the Opéra National de Paris Bastille last June.
Netrebko and Garanca’s recording of the opera, made during her
performance in Vienna in spring 2008, will be released by Deutsche
Grammophon to coincide with their London appearances.

In June, Anna Netrebko returns to San Francisco Opera, where she made
her North American debut in 1995, for a run of performances as Violetta
in Verdi’s La traviata. Maestro Donald Runnicles, a longtime
colleague of Netrebko’s, conducts his final production as Music
Director of the San Francisco Opera. Netrebko also presents her
critically acclaimed portrayal of Violetta earlier in the spring at the
Vienna State Opera and, in her debut, at the Zurich Opera.

Other season highlights include Lucia at the Vienna State Opera and her return to the Bavarian State Opera in Munich for Mimì in La bohème.
On the concert stage, Netrebko performs with Dmitri Hvorostovsky in May
at London’s Royal Festival Hall and in Braunschweig. Over the summer of
2009, she returns to the Festspielhaus in Baden-Baden for the title
role in Tchaikovsky’s Iolantha and performs a recital with Daniel Barenboim in Salzburg.

Anna Netrebko will also appear on television screens across the US over the coming year in a Great Performances special on PBS titled Domingo, Netrebko, & Villazón: Three Stars in Vienna.
The program was recorded last June, when the three singers performed an
outdoor concert in front of more than 10,000 people at the Imperial
Park of Vienna’s Schönbrunn Palace. Presented by Thirteen/WNET New York
in high definition, the broadcast is led by French conductor Bertrand
de Billy, directing the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra. The program
begins airing on Thirteen/WNET in New York on November 30, 2008 and
later in other markets (check local listings).

Please visit Anna Netrebko’s recently redesigned website for news and schedule updates: www.annanetrebko.com.
A full list of Anna Netrebko’s upcoming CD and DVD releases appears
below, followed by a list of her performances this season.

Anna Netrebko – Souvenirs