Anna Netrebko’s 2009-10 season
Anna Netrebko’s first full season of performances since the birth
of her son is highlighted by a new Metropolitan Opera production of Offenbach’s
Les contes d’Hoffmann, directed by
Tony Award-winner Bartlett Sher, and opening on December 3 in New York. Meanwhile, this month sees the Russian
soprano on the big screen, when Emerging
Pictures releases a feature film version of La bohème, in which she stars
alongside Mexican tenor Rolando
Villazón. Puccini’s Mimì
is also one of the four characters Netrebko will portray at the Vienna State Opera,
where she takes on four leading operatic roles over a six-week period near the
season’s end.
In the Met’s new production of Offenbach’s Les contes d’Hoffmann, Netrebko appears as the young Antonia. Audiences worldwide will be able to see
her in the role, thanks to the Met: Live
In HD movie theater broadcast of the matinee performance on December
19. The soprano’s castmates in this production
include rising star mezzo Kate Lindsey as Nicklausse and Maltese
tenor Joseph Calleja as
Hoffmann. Alan Held plays the four villains, and Metropolitan Opera Artistic
Director James Levine conducts.
Anna Netrebko will also reprise her
signature role of Mimì in the Met’s beloved Franco Zeffirelli production of La bohème,
opening February 20. But those
looking to get their Puccini fix before the new year will be delighted this month, when Emerging Pictures releases a feature
film version of La bohème,
starring Netrebko and Rolando Villazón. The movie, which was filmed in
2008 in Vienna and is directed by Oscar- and Emmy-nominated director Robert Dornhelm, will be shown in
theaters in select cities starting September 23. Information on exact show times and locations, as well as a
list of participating venues, is available at www.labohemethemovie.com/showtimes. The theatrical
trailer for La bohème can be viewed at labohemethemovie.com/trailer
To coincide with the film’s release, Deutsche Grammophon has issued an iTunes exclusive release called La bohème – Five Favorites, which
features five must-have selections from the full-length version of Netrebko and
Villazón’s recording of the opera, and which will be available for only
$3.99. A more traditional
highlights recording will follow, both in physical and digital versions, later
in the year. Netrebko and
Villazón’s complete recording of La bohème, which is used as the movie’s
soundtrack, was released in 2008 on DG.
Further season
highlights
Netrebko opens the opera season in St. Petersburg at her home
theater, the storied Mariinsky, singing the title role in Tchaikovsky’s Iolanta under her early mentor, Valery
Gergiev. She first sang Iolanta in
Baden-Baden, Germany over the summer.
Also this month, she makes debuts in the concert halls of Copenhagen,
Oslo, and Stockholm with tenor Massimo Giordano and conductor Emmanuel
Villaume. The mini-tour also touches
down in Paris’s historic Salle Pleyel on October 1 for her concert debut there,
this time with Keri-Lynn Wilson at the podium. Across town at the Opéra National de Paris, Netrebko sings Adina in
four October performances of Donizetti’s L’elisir
d’amore. Before returning to
New York for her Met Bohème, the
soprano makes her Royal Festival Hall debut in London in a concert with Dmitri
Hvorostovsky on January 18.
One
of Netrebko’s most anticipated European appearances comes on March 29, 2010,
when she gives a recital with pianist Daniel Barenboim at the Berlin State
Opera. Over the summer at the
Salzburg Festival, the two performed a well-received program
entirely devoted to songs by Rimsky-Korsakov and Tchaikovsky; the Wiener Zeitung found Netrebko to be: “not an opera diva on the
stage, but a matured singer able to interpret every line, every word in music.”
As
the season nears its end, Anna Netrebko returns to her most doting audience, at
the Vienna State Opera, to portray a quartet of favorite opera characters in La bohème, I puritani, Manon, and Carmen (Micaela) over a period of just
six weeks. Her season finale will
be a reprise of the title role in Massenet’s Manon for seven performances in June and July at London’s Royal
Opera House.
Anna Netrebko: official 2009-10 schedule
September
24, 2009 (DEBUT)
Stockholm, Sweden
Konserthuset
Stockholm Philharmonic / Emmanuel Villaume
Massimo Giordano, tenor
September
28, 2009
St. Petersburg, Russia
Mariinsky Theatre / Valery Gergiev
Tchaikovsky: Iolanta
(title role)
October 1,
2009 (DEBUT)
Paris, France
Salle Pleyel
Orchestre National d’Ile-de-France / Keri-Lynn Wilson
Massimo Giordano, tenor
October 10,
15, 20, and 23, 2009
Paris, France
Opéra National de Paris
Donizetti: L’elisir
d’amore (Adina)
December 3,
7, 11, 16, 19, 23, 26, and 30, 2009; January 2, 2010
Metropolitan Opera
Les contes
d’Hoffmann (Antonia)
January 18 (DEBUT)
London, UK
Philharmonia Orchestra
Royal Festival Hall
Concert with Dmitri Hvorostovsky
February
20, 24, and 27; March 2, 6, 10, 13, 17, and 20, 2009
New York, NY
Metropolitan Opera
Puccini: La
bohème (Mimì)
March 29, 2010
Berlin, Germany
Berlin State Opera
Recital with Daniel Barenboim
April 5 and 8, 2010
Vienna, Austria
Vienna State Opera
Puccini: La bohème (Mimì)
April 19, 22, and 25, 2010
Vienna, Austria
Vienna State Opera
Bellini: I puritani (Elvira)
May 3, 6, 9, 12, and 15, 2010
Vienna, Austria
Vienna State Opera
Bizet: Carmen (Micaela)
May 18 and 21, 2010
Vienna, Austria
Vienna State Opera
Massenet: Manon (title role)
June 22, 25, and 28; July 1, 4, 7, and 10, 2010
London, UK
Royal Opera House, Covent
Garden
Massenet: Manon (title role)
Anna Netrebko: upcoming CD and DVD releases
La bohème – Five
Favorites
Deutsche Grammophon
Released on Sep 15 (iTunes exclusive)
Donizetti: Lucia di Lammermoor
(2 DVDs)
Deutsche Grammophon
Release Date: Nov 10
La bohème – The Highlights (CD)
Deutsche Grammophon
Release Date: Nov 24
La bohème (DVD)
Kultur International Films
Release Date: Dec 15
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© 21C Media Group, September 2009