DG to release Anna Netrebko: Live at the Met on Sept 20
The coming season marks the tenth anniversary of Anna Netrebko’s debut with the Metropolitan Opera, host to many of her greatest triumphs during the past decade. To celebrate this milestone, Deutsche Grammophon will issue the superstar soprano’s first live solo album, bringing together her most memorable Met moments of the last ten seasons – performances never before issued on record, most of them previously unavailable on any format – on Anna Netrebko: Live at the Metropolitan Opera. The September 20 US release, which will be quickly followed by a full international release, is timed to coincide with the Russian soprano’s opening the Met’s 2011-12 season in the title role of a new production – the company premiere – of Anna Bolena, and will feature some of her most renowned co-stars, including tenors Roberto Alagna, Joseph Calleja, and Juan Diego Flórez. Spanning the full decade, from her 2002 house debut as Natasha in Prokofiev’s War and Peace to her recent appearance as Mimì in La bohème, the excerpted performances were all recorded live on the Met stage. Virtuoso arias from Don Giovanni, I puritani, Rigoletto, Roméo et Juliette, Les contes d’Hoffmann, Lucia di Lammermoor, and Don Pasquale – all infused with Netrebko’s unique vocal magnetism and irresistible on-stage charisma – help substantiate Alex Ross’s conviction that she was “obviously put on earth to sing at the Met” (New Yorker).
Netrebko’s previous solo discs – Opera Arias, Sempre Libera, Russian Album, Souvenirs, and In the Still of Night – have all been runaway bestsellers, as have her full-length opera recordings. Anna Netrebko: Live at the Metropolitan Opera, capturing the thrill of her greatest performances on one of the world’s most iconic stages, will be a major event for the hundreds of thousands of fans who have followed her career in the opera house, on radio, CD, and DVD, and in cinemas worldwide.
The new disc comes at the start of what is destined to be a banner season for Netrebko, who was recently styled “the reigning new diva of the early 21st century” (Associated Press). In headlining the Met’s Anna Bolena (a new staging by David McVicar), Netrebko will become the face of the company’s new season, her likeness appearing on billboards, buses, and subways all over New York City. Next she makes her New York recital debut at Carnegie Hall, performing Russian songs with pianist Elena Bashkirova; gives her eagerly awaited La Scala debut as Donna Anna in a new Robert Carsen production of Don Giovanni; and sings the title role in a new-to-the-Met Laurent Pelly production of Manon. Netrebko also headlines three high-definition transmissions to movie theaters during the coming season: two as part of the Met: Live in HD series, with Anna Bolena on October 15 and Manon on April 7, and the third as part of Emerging Pictures’ Opera in Cinema from La Scala with Don Giovanni on December 7.
The Met’s Anna Bolena will be Netrebko’s second outing as Donizetti’s tragic queen; the first, her highly praised debut at the Vienna Staatsoper last spring, was a resounding success. According to the New York Times, she “scored a personal triumph as Anna Bolena, in what may be her greatest achievement since her Traviata at the 2005 Salzburg Festival.” Agence France-Presse found the soprano “completely convincing as the unjustly accused queen,” while for Opera News, “Netrebko’s assumption of this Donizetti queen takes her one giant leap forward to claiming the title of diva assoluta del mondo.”
Anna Netrebko: Live at the Met
Deutsche Grammophon
US-exclusive release on September 20, 2011
Track Listing:
- Bellini, I puritani, Act 2, Aria: “Qui la voce”, Elvira
- Prokofiev, War & Peace, Act 1, Sc. 1, “Ya ne budu…” + Duet “Kak solntze za garoi”, Natasha
- Mozart, Don Giovanni, Act 2, Aria: “Vedrai carino”, Zerlina
- Donizetti, Don Pasquale, Act 3, Finale: “Senz’andar lungi … La morale in tutto questo”, Norina
- Verdi, Rigoletto, Act 3, Terzetto: “Ah piu non ragiono”, Gilda
- Gounod, Roméo et Juliette, Act 4, Sc.1, Duet: “Nuit d’hyménée!”, Juliette
- Gounod, Roméo et Juliette, Act 4, Sc.4, Aria: “Ah Dieu! Quel frisson…Amour, ranime mon courage”, Juliette
- Donizetti, Lucia di Lammermoor, Act 2, Sc.5, Aria: “Il dolce suono…Ardon gli incensi…”, Lucia
- Offenbach, Les contes d’Hoffmann, Act 3, Duet: “Pourtant, ô ma fiancée … C’est une chanson d’amour“, Antonia
- Puccini, La Bohème, Act 3, Aria: “D’onde lieta usci”, Mimì
- Puccini, La Bohème, Act 1, Duet: “O soave fanciulla”, Mimì
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© 21C Media Group, August 2011