Content
Anna has wanted to be on stage since the age of three; she dreams of becoming an actress or the star of a musical. When as a young girl she hears opera on the radio, she changes the station; her love for classical singing would awaken only later.
She made her double stage debut at the age of sixteen: as an extra playing the rear end of Stravinsky’s Firebird, and as the second prizewinner in the Miss Kuban Beauty Contest, for which she won a television.
On the long path from Krasnodar to probably the world’s most famous female opera singer, her attractiveness and boundless talent for self-marketing are only a side-effect; most decisive have been the beauty of her voice and her extraordinary vocal and acting ability.
“I’m simply Anna,” she says, “a completely normal woman who happens to be able to sing quite tolerably.” Anna assoluta.
© Ulla Pilz, ORF - Radio Österreich 1
Facts
- 1971 born Krasnodar (in the former Soviet Union, 1200 kilometers from Moscow)
- 1994 debut as Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro at St. Petersburg’s Mariinsky Theater, first international engagements follow
- Definitive breakthrough as Donna Anna in Don Giovanni at the 2002 Salzburg Festival, Met debut the same year
- Her album The Woman, the Voice comes out in 2004 with video clips à la MTV
- Netrebko has been an Austrian citizen since 2006. A later photo alongside an east Ukrainian separatist leader earns her sharp criticism not only from the Austrian Foreign Ministry. She later refrains from making public statements about politics
- In 2007 Netrebko is the first classical music artist to ever be included in Time Magazine’s list of the world’s 100 most influential people
- Numerous prizes, including four Echo Klassik Awards, nine gold and six platinum record awards (as of 2017), and the title “Kammersängerin”
Did you know?
- Anna Netrebko is the pop star of opera as only Maria Callas before her. She declines to speak about Callas, however
- The international yellow press continually reports not only on Netrebko’s love of extravagant clothing, but also every fluctuation in the enthusiastic amateur cook’s body weight
- In an interview she reveals that she had “absolutely loved being pregnant.” Her son Tiago, born in 2008 (from a relationship with Uruguayan baritone Erwin Schrott), suffers from a mild form of autism
- She has been married to Azerbaijani tenor Yusif Eyvazov since 2014
- Netrebko possesses an exceptionally healthy and robust voice; in recent years it has become darker and fuller, permitting her to expand her repertoire to include lyric-dramatic roles
- She has stated that she doesn’t put any thought into what is good or bad for her voice to avoid becoming paranoid
- When asked what her greatest Russian talent is, she answers: “I can survive. Like a cucaracha, the famous Spanish cockroach. Wherever I’m placed.”
- After her successful debut as Elsa in Lohengrin, Netrebko reveals that more Wagner roles would not be following so soon; the German language simply presents her with too many difficulties
Gallery

Recommendations

Opera Gala Baden-Baden
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Marco Armiliato
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SWR Sinfonieorchester
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Anna Netrebko, Elīna Garanča, Ramón Vargas, Ludovic Tézier

Summer Night Concert 2018
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Valery Gergiev
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Wiener Philharmoniker
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Anna Netrebko

Red Ribbon Celebration Concert - Orpheus & Eurydice
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Martin Haselböck
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Wiener Akademie
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Thomas Hampson, Anna Netrebko, Piotr Beczala, Juan Diego Flórez

Donizetti, Anna Bolena
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Evelino Pidò
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Eric Génovèse
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Orchester der Wiener Staatsoper
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Anna Netrebko, Elīna Garanča, Ildebrando D'Arcangelo

Massenet, Manon
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Daniel Barenboim
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Vincent Paterson
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Staatskapelle Berlin
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Anna Netrebko, Rolando Villazón, Alfredo Daza, Christof Fischesser

Bizet, Carmen
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Andris Nelsons
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Franco Zeffirelli
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Orchester der Wiener Staatsoper
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Nadia Krasteva, Massimo Giordano, Ildebrando D'Arcangelo

Netrebko, Eyvazov, Tatarnikov
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Mikhail Tatarnikov
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Mozarteum Orchester Salzburg
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Anna Netrebko, Yusif Eyvazov, Szilvia Vörös

Classical Summit - 3 Superstars in Berlin
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Marco Armiliato
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Orchester der Deutschen Oper Berlin
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Rolando Villazón, Plácido Domingo, Anna Netrebko

Mozart, The Marriage of Figaro
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Nikolaus Harnoncourt
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Claus Guth
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Wiener Philharmoniker
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Bo Skovhus, Dorothea Röschmann, Ildebrando D'Arcangelo

Verdi, La Traviata
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Carlo Rizzi
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Willy Decker
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Wiener Philharmoniker
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Anna Netrebko, Rolando Villazón, Thomas Hampson

Britten, War Requiem
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Antonio Pappano
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Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia
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Anna Netrebko, Ian Bostridge, Thomas Hampson
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Coro dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia