Anna Netrebko has redefined what it means to be an opera star. Today’s reigning prima donna, she routinely headlines major productions at leading opera houses across the globe, and was the first classical musician to be chosen as one of the “Time 100,” Time magazine’s list of the world’s most influential people. With her distinctively beautiful voice, abundant charisma, and arresting stage presence, she makes an indelible impression with each of the roles she portrays. An iconic figure both on and off the stage, the Russian soprano enjoys a level of superstardom that extends far beyond the classical realm.
Since her triumphant Salzburg Festival debut in 2002 as Donna Anna in Mozart’s Don Giovanni, Netrebko has gone on to appear with nearly all the world’s great opera companies, including the Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, London’s Royal Opera House, Milan’s La Scala, Vienna State Opera, Paris Opera, Zurich Opera, Berlin State Opera, and Munich’s Bavarian State Opera. She frequently returns to the Kirov Opera at the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg (where she made her stage debut as Susanna in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro) to collaborate with her longtime mentor, conductor Valery Gergiev. As well as Mozart’s Susanna, Netrebko’s other signature roles past and present include Puccini’s Mimì (La bohème) and Manon Lescaut; Verdi’s Violetta (La traviata), Lady Macbeth (Macbeth) and Giovanna d’Arco; Bellini’s Giulietta (I Capuleti e i Montecchi), Elvira (I puritani), and Amina (La sonnambula); Mozart’s Donna Anna (Don Giovanni); Donizetti’s Norina (Don Pasquale), Adina (L’elisir d’amore), Lucia (Lucia di Lammermoor), and Anna Bolena; the title role in Massenet’s Manon; Juliette in Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette; and Tchaikovsky’s Tatiana (Eugene Onegin) and Iolanta.
Netrebko also appears extensively in concerts throughout the world, both in famous music venues such as New York’s Carnegie Hall and in arenas in front of tens of thousands of people. Her outdoor concerts – in which she has shared the stage with artists such as Plácido Domingo and Dmitri Hvorostovsky, at places ranging from Berlin’s Waldbühne to Moscow’s Red Square – are often internationally televised events. She is a fixture at the Salzburg Festival, has headlined the famous Last Night of the Proms in London, and has appeared in the Metropolitan Opera’s Live in HD series each year since its launch during the 2006-07 season. She also frequently appears in recital with the world’s leading artists, including Daniel Barenboim.
Last season saw the soprano take the Metropolitan Opera by storm with her American role debut as Lady Macbeth. Now, to launch 2015-16, she returns to the house for another company role debut that once again kicks off the Met’s celebrated Live in HD season of transmissions to movie theaters worldwide, when she portrays Leonora in a revival of David McVicar’s Goya-inspired Il trovatore. Leonora is also the vehicle for her return to the Paris Opera, where she headlines a new staging of Verdi’s masterpiece in the New Year, and it is again in Verdi that she makes her staged title role debut under the baton of Riccardo Chailly in La Scala’s new, season-opening production of Giovanna d’Arco. A second role debut follows at Dresden’s Semperoper, where she gives her first performances as Elsa in Christine Mielitz’s feminist take on Wagner’s Lohengrin. Beyond the opera house, the Russian soprano looks forward to undertaking a high-profile Asian concert tour and making a solo appearance on the Met stage that marks her eagerly anticipated New York recital debut.
Anna Netrebko boasts an extensive discography that includes solo albums, complete opera recordings, and concert repertoire. Her solo discs for Deutsche Grammophon – Opera Arias, Sempre Libera, Russian Album, Souvenirs, In the Still of Night, Anna Netrebko: Live at the Metropolitan Opera, and Anna Netrebko: Verdi – have all been bestsellers, as have her full-length recordings of La traviata, Le nozze di Figaro, La bohème, I Capuleti e i Montecchi, Giovanna d’Arco, Britten’s War Requiem, and the Stabat Maters of both Pergolesi and Rossini. Highlights from Netrebko’s videography include DVD or Blu-ray discs of Ruslan and Lyudmila, Betrothal in a Monastery, La traviata, Le nozze di Figaro, I puritani, Manon, Lucia di Lammermoor, Don Pasquale, Anna Bolena and Eugene Onegin; a feature film release of La bohème directed by Robert Dornhelm; and a DVD of music videos, titled Anna Netrebko: The Woman, The Voice. Her CD Duets, with tenor Rolando Villazón, set a record for the best European debut for a classical album, climbing to the top of the pop charts in several countries.
Netrebko sang the Olympic Hymn live at the internationally televised opening ceremony of the 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Sochi. In 2007, the year she was named to the Time 100 list, she serenaded film director Martin Scorsese on the CBS broadcast of the 30th Annual Kennedy Center Honors, and the following year she performed on the BBC telecast of the Classical BRIT Awards alongside Andrea Bocelli. Netrebko has been profiled in numerous magazines, including Vogue, Vanity Fair, and Town & Country. She has also been featured on television shows such as ABC’s Good Morning America, NBC’s The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, CBS’s 60 Minutes, CNN’s Revealed, and Germany’s Wetten, dass..? Documentaries about her have been televised in Austria, Denmark, Germany, Russia, and Switzerland.
Anna Netrebko’s other honors and awards include Grammy nominations for her recordings Violetta and Russian Album; Musical America’s 2008 “Musician of the Year”; Germany’s prestigious Bambi Award; the UK’s Classical BRIT Awards for “Singer of the Year” and “Female Artist of the Year”; and ten German ECHO Klassik awards. In 2005 she was awarded the Russian State Prize (the country’s highest award in the field of arts and literature), and in 2008 she was given the title of “People’s Artist of Russia.”
Born in 1971 in Krasnodar, Russia, Anna Netrebko studied vocal performance at the St. Petersburg Conservatory. A passionate advocate for children’s causes, she supports a number of charitable organizations, including SOS-Kinderdorf International and the Russian Children’s Welfare Society. She is a global ambassador for Chopard jewelry. She became a dual citizen of Austria in 2006.
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