Anna Netrebko opens season with sick-note

Anna Netrebko opens season with sick-note

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norman lebrecht

September 02, 2017

Message from the diva:

Dear friends, I am very sorry but I have caught a cold that forces me to cancel my first performance of Il trovatore in Vienna on September 4. I really hate to cancel and to disappoint my audience, as you all know, but I need to take care of myself so that I can be healthy for the two other performances of the run. I cannot wait to sing for you on
Thursday.

Her replacement on Monday will be Maria José Siri.

Comments

  • herrera says:

    All that cheek-to-cheek kissing favored by Europeans (even if it’s just among the elites in Salzburg) can’t be all that sanitary.

    Do what Asians do, bow to each other one meter apart. You’ll never catch a nasty bug from some gushing fan.

    A friend has a cherished photo of her and Pavarotti looking very upset. I asked her why does he look so mad in the picture, she says, “His manager told everyone no kisses, but I couldn’t resist and kissed him anyway”

  • Ungeheuer says:

    When she sings and sounds this badly, might as well withdraw. This is how she sang a couple of days ago
    https://youtu.be/gKlFzfEIK50

  • Zenaida says:

    Here is another clip from the Waldbühnen concert in Berlin, which, btw, was not sold out (ok, only about 8,000 from a possible 14,000).
    Here she hasn’t caught a cold yet (In questa reggia)

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWvpj_is8Nc

    In case you can receive the German ZDF TV station, the concert will be telecast in its entirety on September 10 at 22 hrs.

    • Vienna calling says:

      Maybe she got ill singing on the open air, windy and cold Waldbühne.

      • Alan Hendrie says:

        She probably “killed herself” vocally with that screaming ‘In questa reggia’. I don’t know what she’s doing, but it’s not singing! I give it two years at most – very sad!

    • herrera says:

      I love how at the 1:53 mark she adopts the same pharaonic posture that she did in her Aida (ok, nevermind that Aida wasn’t Egyptian either, so why she would hold that mummy pose is beyond my limited comprehension of the genius of stage directors).

      I for one won’t remind her Turandot is Chinese, because instead of her tan Aida, she’ll show up with taped up eyes…

  • AndrewB says:

    If she has a heavy cold Anna Netrebko is right to withdraw from the performance rather than risk delayed recovery and more cancellations. Also this is respectful to her colleagues who may also catch it and lose out on work if she goes ahead with the performance.
    I am impressed with her In Questa Reggia posted here – her voice has taken on a whole new dimension since her recent experiences in Wagner and as Verdi’s Aida. The Verismo disc already indicated that this development was happening. I can understand and respect that some people don’t like her work , but that is true of every singer with a big career, past and present, that you could name. However Netrebko is never bland or uninteresting. She has also shown a real commitment to the varied and sometimes very demanding concepts of the productions that she has sung in.

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