Just in: Pope delays Anna Netrebko

Just in: Pope delays Anna Netrebko

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norman lebrecht

September 23, 2015

Message to Metropolitan Opera goers:

An Important Notice About Your Met Opera Performance

 

Dear Ms. X

Due to extensive street closures related to the Pope’s visit to New York City, the Met’s performance of Il Trovatore on September 25 will be delayed by 30 minutes, allowing audiences additional time to get to the Met. The performance will now start at 8:00pm and will end at approximately 10:50pm.

We recommend that you allow yourself extra time to arrive at the Met.

Please feel free to contact a Customer Care Representative at
212-362-6000 with any questions.

If you have a reservation at the Grand Tier restaurant on the evening of September 25, please call 212-799-3400 to confirm your reservation.

We look forward to welcoming you to the Season Premiere of Il Trovatore.

Sincerely,
The Metropolitan Opera

 

anna netrebko met

Comments

  • NYMike says:

    And from the NY Phil:

    New York Philharmonic
    Important Information About Your Upcoming Concert

    PLEASE NOTE: The United Nations General Assembly as well as the planned local travel route for the upcoming Papal visit will involve extensive Manhattan street closures on the day of your concert. For full details, please visit nyc.gov/papalvisit.

    We recommend that all audience members build in additional travel time and use the subway to reach Lincoln Center.

    If you are planning to travel by car we recommend approaching Lincoln Center from the West Side.
    If you are traveling from the East Side:
    Cross Central Park at 86th Street
    Continue westbound to West End Avenue
    Take West End Avenue to 65th Street
    Turn eastbound on 65th Street
    Access to Lincoln Center Park & Lock Garage will be between Amsterdam Avenue and Broadway, on your right.
    For taxi drop-off:
    Approach Lincoln Center from the West
    Travel eastbound on 65th Street to Broadway
    Turn right onto Broadway followed by an immediate right onto Jaffe Drive
    From there, campus facilities can be accessed from the concourse level and also from the plaza via escalator and elevator. Gilbert Conducts Strauss and Salonen

    Fri Sep 25 2015 8:00 PM

    Please arrive 30 minutes prior to the start of the concert to find your seats.

    There will be no late seating for this performance. Please allow enough time to arrive at the hall so that you are seated on time.

    Alan Gilbert Conductor

    Esa-Pekka Salonen LA Variations
    R. Strauss Ein Heldenleben (Frank Huang, violin)

    Concert Duration: 2 hrs with intermission

  • El Grillo says:

    Does anyone else think that Netrebko is overdoing it: just oh, just a “little” bit? Putting her on hold isn’t maybe such a bad idea.

    I understood she’s so happy and eager to sing Verdi, but I’m not convinced her voice is actually big enough, or mature enough for her current ambition. Especially her more recent singing. She seems to love all the drama, but her voice sounds strained to the extreme with a throaty vibrato that more than being expressive highlights the strain. And she loves all of the drama like she seems to love the spotlight and the fame, but I can’t helping wondering whether she’s overdoing it. I can’t even tell if she’s trying to make her voice sound bigger than it is straining it, the lower register is throaty and in her chest, and she shrieks out the higher notes, or whether she’s just straining her voice enjoying making a drama being hysterical, and it would otherwise be big enough. I’m all for her having fun singing Verdi, but there are other roles not requiring such a big voice, and she’s straining her voice in such a way I myself can’t tell whether her voice itself is big enough, in comparison to her ambition.

    Compare for example
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avcT52vTeE8
    with
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-8C3ARVi3s
    or
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1SdYj765P8
    or
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1V5UJPeAxY

    All three other singers unquestionably have a voice capable of doing justice to the role. I don’t actually know how heavy her role in Il Travatore is, I hope that works well for the Met.

    This also is an old story. Kiri De Kenawa sang Verdi roles too big for her voice, but she could get away with it because of her celebrity pull. Not to take away from her lovely voice, it just wasn’t really big enough. Other things she did beautifully. And then Beverly Sills sang all sorts of roles she perhaps shouldn’t have, and then she sang the Queen of the Aria (or tried to in San Francisco and was booed off of the stage where upon she refused to sing the second aria). Then she spent her whole career interviewing for PBS broadcasts repeatedly trying to diss the Queen of the Night Aria, bringing up such remarks in interviews such as: “Why didn’t Mozart just cut the second aria?” and then go on about other arias not written for her which were too high, or quite high (and added to this were written a half pitch lower during that time, as well, since the pitch has changed). Mind you there are women still born that can sing the Queen of the Night, and do fine with it, challenging as it remains. I don’t think Mozart had a personality flaw that he wasn’t psychic enough to know that within 300 years there would emerge this lady named Beverly who would have a problem with his aria, and he should have altered it to fit her ambition.

  • Olga says:

    Anna already sang Leonora in Il Tovatore in Berlin and Salzburg Festival in 2014 and 2015, and she did it succesfully.

    • CharlesD says:

      I saw videos of both the Berlin and Salzburg performances and agree with you. However, I would change ‘sucessfully’ to spectacular. She is more than ready for Verdi as evidenced by this performance of ‘O patria mia’ from Aida https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1UJlwJOzdQ (Search for Netrebko Munich 2015 if they don’t allow links).

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