Anna Netrebko loses her beloved’s beard
mainThe diva is known to be fond of her husband’s facial growth.
The director of La Scala’s Andrea Chenier, Mario Martone, does not share her fondness for fuzz.
He has ordered Yusif Eyvazov to get rid of the beard, leaving the tenor in tears.
Here’s what Yusif writes on Instagram: So.. Director asked me to shave my beard 🙈😂 .. crying and getting used to it.. 😂🙏 Режиссёр попросил убрать бороду … 😂😂😂😂😱😱🙈🙈🙈привыкаю со слезами 🙈
He’s no oil painting with or without the beard. Pity the director can’t make him change his one-dimensional stentorian vocal delivery….without the apparently increasing insistence of his wife, he wouldn’t be singing outside the steppes anyway!
For the record, he was cast by Riccardo Muti, no less, in a lead role before he even met Anna Netrebko.
Muti is no automatic guarantor of quality. It was in his Salzburg Aida where I last heard Eyvazov. Awful.
Sad but true. I had high hopes for his Traviata recording for Sony, until I actually heard it… 🙁
What’s wrong with it?
No, not automatic. But the list of singers with whom he has worked at the START of their careers and who have gone on to enjoy substantial success is long and impressive and may have no equal. He is a master talent scout, or rather he knows how to work with scouts and make good decisions.
How exactly was the Radamès? I could find no reviews of Yeo / Eyvazov.
You’re right about Muti’s early career with singers before he became seduced by fame and fortune and started to believe his own publicity (once he got into the clutches of the Philadelphians).
Eyvazov’s Radames completely lacked light and shade. Simply stand and deliver. Zero subtlety. And he’s a hopeless actor.
Erich, isn’t stand and deliver what his wife does? Besides, her flawed intonation is increasingly getting the best of her. How come she gets a pass?
If that’s true, Erich, the Andrea Chénier is going to be a high-profile disaster. Glad I’m not going.
How was Yeo, while I’m asking?
Maybe. He may not have the most ingratiating voice or delivery but at least he sounds sincere and like a natural tenor. I hear no fakery and no tricks to get through a role or a partiture. Unlike others who sound more baritonal and resort to excessive pianissimi just for effect. More importantly, the man is sounding better than the wife, whose troubles with the wobbles and poor intonation are increasingly evident.
She gets away with it because , with a massive publicity machine behind her (and allegedly some dodgy Russian money backers), she has established a very large fan base, many of whom wouldn’t recognise poor intonation or a wobble if it bit them in the backside. Until a new superstar appears over the horizon, she’s milking it for all its worth (and pushing hubby along with her).
Yeo had a well-schooled production throughout the range. Good intonation, a musical sense. Aida is on the outer cusp of what she should allow her voice to tackle at present (dramatic outbursts show those limitations) but if she’s careful, she’ll remain a very capable artist for some time.
Thank you. I guess you see the glass as half-empty for Anna and half-full for Yeo. (Anna’s Aida was fabulous the night I attended.)
Anna was excellent – if in no way eclipsing those past greats (Leontyne was my first!). But the ‘second coming’ she ain’t – but I was very impressed by her Elsa in the Dresden Lohengrin.
Since Leontyne, yes. And it is 40 years since her last great Aidas (in the 1970s), which puts Anna Netrebko in a special class indeed.
Why did you agree with Monster on “poor intonation” and “wobble”? That’s not excellence.
Olassus – I detected signs of both wobble and intonation Problems in Trovatore and Lady Macbeth – both could be cured/alleviated if she has the will to seek out a good coach not afraid to tell her the truth.
Well, in Trovatore she had Barenboim (who is useless in Verdi), then the mediocre Gatti, then Noseda (whose music-making is more Russian than Italian) — and I have to say she was less steady, less impressive than Harteros.
In Macbeth she learned with Carignani, who has the right ideas and wonderful lyricism but may not be the toughest disciplinarian.
But in Aida she had all the help and musical direction anyone could need.
Ungeheuer and Erich absolutely hitting the nail on its head – good to see some opera buffs out there have ears!
As is so often the case in life, it’s not what you know but who you know.
Found this thread after Googling “Anna Netrebko poor intonation,” after hearing her for the first time just now on her Verdi album. I had to quit before hearing it to the end; if this is what she is like in studio conditions, I dread to think what she is like live. I just don’t get how this woman got to where she is! Lovely, dark sounding voice, but when it comes to hitting the right notes, she is less than able.