Netrebko plans a Berlin comeback

Netrebko plans a Berlin comeback

Opera

norman lebrecht

May 14, 2024

Next season at Unter den Linden, the first with Christian Thielemann as Daniel Barenboim’s successor, opens with Verdi’s Nabucco.

It’s a new production by Emma Dante, opening on October 2.

The cast is headed by Anna Netrebko who is making considerable efforts to recover her pre-Ukraine paramountcy in German houses. Berlin is seen as the gateway to her second chance. Nabucco is a role she has sung many times. Thielemann has long been her supporter.

The Staatsoper are not making a great fuss about her presence. Expect ructions closer to the time.

Comments

  • Giuseppe says:

    “Nabucco is a role she has sung many times.”

    News to me.

  • Bleg says:

    Debut in voice-killing role of Abigaille in Nabucco:

    https://annanetrebko.com/2023/05/06/spectacular-debut-as-abigaille-at-the-international-may-festival-in-wiesbaden/

    — Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung

    Stage debut in Berlin?

    She is at the top of her game after 26 years in lead roles and 30 years in the business, regardless of decisions in New York and London and Munich but not in Vienna or Milan, and it is a shame that she must reingratiate herself to Berlin by damaging her rich, expressive voice.

  • Potpourri says:

    Anna Netrebko sang Abigaille for the first time during a concert version of Nabucco at the Wiesbaden May Festival in 2023. Netrebko will also appear in Il Trovatore in Berlin in May 2025.

  • David A. Boxwell says:

    She can shred what remains of her voice belting out Abigaille’s scary music.

  • John Borstlap says:

    The picture shows with how much effort this lady tries to understand the world.

  • Michael de Navarro says:

    Lucky Berlin. Still no return to Covent Garden

  • Chet says:

    Uncomfortable political ambiguity is Thielemann’s forte.

    What exactly is he projecting with a Netrebko Nabucco?

    The Hebrews have a right to a homeland and are justified in their actions in the Gaza war, just as Russians have a right to reclaim an empire and are justified in the Ukraine war?

    Berlin is becoming a place of confused and muddled messages with Thielemann’s reactionary tendencies, along side of Petrenko’s mealy mouth naive platitudes.

  • Save the MET says:

    Seems to me she cancelled her Abagaille contract in Vienna a few years ago.

    • Potpourri says:

      Anna Netrebko withdrew from Nabucco in Vienna after she had shoulder surgery in October 2021.

  • Effie Sheldon says:

    My husband and I paid one thousand dollars each to see her perform in Melbourne. She only sang six songs. Very disappointed.

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