As her compelling performances with leading opera companies and symphony orchestras around the world continue to garner both popular and critical acclaim, Anna Netrebko has confirmed her status as one of the music world's most beloved stars. Her debut at the Bavarian State Opera prompted one critic to write: "there is none lovelier, none who sings more excitingly, none more charming √ there were cheers, madness, and cries of 'the new Callas.'" A recent performance in Vienna brought similar praise when Die Presse wrote, "with her Traviata she has now conquered the Vienna Staatsoper as well. It really isn't a stretch to use the word 'miracle.' Here one singing actress brought together everything that opera fans could until now only dream of."
It was as a leading soprano of the Kirov Opera, guided by Valery Gergiev, that Anna Netrebko was first introduced to audiences around the world, and many saw her for the first time in her signature role of Natasha Rostova in Prokofiev's War and Peace. This role brought her to the stages of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Milan's Teatro alla Scala and Madrid's Teatro Real, and it was as Natasha that Anna Netrebko made her Metropolitan Opera debut in 2002. These performances earned spectacular reviews, and according to The New York Observer, "[O]pening night was the occasion of another major Met debut √ that of Anna Netrebko ... [T]his delicately beautiful, slim soprano looked to be little older than a schoolgirl. With a dancer's grace of movement and a voice of surprising power and steely-edged purity, she didn't so much play the impetuous, love-struck heroine as inhabit her ... Audrey Hepburn with a voice."
Anna Netrebko's early successes in Europe are highlighted by her sensational debut in 2002 at the Salzburg Festival in her first performances as Donna Anna in the season-opening new production of Don Giovanni, under the direction of Nikolaus Harnoncourt, and her debuts with the Vienna Staatsoper and Munich's Bavarian State Opera as Violetta ValИry in La traviata. The soprano has since returned to the Vienna Staatsoper for performances of the title role in a new production of Manon, opposite Roberto Alagna; the title role in RomИo et Juliette, opposite Rolando VillazСn; as Amina in Bellini's La sonnambula; as Donna Anna; and Adina in L'elisir d'amore. She has returned to Munich for further performances with the Bavarian State Opera as Violetta and as Gilda in Rigoletto as well as concert performances at the Gasteig as Mimi in La boheme which were recorded by Deutsche Grammophon for release in autumn 2007. Ms. Netrebko returned to the Salzburg Festival to reprise the role of Donna Anna as well as for concert performances of War and Peace and I Capuleti e i Montecchi. In 2005 she triumphed in a spectacular new production of La traviata opposite tenor Rolando VillazСn, and she returned the following season for performances as Susanna in a season-opening new production of Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro to inaugurate the new Haus fЭr Mozart on the occasion of the 250th anniversary of the birth of Mozart. Ms. Netrebko made her debut with the Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin in a new Vincent Paterson production of Manon, led by Daniel Barenboim. Audiences at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden have heard her as Donna Anna in season-opening performances of Don Giovanni in 2004, a role she reprised in 2007, Gilda, and Servilia in La clemenza di Tito under the direction of Sir Colin Davis.
Since Anna Netrebko made her widely-acclaimed Metropolitan Opera debut in 2002 as Natasha Rostova she has returned for performances as Norina in a new Otto Schenk production of Don Pasquale; her first performances as Elvira in I puritani; Gilda; Musetta, and for a performance of La BohХme in what marked her first appearance as Mimi outside Russia. She also joined the Metropolitan Opera on tour to Japan for performances as Donna Anna, and in April 2007 she starred in a sold-out Metropolitan Opera Pension Fund Gala Concert with Rolando VillazСn. The soprano has been a favorite of Washington's National Opera, appearing there as Ilia in Idomeneo opposite PlАcido Domingo, Susanna, and Gilda. She made her debut with Los Angeles Opera in 2003 with her first performances in the title role of Lucia di Lammermoor and returned for her first performances in the title roles in RomИo et Juliette and Manon, both opposite Rolando VillazСn. After her debut with San Francisco Opera as Lyudmila in Glinka's Ruslan and Lyudmila in 1995, audiences there have seen her in numerous roles including Zerlina in Don Giovanni, Ilia, Musetta, Adina, Nannetta in Falstaff, Louisa in Betrothal in a Monastery, and Marfa in Rimsky-Korsakov's The Tsar's Bride.
Anna Netrebko has also appeared throughout the world in concert and recital. In 2004 she made her debut at Berlin's WaldbЭhne in front of an audience of 15,000 people with a concert of opera arias and duets with Marcelo Alvarez. The performance was broadcast on German television, and this event inspired an audience of 17,000 to see her in concert in 2005 at Munich's KЖnigsplatz. In July 2006, she returned to the WaldbЭhne joining Placido Domingo and Rolando VillazСn for a sold-out concert on the eve of football's World Cup Final and released on DVD by Deutsche Grammophon.
Ms. Netrebko has appeared extensively in concert with tenor Rolando VillazСn including appearances at London's Barbican Hall, ThИБtre des Champs-ElysИes in Paris, the Stadthalle in Vienna, as well as an extensive 2007 tour in Germany. In 2005 Ms. Netrebko returned to London's Royal Albert Hall in a concert of arias led by Gianandrea Noseda, and she has appeared at the Verbier Festival in a performance of Mahler's Fourth Symphony under the direction of James Levine and for performances of Pergolesi's Stabat Mater. The soprano was first seen with the Maggio Musicale Festival in Florence in concerts of Bach's Mass in b-minor, and she returned there for Handel's Judas Maccabaeus. She appeared at the inaugural performances of the Moscow Easter Festival in concerts led by Valery Gergiev, and audiences in Italy saw her most recently at the Tuscan Sun Festival in Cortona for a concert of arias and duets with Dimitry Hvorostovsky.
Anna Netrebko gave her United States recital debut to a sold-out audience in San Francisco's Herbst Theatre. The critics were unanimous in opinion as one wrote, "[H]ere is a singer who simply has it all: a voice of astounding purity, precision and scope, extensive dynamic and tonal range, imagination, insight and wit √ all combined with a dazzling charisma that makes it all but impossible to look away when she is performing." In 2007, she made her debut at New York's Carnegie Hall in a sold-out concert of arias and duets with Dimitri Hvorostovsky.
Anna Netrebko begins the 2007-08 season with a prestigious appearance as guest star for the BBC's 'Last Night of the Proms' at London's Royal Albert Hall. Highlights of her operatic performances this season include her appearances as Gounod's Juliette with the Metropolitan Opera; Violetta in her debut with Deutsche Oper Berlin and in her return to the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden; her debut with the OpИra de Paris as Bellini's Giulietta; Manon with the Vienna Staatsoper; and further performances as Gounod's Juliette with the Salzburg Festival slated for release on DVD. She also appears in concert performances of Pergolesi's Stabat Mater at Vienna's Musikverein and as Bellini's Giulietta at Vienna's Konzerthaus, the latter slated for release on CD. She returns to her native Russia this season for a concert with the Berlin Philharmonic and Sir Simon Rattle in Moscow and returns to the Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin for a concert led by Daniel Barenboim.
Since making her 1994 Kirov Opera debut as Susanna, Anna Netrebko has appeared frequently at the Mariinsky Theatre in performances of nearly all her leading roles. She has also been featured in numerous concerts with Maestro Gergiev including recent performances of Mahler's Second Symphony and Fourth Symphony in St. Petersburg. In 1998 Ms. Netrebko was first seen on the stage of the Metropolitan Opera in performances with the Kirov Opera as Lyudmila and Louisa.
In 2002, Anna Netrebko became an exclusive recording artist with Deutsche Grammophon. Her first solo recording was released in 2003 and immediately garnered popular and critical acclaim including editor's choice awards in Gramophone Magazine and Opera News. Her second solo album of Italian opera arias, Sempre libera, is a collaboration with Claudio Abbado and was released in 2004. In October 2005, Deutsche Grammophon released her portrayal of La traviata, recorded live at the Salzburg Festival, and in 2006, the album garnered a Grammy nomination and was awarded a Klassik Echo Award as Germany's best selling album. In 2006, Anna Netrebko was featured on a compilation of Mozart opera arias to commemorate the 250th anniversary of Mozart's birth and her third solo recording, The Russian Album, was released by Deutsche Grammophon and also garnered a Klassik Echo Award as Germany's best selling album. That same year EMI Classics released a DVD of her live performance as Adina performed at the Vienna Staatsoper opposite Rolando VillazСn, and Deutsche Grammophon released a DVD of her live performance at the WaldbЭhne with Placido Domingo and Rolando VillazСn as well as a CD of operatic duets with Rolando VillazСn. To date, all of her recordings have earned platinum status in Germany and Austria in addition to many awards in other countries. Her recent album of operatic duets made the best debut ever for a classical album when it surged to number three in the German pop charts. In 1995 her performance as Lyudmila with the Kirov Opera was recorded for DVD and CD by Philips Classics. She can also be heard as Louisa in Betrothal in a Monastery and Ninetta in The Love for Three Oranges, both available on Philips Classics.
Anna Netrebko regularly graces the pages of fashion and society magazines including Vogue, Elle, Vanity Fair, GQ, W Magazine, Harpers & Queen, and Inquire. In 2007, Anna Netrebko was named to the "TIME 100 List" √ Time magazine's list of the 100 most influential people in the world. Later that year Anna Netrebko won the Classical BRIT Award as "Singer of the Year." In November 2004 the American news television program, '60 Minutes' aired a documentary on Anna Netrebko, and in December 2004 she made the first of several guest appearances on Thomas Gottschalk's 'Wetten Dass,' Germany's most-watched television program. In October 2005, Anna Netrebko was awarded the prestigious Echo Klassik Award for both "Album of the Year" (Sempre Libera) and "Female Artist of the Year," and in 2003 she was awarded Opernwelt's Female Singer of the Year.
Born in Krasnodar, Anna Netrebko received her vocal training at the St. Petersburg Conservatory. After winning first prize in Moscow's 1993 National Glinka Competition, the soprano was invited by the famed mezzo-soprano Irina Arkhipova to take part in a concert at the Bolshoi Opera. In 2006 she was awarded Germany's prestigious Bambi Award, and in 2005 Anna Netrebko was awarded the Russian State Prize by President Putin √ the country's highest award in the field of arts and literature. Her studies continue today with renowned soprano Renata Scotto.

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