Latest news about Anna

The following report/interview is released at the online paper "Huffingtonpost". Such a fantastic report ! Really great, wow ! Very personal and "close" !

Culture Zohn Off the C(H)uff: Anna Netrebko: Opera Babe and Her Babe

I am sitting in the lobby of an apartment building so close to Lincoln Center that you could probably stick your head out the window and deliver a performance. In a moment, a flurry of activity: two young women negotiate grocery bags, a stroller, and an icy-cold wind at their backs as they make their way through the revolving door.

They could be any two sisters in the world, but they are not.

One is perhaps the hottest young international opera star, Anna Netrebko, the Russian div-ette who has just had a baby with glam baritone Erwin Schrott.

I check out Tiago (short for Santiago, Erwin is from Uruguay), the baby... with ruddy, chubby cheeks, a fab, punkish looking head of hair and big eyes.

I can't believe I am this close to a woman whom I saw last year, half naked, suspended on a bed from the ceiling of the Metropolitan Opera, a Juliet who finally was shown to actually be hooking up with her Romeo, and who just the night before, after barely having given up nursing and flown in from Russia, delivered an astonishing performance draped over a flight of 26 stairs as Lucia, a woman gone mad because she has had to give up the man she loves because her brother has forced her to marry the guy who will save the family fortune.

This is a girl after my own heart: this is a girl who thinks big.

As we all ride the elevator upstairs to Netrebko's New York apartment, I tell her about my babies born in N.Y., also in the winter, one of whom was so colicky I used to have to take him out in his carriage and run up and down the cobblestones next to the park so he would settle down and fall back to sleep again. I tell her I have done the boy thing four times over.

I think then, instantly, I am seen not just as the journalist come to call, but a mother, another woman, one who has had to do her share of juggling. And pretty soon, as we sit perched on stools next to the bar as Netrebko makes me a cup of tea, she jokingly asks if I want tequila... and I tell her she will do fine in LA. (Already wowed LA in a knockout performance as Manon, reconceived as a pole-dancing hottie.)

And then all at once, I am handed the baby and am bouncing him on my knee. This, I know how to do very, very well.

But the other part, the one where you have to risk everything and stand up in front of four thousand people (sometimes, in her free, open air concerts, up to sixty thousand) and either wear very restrictive gowns or take almost all your clothes off and then deliver an aria and have the most discerning critics examining, literally, your every breath and intonation, this, I can only imagine in my wildest nightmares.

Netrebko is known to be a moving and exciting singer, both rich and clear, who commands the stage with her slightest trill (in Lucia riffing with a glass harmonica), her smallest gesture.

Still, especially after a performance she had barely enough time to rehearse for, after six months off, and a performing partner (tenor Rolando Villazon) either under the weather or his own demons, who had forced an emergency illness alert before the third act by Met General Manager Peter Gelb and thus some critical restlessness, I had imagined she might be a bit low.

But unlike Maria Callas, with whom she is often vocally compared, Netrebko is not a tragic figure but a resolutely optimistic person, one who was reportedly "chill" before the performance. Arianna, who wrote about Maria Callas, would recognize in her the same throw-yourself-in-front-of-a-bus kind of performer, who constantly challenges herself.

Then, at intermission, I heard from a reliable source that Netrebko had been running around backstage gloating about her first paycheck in six months!

I don't blame her in the least. We're all alike. We are all dying to have babies, and then we are petrified that no one will ever hire us again. We fear losing the thing that makes us special. We think our talent, and we, will disappear if we step back, even for a moment.

How brave then! There is a mix of Russian peasant, bad girl, good girl, fun girl. But under it all: a steel resolve to be the best, a hard work ethic that could easily be chipped away by cranky critics and paparazzi. In New York, she can be the anonymous mother; in Europe, she is followed everywhere, and the quest for baby photos is apparently on the order of the Brangelina brood.

Tiago, himself a sturdy, happy thing, is very much cast in his mother's mold. Still "a Netrebko" because Anna and Erwin have not yet married (she tells me he is far away, but not where. She would like to get married, but "when, where, how?"), Netrebko is at pains to refute the notion she put forth only a year ago in the New York Times that she had mixed feelings about having a family. But even on a good day, when they are in the same city, two superstars in demand cannot have it easy.

After a short show and tell, Tiago goes into the bedroom for a lie down, soon to reappear, quite happily, in his little seat to hang with us, cooing and smiling. Netrebko says he sleeps through the night and I tell her it's only because babies sense these things: he knows his mother is a famous opera star who needs her rest.

When I add that a lot of American women who have children complain of being torn, she affirms, "The grass is on the neighbor who is greener."

And I actually think that says it better that way, positively environmental!

Though Netrebko lives part time in Vienna, she thinks of New York, too, as home. She has "always loved this country" and describes it as a "fairytale," a "Disneyland" with "bright stuff," where "people are happy." And let me just say, she is a great, bright addition herself. Though Escada has dressed her for lots of concerts and recitals, Anna is going with the designer to the stars, Oscar de la Renta, for her Vanity Fair shoot today. Personally, I love her in the short black and white striped sweater dress, black tights and brown suede lace-up boots she is wearing, with a Russian-inflected thick white wool hairband, entirely opposite the mad, faded aristocrat with whom she was communing last night.

Though motherhood, she says, has changed her, not only singing with "a full voice" but shaded, with "dynamism," this is not a girl who is withholding.

She had a little trouble with the pole in L.A. -- "three times the size it was supposed to be" -- and she was spinning and shaking, the dress was so tight she could "do nothing." Did she have to take pole dancing lessons?

No, she smiles seductively, she knew how.

She complains of being seven kilos overweight still (she just stopped nursing!) but also laughs on herself since she knows when she and Erwin relax by watching videos at night, it's over a tub of Haagen-Dazs. I love the way she looks, voluptuous and sexy ( a very different energy from Wendy Whelan) which just shows, girls, that there is more than one way to keep them hanging around.

When I suggest she do an open air concert in Central Park -- in the past she had done a lot of these free concerts, so people who can't afford the price of a ticket get to see her -- Netrebko counters with, "I'd love to sing at the White House." Then I heard from another connected Obama friend that Gustavo Dudamel had approached him on the same subject.

Memo to Desiree Rogers: Glastnost, a la Anna and Gustavo, what could be a better way to thaw U.S.-Russia-Venezuela relations!

Netrebko knows life throws you curves and she is prepared, eager, to deal with that. She is always "working, fighting" to "make things useful," instead of "running" and never getting anywhere. I tell her that the reason opera heroines are so meaningful to me, even though they are 19th century (Mimi, Violetta, Manon)is that they are ruled by longing and desire. And after reminding me with a laugh that "they all die!" she agrees. "Desire is driving us, for good and for bad.... If there is no desire, everything is empty, gray, sad.... You might make a mistake, but at least you are not staying in the same place."

And the corollary to that: that you have to "appreciate what you are having or you never will be happy, if you are very 'selecting'" (she means selective, but I like her way of saying it better), you will "never taste anything."

She even surprises herself, going "15% over the top on the stage" of what she anticipated. "How can I do that?" she wonders retrospectively. "From where I can take this force?" She is feisty about conductors, whom she says, "hate me", because she is fighting for new interpretations of the music, "Donizetti, Mozart," the sacred cows of the opera repertory.

Though a contemporary opera is not around the corner, she wants to eventually do one, and I think she would be fantastic -- she has the chops and the audacity, though she is concerned about the ability to sing in English for the moment. Anyway, she is booked solid through 2014.

Imagine knowing what you are going to do almost every day for the next five years!

Netrebko does "coaching" working with a pianist to keep in the groove, and growing as an artist. Though needs now imposed by the baby have restricted her further, she tries to see films and plays; when she was at the Music Center in L.A. she remembers enjoying Doubt with Cherry Jones, playing right next door at the Taper.

And she does have 4,180 Facebook friends.

I'm told they are talking to distributors about getting her film La Boheme out in the U.S. Just check out a clip from Netrebko's website, all you girls who have been waiting patiently for your guys to finally show up with a candle to light the way. (And finally, be done with Rent, really a poor substitute.)

How can we "get" the next generation of opera lovers, like readers of Huffpo? Netrebko says, "It's the sound of voices, the live sound of the orchestra, the instruments... [because] it's not on a computer, it can be risky and amazing."

Check out her albums.... My favorites are the most recent one, Souvenirs and the Russian Album. Her current fave: Rihanna!

When it's time for me to leave, Anna picks up Tiago and swings him around in the air. Underneath the bon vivant extrovert diva lurks a mama.


The following news is already posted at Carlos' blog, but here is it once again here ^^

Meet Anna Netrebko at the Met Opera Shop!

Anna Netrebko will be the second artist to make an in-store appearance at the new Met Opera Shop. The star soprano, currently singing the title role of Lucia di Lammermoor, will sign copies of her new CD, Souvenirs, on Thursday, February 5, from 1.30 to 3.30 pm. Souvenirs features a mix of operetta arias and songs, sung in nine different languages. For more information, please contact the Met Opera Shop at 212-580-4090.

If I would live in New York, I wouldn't miss the chance to go to this "event" ! =)

Latest news about Anna

The american newspaper "NY Post" visited Anna at her apartment in New York. Nice article, hope you enjoy it.
I think that she looks already much more slim, Bravo Anna ! ; )


OH, baby! Can this calm Madonna be Anna Netrebko - the fiery Russian soprano with the stiletto boots, champagne tastes and wicked tongue?

Apparently it is. And while the late-night parties, champagne and cussing have, at least for now, yielded to home, Haagen-Dazs and lullabies, "the voice," she says, "is there."

She proved it Monday in "Lucia di Lammermoor" during a performance one critic called "spellbinding." It was her first Met appearance since the birth four months ago of "the Schrott tot" - the son she had with hunky Uruguayan bass-baritone Erwin Schrott.

At their apartment near Lincoln Center - their other place is in Vienna, where they're stars of Brangelina magnitude - the singers call each other "mi amor" and share child-care duties for little Tiago.

Schrott bustles in the kitchen, fixing bowls of ginger-carrot soup, as Netrebko offers me a throne-like MacKenzie-Childs seat she calls "the diva chair."

It's a far cry from three years before, when news that Avery Fisher's cafe had no champagne was met with a ringing cry of "Bastards!"

At the time, the then-34-year-old told The Post, "I don't see any possibility right now to have a family."

Enter "Don Giovanni" - one of the few operas that gets a soprano and a bass-baritone together. It was there, at a performance in London, she said, "I met the love of my life, and he wanted also to have a baby."

She sang into her sixth month, making her final, pre-Tiago appearance in Paris as Juliet in Bellini's "The Capulets and the Montagues."

"They did a great costume for me," she says. "Nobody could see I was pregnant, except when I was lying down, dead. Then you could see the bump."

Bumpy, too, she confesses, was the period following the birth.

"The first two weeks were hell for me," she says. "Really hard, when I finally realized how my life has changed, how I couldn't do the things I did before, and I don't have a mother to help me."

Even so, she says, postpartum blues had no bearing on her interpretation of Donizetti's love-crazed Lucia.

"You can play madness differently every time," she says. "It depends on the production, what the director wants."

The biggest challenge, she adds, was stepping into the same role "two great sopranos" - Natalie Dessay and Diana Damrau - had just done before, "so I [had] to find something different and special."

Also difficult, says the former size 5 - who literally turned cartwheels a few seasons back in "Don Pasquale" - was getting back into shape, especially with a freezer full of ice cream. ("It's forbidden," she laughs. "I'm also drinking a leetle, but not as much as I used to!")

Lucky she lives with her personal trainer.

"My husband is working me out two or three hours almost every day, and he's really kicking me!" she says. "I have just the belly - the rest of it is OK."

She raises her Escada skirt to reveal a glamorous set of gams.

"See?" she says. "The legs are still the same!"


Thanks to Rhodri for the information !

Lucia's wedding scene

Here can you listen to the wedding scene of Lucia (where Rolando's voice cracked =*()



Click here for reading the NY Times' report about Lucia.


Thanks to Rhodri for the information !

Lucia's madness scene

Here you can listen to Anna's madness scene =)



Well I sure red the reports and comments about Lucia already. The thing which made me really sad was to hear that Rolando had problems with his voice again. As I fan I sure wish that he does a lot of performances but on the other hand I don't want that he destroys his voice and himself...it's not worth it...better do less performances...Please Rolando care more about you ! Despite of all I'm looking forward to 07th when Lucia will be broadcast live.
Once again "Welcome back on stage "Traumpaar"!" =)

Here some reports about Lucia:

-Bloomberg.com
-Wtop.com

Or click here for a personal report of Lucia at Sieglinde's Diaries blog

Video with impressions of Lucia

Because of my non-existing Russian ^^ I don't understand what they are talking about exactely, but it's despite nice to watch =)




Thanks to Elisa for the information !

UPDATE

Here's the translation of the video:

Anna Netrebko (after test singing): My voice is there ! (laughs)
The announcer: Also five months has not passed since that moment as Anna Netrebko has given birth to her son, and the schedule of world tour of the opera star is already painted for a year forward. Now it is necessary to combine at once two roles: to be simultaneously both mum, and the superstar.
Anna Netrebko: It is a sore point for me. While here I combine. I would like to see my husband more often who, unfortunately, sings too. But we will try, that something to make, and the boy, Tiago, today with me.
The announcer: Here in New York on a scene at the Metropolitan Opera is Netrebko again the notice. All tickets are sold. Brilliant singing was waited for by thousand spectators, Russians and Americans.
The first spectator: The fine singer, a brilliant voice, and it seem that after the birth of her child she began to sing even better, than before.
The second spectator: Anna Netrebko is our star. We are crazy about her and consequently what she neither sang and as though she nor sang, it is always fine!
The announcer: In New York the star debuted seven years ago in the opera "War and peace". Here she shone in "Romeo and Juliette". At the theatre "Metropolitan" Anna Netrebko's portrait is placed to the gallery of outstanding sopranos of the present.
On this scene it appears in 60th time. In January and February will the diva execute for the American public in the opera "Lucia di Lammermoor" about destiny of the Scottish girl which has gone mad and has killed the groom.
Bleak story somehow is not so entered at image of present Anna Netrebko – gentle mother, but for her son she sings other songs.
Anna Netrebko: My daddy has presented to me remarkable CD with songs from Russian cartoon films and children's films, and here it – that we listen, and it that I to it sing. I sing Umka′s "lullaby", but he does not sleep, he just listens. He likes the music very much.
The reporter: And can sing?
Anna Netrebko: (Sings) By spoon snow stirring,
Night goes the big...
It is pleasant to me...
The announcer: There were cases when opera singers’ voices vanished after sorts. Anna Netrebko was afraid of it, too . But as soon as undertook for Lucia, she understood: everything is all right. And though now in a life not only the scene, in plans of the star not simply to sing as earlier but to sing even better.

Thanks a lot to Anatoly for the translation !

First photos of Lucia

Here are the first photos of Anna's and Rolando's Lucia at the Met yesterday =)

Anna and Rolando - Finally together again

Today is Anna's and Rolando's first performance together after Anna's baby break. They will sing Lucia di Lammermoor at the Met. It is a premiere in several ways, it's Anna's first Lucia at the Met, Rolando's first Edgardo at the Met and their first Lucia together, so it's really a very special evening today.
Well, here are a few more information about the production.

The cast:
Conductor: Marco Armiliato
Lucia: Anna Netrebko
Edgardo: Rolando Villazón
Enrico: Mariusz Kwiecien
Raimondo: Ildar Abdrazakov

The production team:
Production: Mary Zimmerman
Set Designer: Daniel Ostling
Costume Designer: Mara Blumenfeld
Lighting Designer: T. J. Gerckens Choreographer: Daniel Pelzig

Like you can see already at the calendar, there will be 4 performances with Anna and Rolando. On 07th February will the production be broadcast by Met HD. For all of us who didn't get a ticket for this event, click here and here for a complete list of all the radio stations which will broadcast it live.

This is one of the happiest days in my life =) Now is the blog finally "complete" =) I hope that everything will be going right and sure that the press will report about it and print a lot of photos =)

Welcome back on stage "Traumpaar"!

Dear Anna and Rolando,

Thank you so much for all that what you give to me and all your other fans ! You're voices are just incredible and you're acting is fantastic ! You can not imgagine how important you are for me, what a big part of my life you are ! You are the first thing what I'm thinking about when I stand up in the morning and the last thing what I'm thinking about before going to bed in the evening. I have never believed that there will be ever something so "strong" in my life. I hope that I will be able to see you very, very often in the future. I wish you only all the best for today ! Thanks for being like you are - just wonderful...

Lovely yours,
Christina

(Sorry for my emotional burst here ; ))

Thank you very much Lisa !

Rolando will give a piano recital at the Carnegie Hall

Rolando will give a piano recital at the Carnegie Hall on 15th November. It will be his Carnegie Hall recital debut. The pianist is to be announced. The ticket sale ($67 - $219) will start on 10th September at 12.00 am.

Anna will advertise for "Schwarzkopf"

Like the industry newswire "Kontakter" announce in his Monday issue, Anna will advertise for the hair coloration "Brilliance" of the cosmetics label "Schwarzkopf". The campaign starts this September with TV spots and ads. The contract is initially signed for one year.

I think it will be a really strange feeling to hear Anna saying on TV "Professional hair care for you" ; ) But her hair is really beautiful so the company made a good decision ; )


Thanks to Lisa for the information

Another cover of Rolando's CD "Arias"

Which one of the both covers do you prefer ? Well, I like them both ; )

Latest report about Lucia

Here's the latest report about Lucia out of the "Times online"


Scottish Opera sell-out in St Petersburg hits the high notes

The performance was a sell-out, the applause was thunderous and the reviews are ecstatic. Scottish Opera's first production in Russia, with the soprano Anna Netrebko returning to the stage after maternity leave, has been hailed an outstanding success.

“The diva was on top form vocally, with a fluid, soaring style,” the critic Galina Stolyarova wrote in The St Petersburg Times after Netrebko, 37, made her comeback in Gaetano Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor at the city's Mariinsky Theatre on Wednesday night. The newspaper described the production by John Doyle as “ascetic and elegant”.

Netrebko, named Musician of the Year in 2008, withdrew from the stage last autumn to give birth to her son Tiago, her first child with husband Erwin Schrott, a bass-baritone from Uruguay. Fans were anxious to see how, so soon after becoming a mother, she would cope with the demanding bel canto, coloratura role of Lucia, which operas aficionados still associate with Dame Joan Sutherland.

Russian television, reporting on the rehearsals, said Netrebko “did not spare herself”, as she yielded, in passionate moments, to being flung across the stage. Fellow singer Sergei Skorokhodov said she had put on a little weight but that her voice was more beautiful than ever. “It has acquired some new colours,” he said.

Not all the reviews were favourable, however. Vladimir Rannev, writing in the Russian daily Kommersant, said the Scottish production was boring and was saved only by the warmth of Netrebko's voice.

“The Scottish critics with one voice called John Doyle's production ‘musical',” he said. “After watching it, I take it the logic behind that assessment was ‘less theatre, more music'. But if one follows that logic further, then for greater musicality, a concert version would have done. And indeed that would have been much better than the work of Mr. Doyle. It wasn't even a question of the spare scenery but of the director's total lack of any ideas. Minimalism and other modern fads have nothing to do with it. We're talking here about the quality of the production, which no amount of ‘musicality' can justify - deadly tedium.”

The opera, which has a famously difficult mad scene, is based on a novel by Sir Walter Scott about feuding families in the Lammermuir Hills in the 17th century. Lucia is tricked into believing the man she really loves has died and signs a marriage contract with another, only to discover the truth too late. The story ends in tragedy all round.

Doyle's production had its premiere at the Scottish Opera in 2007. Netrebko had expressed an interest in the role of Lucia and her mentor, the conductor Valery Gergiev, was looking around for a director to stage a good production for her. When the Russian maestro came across Doyle's version while he was at the Edinburgh Festival in 2008, he knew he need look no further. A deal was signed in October.

The sets arrived in St. Petersburg only in December. “There was some time pressure with rehearsals but I really feel everything went beautifully, very smoothly on the opening night,” the diva said after the performance. She will repeat Lucia in St. Petersburg tonight before going on to New York, where her next engagement will again be to sing the role at the Metropolitan Opera.

The tickets for Wednesday's performance cost the rouble equivalent of $65 (£45) but were selling on the black market for more than $1,000. Fans were grateful for the last few places up in the gods.

Galina Pavlova, a spokeswoman for the Mariinsky Theatre, said that Netrebko had deliberately chosen to make her comeback on her home stage in St. Petersburg. “She sought to ease the stress of a stage comeback after months of absence. This stage feels like home and her dedicated audiences feel almost as close as family.”

Dafydd Burne Jones, Scottish Opera's staff producer, who went out to St Petersburg to recreate the production, said the company was delighted by its rapturous reception.

He said: “It is always very difficult to tell if it is successful - you tend to be hypercritical about your own work - but 15 minutes of stamping, shouting and a standing ovation puts one's mind at ease. It was a triumph for Scottish Opera.”

He admitted that staging the piece in St Petersburg had been a complicated by the short lead-in time before rehearsals began after Christmas. Some of the props arrived only on Wednesday, just hours before the premiere that evening. The set was also a “little worse for wear” when it arrived in December, but Mr Jones praised the Mariinsky's technical staff for their work to restore it. “By the time it opened the set looked as good as it had in Glasgow and Edinburgh,” he said.

Alex Reedjik, general director of Scottish Opera, said it had been an amazing experience. “Anna delivered the goods,” he said. “They really enjoyed her interpretation of Lucia.”

The company was now in “very, very early talks” about further collaborations with the Mariinsky.


Thanks to Rhodri for the information ; )

Anna's latest interview

Anna gave her latest interview to "The russian newspaper". I think it's a very interessting interview. Hope you like it as much as me =)

In search of treasure

Well-known opera star Anna Netrebko left the decree and sings again

After sorts Anna has dated the debut for a premiere in Mariinsky theatre. American director John Doyle has staged the opera "Lucia di Lammermoor".
At the native theatre it she arrived, flied as on wings. Admitted: very much of it has become bored! looks remarkably. Has a little grown stout after sorts. But it is even to the person. The shining eyes, a smile not descending from the person give Anna away.

- Yes, I am very happy, - she speaks. - I have a favorite husband, at us with it the remarkable son was born. A life just fine!

About the private life of the well-known russian singer, this interview has turned out for the whole world.


The Russian newspaper: With returning to a scene, Anna! You look perfectly. Also sing so as if there was no long break in an actor's career. Have you easily entered into a working rhythm?

Anna Netrebko: Thanks for kind words. The break has turned out at me not such and long - 4,5 months. If it was possible, I still at home would sit.

RG: Not similar on you! Taste to home life has woken up?

Netrebko: Yes! After the birth of my son Tiago Aura I wanted to be simply a mother and wife. The name of our kid we with the husband (Uruguayan bass-baritone Erwin Schrott - bus Comments) selected long. It would be desirable, that it was unusual or, at least, rare. The second part of a name was thought up by me. It occurs from the American Indian word meaning "treasure". At Erwin’s family tree roots leave to tribes of Indians guarany. But houses we call the son simply Tisha... I returned on a scene right now because there are contract obligations. They need to be carried out. Besides really I love the scene, I like to sing. I’m really happy, that the returning has taken place in Russia. It is glad, that it was possible.

RG: Anna, it is possible purely a women's issue: during sorts you, a case, did not sing? Speak, such happens with actresses...

Netrebko: I did not sing and did not shout. Normally itself felt. Nearby there was a husband. I at first did not want, that it was present at sorts. But he of anything cannot be forbidden. Has told, that there will be, and everything, is solved. Held me for a hand, looked in the face. Supported, as could.

RG: And the son of two remarkable opera singers yet has not started singing?

Netrebko: He is only four months old! However, already, apparently, tries to talk, something all time tears to inform us. I, to tell the truth, I don’t want, that he will be an actor. It is not necessary to us of talents, geniuses, child prodigies. Let grows the normal, sociable, benevolent person. This is what is more important.

RG: Have your fine voice not changed after becoming mum? There are many singers who are afraid because of it to have children.

Netrebko: I think, if the woman wishes to have the child it should have it. And if she wishes to return after that to a trade will necessarily return. It is just necessary to want very much. I have not noticed yet, that my voice has strongly changed. I don’t plan to change the repertoire. I like what and how I sing.

RG: The inspiration is not on sale ?

Netrebko: Excactely

RG: You arrived at St. Petersburg all for some days to sing in two premier performances of an opera "Lucia di Lammermoor". It turns out, practically without rehearsals? With actors whom almost do not know?

Netrebko: I am frequent, so I work. Anything terrible for the skilled fighter! My colleagues on performance represent basically young generation of the Mariinsky theatre. I never sang with them before. But they are very talented. And with the talented persons it is easy to sing. And it surprised me, at once there are three soloists-tenors on one of the main roles, Edgardo. Usually very uneasy to find the executor on this role, and we have three at the Mariinsky theatre. „Lucia “, according to the contract signed several years ago, I should execute in February in the USA at the Met. But so I would like to return on a scene after sorts in the Mariinsky theatre! And Valery Gergiev in turn dreamt for a long time about a new "Lucia". So all has successfully coincided! That I rehearsed a little... At many western theatres works this system: the main executors come two days before the performance, in a separate room it tell, where and that on a scene costs, designating colour bits of paper doors and, for example, steps. Pair of rehearsals and - forward, on a scene, to public!

RG: Are there never any problems ?

Netrebko: There are unpleasant unexpectedness. In Munich have somehow put performance "Rigoletto" in which action occurred on a certain planet of monkeys and all heroes accordingly monkeys. And main heroine Dzhilda who was played by me, was in a survival suit, moved in any spaceship. Not only that it is not clear, about what performance, but also it is very difficult to sing in offered conditions. I remember, at the end have practically lost a voice. Very big stress has gone through then. The second performance has refused flatly. Now I try to be more cautious, attentively I get a grasp of the contract. Before to sign it, in detail I ask: what for statement?

RG: A couple of years ago you said to me, that you like non-standard courses of the directors, different scenic unexpectedness.

Netrebko: And I don’t refuse from these words now. Sometimes classics put very boringly. But also to modernize it is necessary cautiously, with mind.

RG: Don’t you wish to put a performance?

Netrebko: I am an executor, not the director. I can change during execution something in an aria. For example, a rhythm, dynamics of product. Or to take a pause there and when itself I want as it seems to me more natural today instead of as the composer has written 100-200 years ago. Sometimes because of it there are disputes with conductors. Somehow I sang Donna Anna at the Met. Has changed very little. The conductor nevertheless was indignant: As Mozart wrote it like this it is all so! I answered with a smile: this opera has been written hundred years ago and today it is possible to afford something in it to reconsider. Mozart, most likely, would not object against such alterations.

RG: There are such operas in which you, most likely, will never sing, but very much it would be desirable?

Netrebko: It is Wagner's opera "Lohengrin" and Strauss’ "Salome". Favourites of Verdi - "Don Carlos" and "Troubadour". Roles, unfortunately, not for me.
RG: And on the contrary, the role is not pleasant, but sing?
Netrebko: If I do not like a party, either the whole opera, or its statement, I refuse at once. And no fees will change my decision.

RG: The inspiration is not on sale?

Netrebko: You said it.

RG: Your voice remained after sorts same pure and beautiful as it was. And are you happy with your purely physical form ?

Netrebko: Do you know how it is possible to be happy if I have recovered on 8 kg ? I strongly worry because of it. My weight - the only thing that weighs me now. I nurse it all after the birth of my son all four months. Therefore, probably, any gramme yet has not dumped. But now, I hope, I will start to grow thin promptly. I wish to return to my habitual weight. Particularly to wear the favourite dresses. Actively I am engaged in fitness under the guidance of my husband. Erwin - the fine trainer!

RG: Isn't your husband jealous on singers with whom you play a love scene? You do it so is live, that the impression, as if at you and really the love novel with the given actor is made.

Netrebko: My husband told me recently: everything, more than any kisses on a scene. And itself, by the way, all time plays Don Juan. So it doesn’t reproach me. Last time, the truth when I saw its performance, it has been somehow held down. In an interval I have come to it for side scenes, have told almost seriously: relax, you - Don Juan, that is the temper. Well, give seduce women. It is silly to hesitate at a scene. If it is required to play love, play! And if the actor hesitates of something, any complexes at it is necessary to change a trade urgently. Well and if partners not simply play feelings, and start them to test, not leaving thus from frameworks of an image, - that in it bad? On a feeling scene are always aggravated. But the head should remain sober, cold.


Thanks a lot to Anatoly for the info and the translation !

Reports about Lucia

Here are some reports about Lucia on 14th January:

Out of "The Scotsman"

FOR 15 minutes, the celebrated Mariinsky Theatre rang with applause, a packed audience calling back the cast seven times. The world's leading diva, Anna Netrebko, and Scotland's national opera company basked in the adulation of the St Petersburg crowd.
Tickets for Lucia di Lammermoor, Donizetti's opera from Sir Walter Scott's tragic novel of warring Scots families, had quickly sold out and were changing hands on the black market for up to £800, double their face value.

Four years ago, Scottish Opera was on its knees. It was beset with financial problems, had lost its permanent chorus and was struggling to prove it had a future.

But yesterday, the Mariinsky Theatre production – with its Scottish costumes, sets and props, in a show conceived by an award-winning Scots director – was hailed as a triumph.

Critics predicted a bright future on the global stage for the resurgent company, describing the success as an international calling card.

Dafydd Burne Jones, Scottish Opera's staff producer, who went to St Petersburg for the rehearsals, was thrilled to be back in the spotlight. "It's fabulous for us, it's wonderful for us, it's almost a vindication," he said. "It gets us noticed, and people have been enormously complimentary about our working here."

The famed conductor Valery Gergiev had picked the show, by the Scottish director John Doyle, after his visit to the Edinburgh International Festival last summer.

He had been on the look-out for a production of Lucia for Netrebko and was won over by Scottish Opera's innovative production.

Minimalist sets with dark brooding colours caught his eye and a deal was struck to export the production to Russia.

Normally, productions such as this are planned years in advance, but Gergiev was keen to move quickly and, just after Christmas, two containers packed with sets, props and more than 50 costumes were shipped out to the Mariinsky Theatre. The stage floor was sent in pieces.

Netrebko's costumes had to be remade, but everyone else's were those worn in Scotland: their loose fittings made them easier to adjust.

The diva was delighted with the production and after the show spoke appreciatively of Scottish Opera's contribution, a fact that is bound to be noted in the opera world.

Netrebko said: "What I most appreciate in Doyle's staging is that all characters come very naturally to the singers.

"It feels as though it is all for real. A bel canto opera should never be overloaded with special effects or opulent scenery, and in this respect Doyle's is a very tactful staging that grants the singers the liberty and the space to act. The dark minimalist scenery very much works to the show's advantage."

The return to prominence is expected to mean an increased demand for Scottish Opera's services.

Mr Jones said: "With the audience coming to see it here (in St Petersburg], it puts the company name on show and in front of a very large international public.

"It's a tremendous piece of publicity for Scotland. This is very much on the international stage."

He went on: ''There are a bunch of posters all over the town, in the hotels, and we have just had another TV station turn up to do an interview. It's clearly a big public event. We have got a good deal of news coverage out of it on national TV."

The opera's general director, Alex Reedijk, was in St Petersburg for the performance and was overwhelmed at the reception it received.

He said: "We ended up with a 15-minutes standing ovation. I think that's a measure of, not only how much Anna is a local girl done good, but also how much they enjoyed her performance.

"I'm delighted our work survived being transported across the frozen steppes, and it was a full house. It looked handsome and smart.

"I'm hopeful it will lead to other business in general because, from Europe's perspective, Scotland is very small and a long distance away. With Europe, it will seem a quiet sense of Scottish Opera being in a good place."

Linda Fabiani, the culture minister, has already hailed the production as "a mark of the tremendous talent being nurtured in Scotland".

Kenneth Walton, the music critic for The Scotsman, said the 18-month lease of Scottish Opera's production, for an undisclosed sum, was very much part of its strategy to exploit commercial opportunities.

"Any story like this is good news for Scotland and Scottish Opera. The fact that such a prestigious company is taking it up is also testament to its artistic success," he said.

Jonathan Mills, the Edinburgh Festival director, has previously spoken of strengthening links with the Mariinsky. He said exporting Lucia had "already broken down many borders" and he would be inviting the Russians back "again and again".




THE enthralling soprano Anna Netrebko made a long-awaited stage comeback, singing the title role in John Doyle's rendition of Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor at St Petersburg's Mariinsky Theatre, captivating the audience with the exuberance of her voice and stage presence.

The role of Lucia in this ascetic, elegant production, which won high acclaim when it premiered at the Scottish Opera two years ago, perfectly suited Netrebko's voice and stage personality. The diva was on top form vocally, with a fluid, soaring style.

Doyle's minimalist and unorthodox staging, where black and charcoal grey are the predominant colours and the scenery – which consists solely of steps and square columns designed by Liz Ashcroft – created a winning environment for Netrebko, contrasting visual simplicity with tonal opulence.

Returning to the stage after more than six months on maternity leave, the singer was sparkling.

Netrebko's voice has gained a richer, lower register and offers an exuberant velvet timbre that is captivating with warmth and colour. The effect was rather like being submerged in pleasantly viscous honey.

Artistically, Lucia revealed a new side of Netrebko. Gone was the girlish vivaciousness of her moves. Not a hint of that was felt at the premiere. Swiftness of gesture was replaced by the languid sensuality of an Art Nouveau nymph.



Out of the "St. Petersburg Times"

“I am happy, I am so very happy,” whispered Mariinsky star soprano Anna Netrebko, one of the world’s most acclaimed opera singers, as the curtain fell. The 37-year-old diva, who in September gave birth to her first child, son Tiago, made a triumphant comeback on stage on Wednesday night singing Lucia in John Doyle’s production of Donizetti’s “Lucia di Lammermoor.”

The role of Lucia in Doyle’s ascetic and elegant production, which became a favorite with both critics and audiences after it premiered at the Scottish Opera in 2007, came naturally to Netrebko. The diva was on top form vocally with a fluid, soaring style.

The Mariinsky’s artistic director Valery Gergiev searched for a director to stage “Lucia” for many months after discovering Netrebko’s interest in the role. The maestro came across Doyle’s staging in August 2008 during his company’s tour to the Edinburgh International Festival, and immediately felt the production would be ideal for Netrebko.

The deal was sealed in October, leaving the company just over two months to prepare. The sets arrived in St. Petersburg in December. “There was some time pressure with the rehearsals, but I really feel everything went beautifully, very smoothly on the opening night,” Netrebko said, smiling, after the premiere.

Doyle’s production is the first by the Scottish Opera to be produced on the Russian stage.
Alex Reedjik, the company’s general director, spoke to reporters in the U.K. with pride and excitement about the Russian premiere. “We are truly delighted,” Reedjik said. “She is one of the world’s leading sopranos, who has created many important roles around the world.”

“It is a terrific opportunity not only for Scottish Opera, but it is also a way of showing to the wider world what is going on in Scotland. We like to think of it as an export made entirely in Scotland.”

Reedjik flew to St. Petersburg to attend the premiere on Wednesday.

In her first performance after more than six months’ maternity leave the opera superstar captivated the audience with the exuberance of both her voice and stage presence.

The air was intense with anticipation at the Mariinsky theater on Wednesday night.

John Doyle’s production of Donizetti’s “Lucia di Lammermoor,” originally staged for the Scottish Opera in 2007, was generously advertised in St. Petersburg, with large billboards posted across the city, and a wealth of television and radio ads.

The show generated tremendous audience interest. In September 2008, Netrebko gave birth to a son, Tiago, fathered by Uruguayan bass-baritone Erwin Schrott. She was absent from the stage for more than half a year. She had to cancel, among others, a production of “Manon” at New York’s Metropolitan Opera where she had been scheduled to perform from the second half of December 2008 to the first half of January 2009.

The St. Petersburg premiere sold out long before the New Year, within days of the first tickets going on sale.

The cheapest tickets were a bargain at $65, while black market prices soared, reaching $1,050.

“We paid 2,000 rubles [$63] per ticket, which got us seats on the balcony on the top row of the theater,” said Anna, a management student, who attended the premiere with a friend. “I am not what you would call a devoted opera-goer, but I just couldn’t miss this evening. A Russian singer who evolved into an international celebrity, Anna is a Cinderella story come alive. Her life is like a fairy tale that has come true, and that attracts me.”

Despite the enormous interest the premiere has generated, the atmosphere for Netrebko’s stage comeback was surprisingly low-key. There was an abundance of flowers, but no banquet or formal reception after the show.

“Anna Netrebko made a conscious decision in choosing the Mariinsky stage for her return as she sought to muffle the stress of a stage comeback after months of absence,” said Mariinsky spokeswoman Galina Pavlova. “This stage feels like home, and her dedicated audiences feel almost as close as family.”

One of the world’s most acclaimed sopranos, whose stage comeback was eagerly anticipated, Netrebko admitted that she did not miss the stage and had not been rehearsing at all until a few weeks ago when she started on ‘Lucia.’

“My life revolves around my child now,” the diva smiled. “I have been spending all my time with Tiago who doesn’t give me a chance to catch up on my sleep, let alone anything else.”

Netrebko’s next engagements include “Lucia di Lammermoor” at the New York’s Metropolitan Opera which premieres on Jan. 26.


I'm unbelievable happy that she is back now and everything is alright with her and her voice ! =) I'm looking so, so forward to her first performance together with Rolando on 26th at the Met !


Thanks to Eliane for the information

Already again some more photos of Lucia

Click also here, for watching a few more photos of Lucia =)

Anna's picture

This is the picture which Anna drew for a charity auction in St.Petersburg on 17th January to benefit two hospitals and to help restore a church there. The picture shows the russian writer Nikolai Gogol, who would celebrate his 200. birthday this year. What do you think about the picture ? Do you like it ?
I hope that it will bring a lot of money ! Well, who doesn't want to have a real "Netrebko" on his wall ?! ; )

Video of Lucia

Here you can watch a video with short sequences of Anna's yesterday performance of Lucia di Lammermoor. Short but nice =)




Some screenshots:























Thanks to dvedas for the great information

More photos of Lucia

Here are more photos of Anna's performance of Lucia yesterday at the Mariinsky theatre.

First photos of Lucia

Here are the first photos of Anna's performance of Lucia di Lammermoor today at the Mariinksy theatre.

Anna is back !

Today Anna finally returns to stage at the Mariinsky theatre !!!!! =))))))))))) I'm soooooo unbelievable happy !!! =))))) Well here's the cast of the today's performance:

Lucia – Anna Netrebko
Sir Edgar Ravenswood – Sergei Skorokhodov
Lord Henry Ashton – Alexei Markov
Raimondo – Ilya Bannik

Conductor – Keri-Lynn Wilson

I hope to find soon any photos of the production. Perhaps was any of my blogreaders at the performance today ?! Then please post comments about it !! ; )))))

Latest news about Anna

This short article is out of the russian TV channels site "100 TV", published on Monday.

The dress rehearsal of Gaetano Donizetti’s opera "Lucia di Lammermoor" at the Mariinksy theatre came to the end

For the first time after the birth of her child on a scene, there was opera star Anna Netrebko. Broadway director John Doyle has staged the opera "Lucia di Lammermoor". To performance two years. Valery Gergiev has seen it for the first time in Edinburgh in summer. Then he decided to transfer the Scottish production on the St. Petersburg’s scene. In the main part - opera star Anna Netrebko. Lately the quantity of performances of the opera star has been strongly limited. But as she said, on a scene Mariinsky it simply should leave.
Anna Netrebko, the Russian opera singer, soprano: “It is my native theatre. To return is for me always the big pleasure, happiness and the big responsibility. So it has turned out, that Valery Gergiev so has quickly organized this statement, for считанные months, therefore I and executes it. After that I went at the Met to perform the same part.”
According to the Italian “Romeo and Juliette” history - so named Lucia and her beloved Edgardo - many composers addressed. But only Donizetti has created an opera which is put successfully on the best platforms of the world already almost by 170 years. The composer was involved with one of Walter Scott's most gloomy novels “The Bride of Lammermoor” - about bloody enmity of two Scottish sorts.


Thanks a lot to Anatoly for the information and the english translation !

Rolando's latest interview

Rolando gave his latest interview to the today's issue of the german newspaper "Der Tagesspiegel".

"I am no casualty, I'm part of the system"

The tenor Rolando Villazón about Berlin, Barenboim and the Buddenbrooks - and about the price of the fame

Mister Villazón, do you still remember your first Berlin abidance ?
Sure, this was in November 2000. I was at the beginning of my career. The first new-production which I was allowed to do in Europe, was "Macbeth" at the state opera. You perhaps know that I attended to the german school in Mexico. Germany was a kind of promised country for us. We learned so much about the history and the geographie, sang the national anthem. Then suddenly I stood in Berlin, saw the buildings, which I knew of photos out of my school books, saw cyclists, which we don't have in Mexico, saw the taxis and the green men. I looked at the people on the street and thought: They all look like my teachers !

At no other opera house of the world you made more new-productions then at Unter den Linden, six productions: "Macbeth", "L'elisir d'amore", "La Traviata", "Carmen", Massenent's "Manon" and last in September "Eugen Onegin".
By now I really feel at home in Berlin. It was even up for debate, if I should move with my family to Berlin. Because of practical deliberations we then however chose Paris, also because of the whether. But every time I come here, I a avid again. Berlin is one of my favourite cities, I don't say that now, because I give this interview at the moment. When I come to the state opera nowadays, I am received like at my first engagement. Of course, I like it to be famous, but it is fantastic too, to have a place, where the people call out to me "Hallo, Rolando !" over the corridor. This was a lovestory from the beginning between me and the state opera people. At the other opera houses I don't know anyone orchestra members. They sit downstairs, I sing upstairs. The only exception is the Staatskapelle Berlin. Here this is my musicaly family !

And how is your relations with Daniel Barenboim ?
I was always very bad at auditions: But if I came to the state opera, Barenboim made it so easy for me. He made a joke immediately, when I came on stage, then I sang totally relaxed. Today he is not only one of the most influential conductors in my life, but also one of the most important people.

In Paris you live with your wife and your two sons at the noble suburb Neuilly. This is the home of Nicolas Sarkozy, too. Do you know the french president private ?
No (laughs). We don't live in Neuilly because of political conviction or because we would be snobs, but because we found our dream apartment there. Rather only one side of our street belongs to Neuilly, the other side belongs still to Paris. It is fantastic for the family, because we are fast in the nature. On the other hand I need only five minutes to the metro by foot. I always take them, if I sing in Paris, because the opera is on the same subway route.

But you are not very often at home, are you ?
I don't want to be one these fathers, who says later: I didn't saw my children grow up at all. Because of this I fight for free time at my crazy fully packed timetable. And fortunately my wife and my children like to accompany me on travels. My part of the thing is, to travel at home more often between two performances, to see my family.

Can you follow up your second passion at the plane: reading books ?
Normally I try to sleep. But literature is really my hugh inspiration source. I read, because I really need it. I can manage 30 books a year with my timetable. As a child german literature had an enormous influence on me. After 25 years I just dealed with Hesse's "Steppenwolf". I only red three books twice in my life, the both others accidentally, because I forgot that I know them already. But the "Steppenwolf" has absolutely to be on my list for the lonely island. Like "Berlin, Alexanderplatz", too. Next I want to deal with Thomas Mann's "Buddenbrooks".

They are in the cinemas at the moment.
I'm not huge friend of literature film adaptions ! Dear directors, leave the novels alone ! Books say anything they have to say on their own. Once a film is released, the people stop reading the book. For example "Lord of the rings" - whereas this is anyhow good cinema.But think about the atrociously film adaption of " Another ending story", what a disaster for Michael Ende ! With film adaptions we risk to kill the lower perceptions, which the reading will always activate in contrast to the looking. The poetry is in the text, it can not be decoded in film dialogues.

So there are also operas, which are based on novels, like Puccini's "La Bohème" or Massenet's "Manon".
Yes, but at the opera it is exactely vice versa. They can actually animate, to read the book afterwards, because a libretto tells the story enforcedly very shortened. Verdi's "Otello" or Gounod's "Roméo et Juliette" - this has a little relation to Shakespeare. There remains still much to discover.

A similar case is also Tchaikovsky's opera "Eugen Onegin" according to Tolstoi.
It would be perfect to read the book in it's original language. Of course I will be not be able to learn russian for this. So I even take Nabokov's english translation. A brilliant composer needs a huge story, then he can add his immortal music to it.

In contrast to a lot of other countries is the rehearsling time in Germany traditionally very long, normally six weeks for a new-production.
This is absurd long. The six weeks are particularly for the director and the technic. The director perhaps does "La Bohème" for the first time, the technic needs time, for setting. We singers at the normal case don't do our roles for the first time and even if, six weeks are very long. Why do you believe that so many singers are getting ill during the rehearsaling time, why they have meanwhile thousands of other engagements ? I love the detail work, but at the opera you can not rehearsal like at the play. We don't have to expose the emotions first, they are already in the music ! The director only have to find the right movements, that the audience understand the feelings. What we singers need, are clear instructions. We finally have to care about creating morbid sounds, too. Because of this we have to feel at ease with our motion sequences. Otherwise they seem artificial in the evenings performance.

Star singers like you are booked nowadays 5 years in advance.
The opera's system has curios outgrowths. There are more and more singers, who are backing out of the stage at an age, with them they had actually to be on their zenith. I also recognize some colleagues, that they are wearied by the opera business. If we don't pay attention, we risk to loose the enthusiasm for the art. Me personally was at that point, when I took my break in 2007. It is however absurd, to book us five years in advance. They want to know of me what I want to sing in 2014 ! Hallo, are they still noticing anything ? Which artist does already know, what he wants to paint, which book he wants to write in five years ? This is art adversely. Two years in advance should be the maximum.

Does the star hype which is arranged about you, sometimes get on your nerves ?
Yes, but I'm not a casualty, I am a part of the system. Don't we put the balk of our power in getting famous, creating an image of us, selling tickets and CDs ? And don't we forget about it, what the point is: the passion for the art ?Well, I don't say that advertising is dispensable, but if I work at a theater, where incredibly much money is spend for promotion and then there aren't enough rehearsals with the orchestra, because this is reputedly to expensive - do we spend the money still right ?

In March should once again be born a whole new Rolando Villazón: You release an album with arias of Georg Friedrich Händel, on 30th April you will sing the programme then in Berlin.
An artist always have to search after something, which inflames him new. If you always do the same or just what others want from you, you are burning out. Händel was like a living-cell therapy for me. The baroque music forced me, to respect the rules of a completely different music epoch - in comparison with my normal repertoire. Six months I studied the style. Technic was the most important thing at that time. At Verdi and Puccini is the voice with their individual colours in the foreground. At the baroque music you can also reach brilliant things with a smaller voice, if you have the right technic. At this music you can not be the surfer on top of the wave, you have to rest on of the waterdrops.

I think it's a very interessting and particularly faithfull interview !


Thanks to Eliane for the information

News about Rolando's new Händel album

This is the cover of Rolando's new album called "Arias". Like it is announced at his Deutsche Grammophon site, a limited deluxe edition of the CD including a DVD will be available, too.
Well, what do you think about the cover, do you like it ? ; )


Thanks to dvedas for the information

Rolando's latest interview

Rolando gave his latest interview to the german newspaper B.Z. on 22nd December during two flights, on the way from Paris to Vienna.

The clown and the immortal
After his break burns star-tenor Rolando Villazón at both ends again. Now he losts his heart Händel

and the baroque music. B.Z.-interview about dreams, plays and the danger of singing

Berlin, somewhere in nowhere, not far away from Tegel. Between two flights invited Rolando Villazón (36) to an interview at a conference room. Occasion: His Händel-project, which will drive him to the Philharmonie on 30th April (Tickets: Phone:
(+049)01805/969000555) And it's like always: He waves about, laughs, sings. And the bleak room is going to be the manege.

Buenas dias, Senor Villazón. Do you know in which city you are at the moment ?
Sure of course ! I love Vienna ! (laughs)

So, do you know where you stood up this morning ?

In Paris, at home. I always know, where I am, if I wake up at home.

What did you dream about ?
I dreamed of a footballmatch, which I saw before going to bed on TV. I was on the field, as mascot.

Of what dreamed the little Rolando in Mexico City about ?
I wanted to sing with Plácido Domingo anytime in my life. No kidding ! I have never expected that this dream will come true. This was more like saying: I want to sing with Madonna anytime.

You haven't only sang with Domingo, you have actually kissed Anna Netrebko.
Yes, but I didn't dream about this as a child. (smirks)

You allowed yourself an half-year break. What happend ?
My body and my mind revolted. I just pressed to much into the last four till five yers. I wanted all: singing operas, concerts, recording CDs, celebrate parties, giving interviews.

What did you do during this break ?

Basically - nothing. I reflected, red a lot and played with my sons. I was Odnalor (Rolando aback, the e. o.)and my sons were Dario and Matteo Galactico, the space-heros.

Now you are dashing around the world again, just you were in London, then follows Vienna, Paris, New York. What did you learn out of your break ?
I'm planning better. The things between the performances - there I have to take a rest. I know that I must be more respectfull with my instrument, the voice. But I don't withdraw for a pray at the mountain Athos. This is not how I am. I am ablazing again. Because singing is my immortal elixir. Singing distributes the mind importance.

Now you discovered Händel and baroque for your heart. How was this going on ?
I felt in love with the baroque, if I heard Cecilia Bartoli singing Vivaldi at the Carnegie Hall. The people screamed of rapture, it was like a rock-concert. And because I wanted to adventure something new, I jumped into the adventure. This music is so full of energie, it lets my heart beating faster.

I hope that my translation is ok ! =)

News about Rolando's new Händel album

Rolando's new Händel album will be released on 20th March 2009 at Deutsche Grammophon. The cover is not available already, but here's the track list:

1. Aria: Ciel e terra armi di sdegno
2. Accompagnato: Fatto inferno
3. Aria: Pastorello d'un povero armento
4. Accompagnato: Frondi tenere
5. Arioso: Ombra mai fù
6. Aria: Più che penso alle fiamme del core
7. Aria: Crude furie degl' orridi
8. Aria: Scherza infida in grembo al drudo
9. Aria: Dopo notte, atra e funesta
10. Rec.: Oh, perme lieto - Accompagnato e Rec.: Fremi, minaccia
11. Arioso: Figlia mia
12. Accompagnato: Tu, spietato, il vedrai
13. Aria: "Così la tortorella" (S. Giovanni)
14. Aria: "Caro Figlio!" (S. Giovanni)

I'm looking really forward to the release of his new album ! =)


2 following releases:


09th January: DVD and Blu-ray of Roméo et Juliette with Rolando and Nino Machaidze
at the Salzburger Festspiele in August 2008








20th February: CD of I Capuleti e I Montecchi with Anna and Elina Garanca from a concertant performance at the Konzerthaus Vienna in April 2008