Diva Netrebko prepares love potion

Opera star Anna Netrebko returns to the Mariinsky for a new production of Donizetti’s ‘L’Elisir d’amore.’

By Galina Stolyarova

The St. Petersburg Times

Published: January 19, 2011 (Issue # 1639)

N. Razina Netrebko has performed the role before, but never at the Mariinsky.

Glamorous opera diva Anna Netrebko comes to her alma mater this week for two performances in the role of Adina in a new production of Gaetano Donizetti’s “L’Elisir d’amore” on Jan. 24 and 27.

Netrebko, who has already sung Adina to great international acclaim and even recorded a DVD of the opera, partnered by the popular Mexican tenor Rolando Villazon, will be making her debut in the role on home soil. The new production of this comic melodrama — a favorite with opera houses across the globe — also marks the Mariinsky Theater’s first ever interpretation of the work.

The opera, set in a Tuscan village, revolves around a love triangle between a sheepish peasant, Nemorino, a flirtatious beauty, Adina, and Sergeant Belcore. The lively, light-hearted heroine appears to choose Belcore, which prompts Nemorino to seek the service of quack doctor Dulcamare who concocts a love potion for the forlorn fellow. In the end, however, it is his uncle’s large inheritance that wins Nemorino popularity with the village girls, and it is his decision to join the army that appeals to Adina, although everyone, Nemorino included, prefers to believe in the magic of the dubious concoction.

Staging the belcanto masterpiece will be renowned French director Laurent Pelly, one of the world’s most successful directors both in drama theater and opera, whose work frequents some of the world’s most prestigious stages, including L’Opera National de Paris, New York’s Metropolitan opera, the Lyon Opera Theater and Milan’s Teatro alla Scala. Pelly has won international critical praise for his “detailed, satirical, often surreal, exquisite in taste and wonderfully imaginative productions, in terms of both the concept and execution.

Netrebko’s appearance is eagerly anticipated.

In Jan 2009, the singer, who in September of that year gave birth to her first child, son Tiago, fathered by Uruguayan bass-baritone Erwin Schrott, made a triumphant comeback on stage singing Lucia in John Doyle’s production of Donizetti’s “Lucia di Lammermoor.”

N. Razina Anna Netrebko rehearsing at the Mariinsky Theater on Tuesday.

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 and was imported specifically for the striking soprano. The diva mesmerized audiences with her performance, demonstrating a fluid, soaring style in the upper range.

Netrebko came to St. Petersburg from her hometown of Krasnodar at the age of 16 to enroll at the Rimsky-Korsakov Music College, and then the Conservatory, dreaming of becoming an operetta singer. A few visits to the Mariinsky convinced her that she was moving in the wrong direction. Netrebko joined the world-famous company at the age of 22, simultaneously dropping out of the Conservatory in her fourth year there.

There was little glamour in Anna Netrebko’s first years on the banks of the Neva River. She lived in a notoriously horrible dormitory belonging to the St. Petersburg Conservatory on Ulitsa Doblesti and worked as a floor cleaner at the Mariinsky Theater where she dreamed of performing.

The turning point in Netrebko’s career came after she was a tremendous success as Donna Anna in “Don Giovanni” directed by Nikolaus Harnoncour at the opening of the prestigious Salzburg Festival in the summer of 2002.

“Neither I nor anybody around me had envisaged a big success, apart from the director who had great faith in me as Donna Anna,” Netrebko remembers. “Basically, I learnt my lines and score and went on stage without particularly high expectations.”

But the performance won her an array of flattering reviews, a list of plum contracts with the world’s major operatic companies and a welcome place at every Salzburg Festival ever since and at least until 2010.

For The St. Petersburg Times Anna Netrebko.

Salzburg Festspiele, a magazine for friends and patrons of the festival, called Netrebko “the miracle of Salzburg.”

“Salzburg was not prepared for this: no CD, no poster, no limousine,” wrote Festspiele. “And yet she and her voice are the sensation of Salzburg.”

The admiration is mutual.

“I adore Salzburg, it is galvanizing to be there during the festival,” Netrebko said. “I am thrilled to be there. Every day the most distinguished musicians perform in front of the snobbiest, most sophisticated audiences, and you can just see all the snobbery melting down or the opposite, manifesting itself in a revolt — sometimes both during the same show!”

Netrebko is excited by the Salzburg’s atmosphere, with “boos” and “bravos” overlapping in controversial productions.

The captivating soprano, a rare opera singer who is gifted with not only a stunning voice — pure in tone, rich in color and velvety in timbre — but also with charismatic artistic talent, obviously enjoys the effects that her performances have on people.

N. Razina Netrebko has previously recorded Donizetti’s ‘L’Elisir d’amore.’

“Of course, it is exciting to feel power over the audience,” she admits, adding that at the peak of her operatic career she still dreams of being able to hold even more of the viewers’ attention. “I need to feel that I am professional and strong enough to make [the public] happy and desperate for the show to go on. When I am able to do such things, giving new energy to the people, I am happy.”

In 2004, Salzburg’s Festspiele placed Netrebko second in a list of divas possessing prima donna criteria such as charm, style, manners, social habits, appearance and dress, after Angela Georgiu. Renee Fleming, Cecilia Bartoli, Karita Mattila and Deborah Voigt were placed lower down in the ranking.

The glamour rating may have been flattering but with public appetite for details about her life both on stage and behind the scenes becoming voracious, Netrebko feels she needs to assert her independence.

“It is not only that everyone discusses what I do, people start reaching their own — questionable and speculative — conclusions, and spread them around,” she said.

Rehearsing the role of Nemorino are Sergei Skorokhodov, Dmitry Voropayev and Yevgeny Akimov, who has already sung the role to great acclaim in a fascinating rendition of the opera at the Zazerkalye Theater at the start of his career in opera. It was, in fact, the role of Nemorino in Alexander Petrov’s stylish production, inspired by Felliniesque aesthetics, that put the singer in the spotlight, got him an engagement with the Mariinsky Theater and ultimately led to an enviable international career.

“L’Elisir d’amore” will play at the Mariinsky Theater on Jan. 24, 25 and 27, and then on Feb.8. www.mariinsky.ru