Great Performances had a chance to sit-down with opera diva Anna Netrebko, star of Robert Dornhelm’s film-for-television adaption of Puccini’s La Boheme, premiering on PBS on December 23rd at 9pm (check local listings). Senior Publicist Jitin Hingorani chatted with Netrebko about her experience shooting the film, her recent pregnancy, and her ideas on how opera has changed over the years. Netrebko (Mimi) is joined by her on-screen partner Rolando Villazon (Rodolfo) in the film; they are often referred to as “opera’s golden couple.”
Watch the interview: La Boheme: Interview with Anna Netrebko
Charles McGrath is the author of A New Kind of Diva, published by The New York Times on December 2, 2007. Anna was 36.
“Her “Traviata” at Salzburg two years ago was such a hot ticket that scalpers were reportedly charging $7,000 a seat, and her records regularly top the charts in Europe. In the summer of 2006 she was part of a concert in Berlin that filled a stadium.”
“In August, when I had lunch with her in Vienna, where she also has an apartment, she turned up wearing purple pumps (which matched her eye shadow), a bright orange duster and the shortest miniskirt I’ve seen anywhere except on Carnaby Street in 1969.”
Read the article here.
Article written by Robert Thicknesse for Times Online was published on June 10, 2005: Domestos goddess. Anna Netrebko went from mopping the floors at the Maryinsky Theatre to starring in it.
Some excerpts from the article:
“Then she won the Glinka singing competition, auditioned for the part of Barbarina in The Marriage of Figaro and got the rather bigger part of Susanna. That was in 1994, at an age when most British singers are barely out of nappies.”
“Last year I got a big depression, I wanted to give up singing, nothing was making me happy.”
“In real life she’s taller than she seemed on that stage — a testimony to how vulnerably well she played the part — and I remember vividly the combination of stage presence and startlingly large, beautiful, rounded voice coming out.”
“….you can’t sing after dancing all night. I’m getting old! And I can’t afford cracked notes at Covent Garden.”
To read the full article, click here.
On 12th December 2004, CBS News published a 60 Minutes interview with Anna Netrebko titled Anna Netrebko: A Happy Diva. Russian Opera Singer Breaks New Ground As Music Video Star, where back then new prima donna is compared to Cinderella.
There are rules to good singing, and they may be the only rules Netrebko respects. She not only ignores the protocols of the opera world, on the road, she ignores the seat belt laws of California.
It’s no wonder Netrebko’s always maxed out on her credit cards. She told Simon that she paid $1,200 for a pair of jeans with holes in the knees. “This is the style,” she says.
To read the article and watch the video, click on its title.
On 14th June 2009, an interview with Anna titled Anna Netrebko – an opera superstar but no diva was published by San Francisco Chronicle.
Anna came to San Francisco to sing Violetta in Verdi’s La Traviata. Her 9-month-old son, Tiago, came with her.
To read the article, click on its title above.
