Anna Netrebko: Verismo
Fresh from her Wagnerian debut as Elsa in Lohengrin at the Dresden Semperoper, Anna Netrebko will release a new recording in September 2016, Verismo, with the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia conducted by Sir Antonio Pappano. This recording on Deutsche Grammophon with its striking cover, explores some of the darker reaches of the dramatic soprano repertoire with roles that Netrebko has yet to sing on stage.
It’s a natural progression for the soprano who brilliantly performed the Verdian roles of Giovanna d’Arco at La Scala and Lady Macbeth at the Met, and impressed with her recording Verdi in 2013. In Verismo, she continues to expand her range, with portrayals of Puccini’s Manon, Madama Butterfly and Tosca, Cilea’s Adriana Lecouvreur and Giordano’s Maddalena (Andrea Chénier).
Netrebko comments “I believe I have the voice, knowledge and intuition these roles require. And I put all these things together and worked really very, very hard to try to understand verismo and depict it with a real sense of truth.”
The term verismo describes a movement in Italian literature, and later in opera which emerged in the late 19th century that takes a true-to-life approach in dealing with the realities of the day.
At this year’s Salzburg Festival Anna Netrebko will give three concert performances of Manon Lescaut opposite her husband, tenor Yusif Eyvazov as Des Grieux, who also appears as a guest artist on Verismo. They both take the stage together in gala performances of verismo repertoire at Hamburg’s Laeiszhalle on 28 August and the Cologne Philharmonie on 1 September, prior to the official album launch on 2 September.
Verismo is scheduled for international release on the Deutsche Grammophon label (002894795015) on September 2, 2016.
