March 06, 2019

Anna Netrebko Will Thrill You at Lyric

If you love great singing, you need to be at the Lyric Opera House on Sunday, December 2. The stupendous Anna Netrebko, partnered by the distinguished pianist Malcolm Martineau, will be giving a recital that is already one of the most eagerly anticipated events of the 2018/19 Chicago musical season. 

Netrebko is in her glorious prime. The Russian soprano has absolutely got it all – everything that makes a great singing career: the voice, the looks, the acting ability, the charisma, the sheer dazzle that can turn an audience into instant, wildly enthusiastic fans. Netrebko enraptured Lyric audiences in 2013, singing Mimì in La bohème in her company debut. John von Rhein in the Chicago Tribune hailed “the velvety richness and beauty of her singing, the sensitivity of her phrasing, and the earthy sensuality she radiates onstage.” 

A favorite artist in all the world’s major opera houses, Netrebko is big news wherever she goes, and idolized as few opera singers have been in recent years. She’s not just a remarkable artist who owns one of today’s most beautiful voices; she’s also a personality, someone who attracts an audience’s attention from the moment she appears. Netrebko was seemingly born to perform, and she truly lives every piece she sings.

The world hears comparatively rarely from Netrebko the recitalist, so we can consider ourselves very lucky indeed that she’ll be at the Lyric Opera House. We aren't 
yet able to announce her program, but you can expect her to devote a generous portion of it to masterpieces of Russian song. Netrebko is invariably enchanting in that repertoire, which offers her endless opportunities for the warmth, the vocal thrills, and the sheer expressiveness for which she is so celebrated internationally. 

Come spend the afternoon with the glorious Anna Netrebko! 

Photos: Vladimir Shirokov