“They shoot you from both sides,” she said, forming her hand into the shape of a gun. (That same night in New York, Liudmyla Monastyrska, the Ukrainian soprano who replaced her at the Met, was cheered when she wrapped herself in a Ukrainian flag for her curtain calls.)Īfter the performance, as Netrebko walked back to the Hôtel de Paris Monte-Carlo with her husband, the tenor Yusif Eyvazov, who had starred with her in “Manon Lescaut,” she said she felt a reprieve from the scrutiny of critics in the United States and Europe, as well as in Russia, where she had recently come under fire for speaking out against the war.
Netrebko, whose seasons are usually booked years in advance, was invited at the last minute, when a singer contracted the coronavirus and efforts to bring in two other replacements were unsuccessful.īut Netrebko was warmly received, winning ovations and shouts of “Brava!” at her final performance. It was perhaps an unusual setting to stage a comeback: Its 517-seat jewel box of an opera house is attached to the famous casino, with slot machines near the lobby. The Monte Carlo engagement, her first in more than two months, was the start of an effort to rebuild her imperiled career. The Met Opera, where she has been the reigning prima donna for years, canceled her contracts for two seasons and warned that she might never return. Appearances at Teatro alla Scala in Milan, the Zurich Opera and the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, Germany, were called off. Almost overnight she was transformed from one of classical music’s most popular and bankable stars into something of a pariah. It was not how she had planned to spend the evening: She was supposed to be nearly 4,000 miles away, at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, headlining in another Puccini opera, “Turandot.”Īfter Russia invaded Ukraine, Netrebko announced that she opposed the war but declined to criticize President Vladimir V. It was late April, and Netrebko had just finished a performance of Puccini’s “Manon Lescaut” at Opéra de Monte-Carlo. “And everybody loves each other, which is very rare.” “It feels quiet and peaceful here,” she said in a brief interview outside the casino shortly before midnight. MONTE CARLO - Anna Netrebko, the superstar Russian soprano, stood on the steps of the ornate Casino de Monte-Carlo, taking photos with friends and watching Aston Martins and Ferraris zoom through the night.
0 kommentar(er)
