Following Her Vienna Triumph as Anna Bolena, Anna Netrebko Signs New Recording Contract with Deutsche Grammophon

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Anna Netrebko, whom the Associated Press calls “the reigning new diva of the early 21st century,” has signed a new, exclusive recording agreement with Deutsche Grammophon, extending a partnership that spans eights years and more than a dozen recordings. The news comes on the heels of the Russian soprano’s highly praised debut at the Vienna Staatsoper in the title role of Donizetti’s Anna Bolena. According to the New York Times, “Ms. Netrebko scored a personal triumph as Anna Bolena, in what may be her greatest achievement since her Traviata at the 2005 Salzburg Festival.” Agence France-Presse found the Russian soprano “completely convincing as the unjustly accused queen,” while for Opera News, “Netrebko’s assumption of this Donizetti queen takes her one giant leap forward to claiming the title of diva assoluta del mondo.”

Anna Netrebko’s already extensive discography with Deutsche Grammophon encompasses solo albums, complete opera recordings, and DVDs. Her solo discs for the Yellow Label – Opera Arias, Sempre Libera, Duets (with tenor Rolando Villazón), Russian Album, Souvenirs, and In the Still of Night – have all been bestsellers, as have her full-length opera recordings – La traviata, Le nozze di Figaro, La bohème, and I Capuleti e i Montecchi. Highlights from her DG videography include DVD and Blu-ray releases of La traviata, Le nozze di Figaro, I Puritani, Manon, and Lucia di Lammermoor.

Of her most recent Deutsche Grammophon album, Stabat Mater: A Tribute to Pergolesi, Gramophone proclaimed, “Anna Netrebko gives one of her finest performances.” The recording – released in the U.S. on April 26 – marks her first venture into pre-Classical repertoire. In the just-released DVD and Blu-ray of Don Pasquale from the Metropolitan Opera, her Norina was hailed by Variety as “simply one of the great comic performances to be seen on the legit stage,” while the New York Observer wrote that it proves “she is not just a Met star, but the Met star.”

This September, Anna Netrebko returns to the Metropolitan Opera to open the 2011-12 season with the Met premiere of Anna Bolena, in a new production by David McVicar. In what is destined to be a banner season for Netrebko, she also makes her New York recital debut at Carnegie Hall on October 26, performing Russian songs with pianist Elena Bashkirova; she gives her eagerly awaited La Scala debut in December as Donna Anna in a new Robert Carsen production of Don Giovanni; and in the spring, she sings the title role in a new-to-the-Met Laurent Pelly production of Manon. She also headlines three high-definition transmissions to movie theaters during the 2011-12 season: two as part of the Met: Live in HD series, with Anna Bolena on October 15 and Manon on April 7, and one as part of Emerging Pictures’ Opera in Cinema from Milan’s La Scala with Don Giovanni on December 7.

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