She's magnetic; she's an artist; she's a star.
The Times (London), November 2005
Anna Netrebko was born in Krasnodar, in the south of Russia in 1971. She received her vocal training at the St. Petersburg Conservatory, where she appeared as Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro and Violetta in La Traviata. In 1993 she was first-prize winner of the Glinka Vocal Competition in Moscow, and joined the Kirov Company at the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, to which she still belongs. The following year she made her debut there as Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro; some of her other important roles with the company include Lucia in Lucia di Lammermoor, Amina in La sonnambula, Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia, Pamina in Die Zauberflote, Micaela in Carmen and Louisa in Prokofiev's Betrothal in a Monastery. In 1995 she graduated from St. Petersburg Conservatory and made her sensational US debut as Lyudmila in Glinka's Ruslan and Lyudmila at the San Francisco Opera. Praised both for her beauty and glorious voice, Anna Netrebko is acknowledged today as one of the world's most stunning young sopranos who sweeps audiences off their feet wherever she appears.
1996 - Prizewinner at the International Rimsky-Korsakov Vocal Competition, St. Petersburg; makes BBC debut (also telecast) with Gergiev and the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra
1997 - Wins the Baltika prize for young opera singers (St. Petersburg)
1998 - Sings Susanna at the San Francisco Opera House and gives her first recital (including songs by Mussorgsky, Rimsky-Korsakov and Rachmaninov)
1999 - Washington Opera debut as Gilda in Verdi's Rigoletto; concert performances of Berlioz's Benvenuto Cellini under Gergiev in Rotterdam, Amsterdam and London
2000 - Sings in works by Bach (B minor Mass) and Handel (Judas Maccabaeus) at the Maggio Musicale in Florence; new successes in San Francisco as Zerlina in Don Giovanni and Musetta in La Boheme; acclaimed as Natasha in Prokofiev's War and Peace under Gergiev at the Mariinsky Theatre and at Covent Garden; Donizetti's Lucia and Antonia in Offenbach's Les Contes d'Hoffmann at the Mariinsky Theatre
2000/2001 - At the San Francisco Opera and Washington Opera she appears as Ilia (Idomeneo), Adina (L'elisir d'amore), Nannetta (Falstaff), Marfa (The Tsar's Bride) and Zerlina (Don Giovanni); further triumphs in the role of Natasha in War and Peace at La Scala, Milan, and Madrid's Teatro Real
2001/2002 - Sings Natasha in War and Peace in her Metropolitan debut and her first Donna Anna in her debut with the Salzburg Festival in the season-opening new production of Don Giovanni, conducted by Nikolaus Harnoncourt; Giulietta in Bellini's I Capuleti e i Montecchi in her Philadelphia debut; Lucia for Kirov Opera at St. Petersburg's Mariinsky Theatre; at the Verbier Festival she sings in a performance of Mahler's Fourth Symphony under James Levine
2002/2003 - Appears as Servilia in Mozart's La clemenza di Tito under Sir Colin Davis at Covent Garden; Mozart's Ilia in Washington and Zerlina at the Metropolitan; makes her Vienna State Opera debut in La Traviata; at the Mariinsky she sings Natasha and Violetta, and participates in a gala concert in May 2003 for the 300th anniversary of St. Petersburg; summer engagements include her Bavarian State Opera debut as Violetta (together with Rolando Villazon) plus a gala concert there with Ramon Vargas, appearances at the Verbier Festival and a return to the Salzburg Festival as Donna Anna. Signs an exclusive contract with Deutsche Grammophon
2003/2004 - Opera appearances as Donna Anna at Covent Garden, the Mariinsky and in Vienna, Lucia in Los Angeles, Violetta at the Mariinsky and in Munich, Musetta at the Saito Kinen Festival in Matsumoto, Japan, and in San Francisco, Natasha and Bellini’s Giulietta at the Salzburg Festival; recitals in Moscow, St. Petersburg, San Francisco and at the Verbier Festival; Netrebko's debut recording on Deutsche Grammophon, a collection of opera arias by Bellini, Berlioz, Donizetti, Dvorak, Gounod, Massenet, Mozart and Puccini, with the Wiener Philharmoniker under Noseda (also available on SACD), is released in Summer 2003 and wins an Amadeus Music Award 2003 and an Echo Award 2004 ("Female Singer of the Year"); the DVD release Anna Netrebko: The Woman - The Voice is issued in May 2004
2004/2005 - The season begins with a BBC Prom concert at London's Royal Albert Hall conducted by Noseda; appearances at the Met as Musetta. CD/SACD release of Sempre libera, featuring scenes and arias by Bellini, Donizetti, Verdi and Puccini with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra conducted by Claudio Abbado (Goldene Schallplatte; Echo Awards "Female Singer of the Year", "Bestseller of the Year" 2005)
2005 - She makes her role debut as Gounod's Juliet in Los Angeles before returning to Vienna as Donizetti's Adina, to Covent Garden as Gilda, and to the Mariinsky as Marfa (in The Tsar's Bride); a new production of La Traviata at the Salzburg Festival, Gilda at the Bavarian State Opera, Adina and Gounod's Juliet at the Vienna State Opera; concerts in Moscow, Germany (with tenor Joseph Calleja), and a recital tour of Japan (with Malcolm Martineau). In June, Russian President Vladimir Putin awards her with a State Prize in the field of Literature and the Arts. Sensational worldwide acclaim for her CD releases of Verdi's La Traviata and Violetta, arias and duets from La Traviata (together with Rolando Villazon)
2006 - Opera engagements include Gounod's Romeo et Juliette and Bellini's Sonnambula at the Vienna State Opera; Rigoletto (with Rolando Villazon, Placido Domingo conducting), Don Pasquale, La Boheme and I Puritani at the New York Met; Don Giovanni with the Met in Japan; Susanna in Figaro (with Harnoncourt) at the Salzburg Festival and Massenet's Manon in Los Angeles. Releases this year include the recording of La Traviata on DVD, and on CD: the Russian Album with Gergiev and the Orchestra of the Mariinsky Theatre, and The Mozart Album - a selection of Mozart arias sung by Deutsche Grammophon's star singers
