“Beautiful, charismatic and possessing a gift for making audiences boil over in a ferment of emotion . . . ”
Classic FM, London, November 2008
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 ensemble of the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, to which she still belongs. 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 glorious voice and beauty, 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. Peters¬burg; makes BBC debut (also telecast) with Gergiev and the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra
1999     Washington Opera debut as Gilda in Verdi’s Rigoletto
2000    Acclaimed as Natasha in Prokofiev’s War and Peace under Gergiev at the Mariinsky Theatre and at Covent Garden
2002    Sings Natasha in her Met debut and her first Donna Anna in her debut at the Salz¬burg Festival in a new production of Don Giovanni, conducted by Nikolaus Harnoncourt; Giulietta in Bellini’s I Capuleti e i Montecchi in her Philadelphia debut. Signs an exclusive contract with Deutsche Grammophon
2003    Vienna and Bavarian State Opera debuts as Violetta. Release of Netrebko’s debut recording on Deutsche Grammophon, a collection of opera arias by Bellini, Ber¬lioz, Donizetti, Dvo?ák, Gounod, Massenet, Mozart and Puccini (Amadeus Music Award 2003, Echo Award 2004 “Female Singer of the Year”)
2004    Opera appearances as Violetta in Munich, Musetta in La Bohème in San Francis¬co, Natasha and Bellini’s Giulietta at the Salzburg Festival; BBC Proms concert in London. Release of Sempre libera, conducted by Claudio Abbado (Gold Record; two Echo Awards 2005); DVD release Anna Netrebko: The Woman – The Voice
2005    Role debut as Gounod’s Juliet in Los Angeles and Violetta in a new production of La Traviata at the Salzburg Festival, both with Rolando Villazón. Sensational worldwide acclaim for the live recordings of the complete opera (Echo Award, two platinum discs and a Grammy nomination in 2006, and the Prix Toscanini – Académie du disque lyrique and the Victoires de la musique classique in 2007), and Violetta, arias and duets from La Traviata; Russian President Vladimir Putin awards her a State Prize in the field of Literature and the Arts
2006    Opera engagements include Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette and Bellini’s Sonnambula in Vienna; Rigoletto and La Bohème (with Rolando Villazón, Plácido Domingo conducting), Don Pasquale and I Puritani at the Met; Susanna in Figaro at the Salzburg Festival and Massenet’s Manon, again with Villazón under Domingo, in Los Angeles. Concerts in London, Vienna and Moscow together with Villazón singing opera arias and duets. Spectacularly successful open-air concert in Berlin’s Waldbühne with Villazón and Domingo, telecast worldwide and released on DVD (Echo Award 2007, platinum status in 2008); other DVD releases: the Salzburg productions of La Traviata and Figaro (Complete Mozart Operas box); audio releases: her highly acclaimed Russian Album, and The Mozart Album – with Deutsche Grammophon’s star singers. Receives Bambi, Germany’s most prestigious media award in the category “Classical Music”
2007    Bellini’s I Puritani and Roméo et Juliette at the Met, Massenet’s Manon at the Vienna and Berlin State Operas, Don Giovanni at London’s Covent Garden, and La Traviata at the Deutsche Oper, Berlin. Concert performances of La Bohème (with Villazón) in Munich, which are recorded by DG and provide the soundtrack to a cinema/TV film. Concerts with Villazón in Paris, at the Met, and on a German summer tour. Debut at New York’s Carnegie Hall singing opera arias and duets with baritone Dmitri Hvorostovsky; Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater in Moscow and Vienna; sensationally acclaimed concert at the BBC Proms. Releases: her Duet Album with Villazón (audio); individual release of Le nozze di Figaro from the Salzburg Festival 2006 (Académie du disque lyrique and Victoire de la musique classique awards, 2007), and The Opera Gala – Live from Baden-Baden with El?na Garan?a, Ramón Vargas, Ludovic Tézier, and the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra under Marco Armiliato (both available on DVD and as audio release); live recording of Bellini’s I Puritani from the Met (on DVD). Her Russian Album (Echo Award 2007) reaches gold status in Germany and Austria. Musical America names her “Musician of the Year for 2008”, Time magazine includes her in its list of the 100 most influential people in the world; Classical Brit Award as “Singer of the Year”. She becomes Global Ambassadress for the Austrian-based charity SOS-Kinderdorf International     
2008    Opera performances include La Traviata at London’s Covent Garden, Massenet’s Manon at the Vienna State Opera, Bellini’s I Capuleti e i Montecchi in Vienna and at the Opéra National de Paris (debut), and Lucia di Lammermoor at the Mariinsky Theatre. Concerts include a spectacular open-air concert with Rolando Villazón and Plácido Domingo at the Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna. Audio releases: La Bohème with Villazón and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra led by Ber¬trand de Billy, and Souvenirs – a selection of Anna Netrebko’s favourite arias and songs in which she is accompanied by the Prague Philharmonia under Emmanuel Villaume. DVD releases: a Mozart Gala from Salzburg with singers Thomas Hampson, Magdalena Ko?ená, René Pape, Patricia Petibon, Ekaterina Siurina, Michael Schade and the Wiener Philharmoniker under Daniel Harding; Masse¬net’s Manon with Villazón and the Staatskapelle Berlin led by Daniel Barenboim. President Vladimir Putin presents her with Russia’s highest state cultural honour as the “People’s National Artist” at a gala concert in the Mariinsky Theatre. Classical Brit Award as “Female Artist of the Year”    
2009    She performs in Lucia di Lammermoor at the Mariinsky Theatre, the Vienna State Opera, and the Met (here with Villazón); in Bellini’s I Capuleti e i Montecchi at Covent Garden (with Garan?a); in La Traviata at the Zurich Opera, the Vienna State Opera and San Francisco Opera; in La Bohème at the Bavarian State Opera; alongside with Villazón in Tchaikovsky’s Iolanthe in Baden-Baden; and in Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore with Villazón at the Paris Opera. Concerts include appearances with Hvorostovsky in Germany and London; she also appears at the Salzburg Festival, and in Scandinavia. Audio release of I Capuleti e i Montecchi with El?na Garan?a, the Wiener Symphoniker and Fabio Luisi     
1/2009