"…Anna Netrebko will be making her feature film début in Garry
Marshall's Princess Diaries II with Julie Andrews…,” reads
her official website. And so I found myself jostling with a horde
of school kids on holiday, including a bunch of sweaty junior
college kids, in a suburban cinema one weekday afternoon (I didn’t
mind them at all), to catch a ‘tween’ movie of yet another
corporate manufactured princess fairytale.
And there she was, about
an hour into the movie, singing the last few runs of Sempre
Libera accompanied by an electric keyboard, before being
presented with a Golden Pear Award and her only line. “Its
almost good enough to eat!” she chuckles in a thick accent.
Methinks DG must have paid a small fortune for that short
product placement, but even the tub of Häagen Diaz had more
screen time than her! But at least the featured song is included
in the movie soundtrack.
And so, onto this CD.
Following her hugely successful debut CD, this sophomore effort,
released about a year from the last one, aims to place her in the
group of traditional lyric soprano roles that the greatest divas
of the past have succeeded in (In the album notes, Netrebko
mentions her predecessors in these roles; Callas, Mirella Freni,
and Renata Scotto, who is also her singing coach). The music is
conveniently grouped into 5 complete scenes (plus one encore
aria), showing off the soprano’s acting prowess in roles that she
had already performed onstage, save for the Otello scene.
The accompanying glamour shots in the album notes completes the
message, carefully crafted by her managers and publicists, that
this lady is ready to join the league of the Great Divas.
But does that mean that
fans around the world are ready to accept her in such a role?
Granted that Scotto, Freni, Sutherland and Callas are not able to
sing live anymore (this is especially true for the latter), and
live opera requires new leading ladies who can ascend to these
difficult parts (like how Sutherland, Caballe, Scotto etc have
waited in line to ascend to these parts from the previous
generations). But in the field of recorded music, the competition
is tougher as new singers who take on these warhorses often find
themselves in competition with other great artistes who have
already written their legacy, while they are still starting to
write theirs! What they need to establish is a unique way of
delivery that will set them apart, though not necessarily an
improvement, from their predeccessors’ work. Artistes like Fleming
and Callas, singers as different as night and day and of different
generations, have inspired equally fanatical and unfavorable
reactions from the public. And they have both made a place in the
history of opera.
What is unique about Anna
Netrebko her voice: a dark husky tone that is very unusual for a
lyric soprano, especially in the stratospheric heights of the
bel canto parts. Imagine a cup of dark coffee with extra
sugar, stretched from end to end by the teh-tarik man. It can go
through all sorts of tests and still retain its flavour.
First the bad stuff:
namely the cuts made to Ah! Forse Lui (one of four tracks starting
with ‘Ah!’) where the second verse is removed as it is
traditionally done. And more bizarrely, the ending to La
Sonnambula’s ‘Ah! Non giunge’ had the last verse of the chorus
removed, going straight to the final high note that mixes
awkwardly with the orchestra banging away. Very anticlimactic in
my opinion.
But most of the music
recorded is quite enjoyable. Anna Netrebko injects her music with
a playful sense of exuberance that is such an attractive part of
her personality. Imagine one of those extroverted types who do not
necessarily fit a particular role, but performs with so much zest
that everyone enjoys her performance. This is coupled with
technical know-how that is as secure as the next leading lady,
which enables her to tackle those difficult coloratura runs and
high notes with apparent ease. Add to the fact that she can manage
all this and she’s not even thirty!
Her Sempre Libera is well
thought out; pensive in the slow passage, and full of spirit the
fast one. The bel canto scenes from La Sonnambula, I
Puritani and Lucia di Lammermoor further enhance
Netrebko’s status as a leading coloratura songbird. In ‘Ah! Non
Credea Mirarti’, she softens her voice to portray the sleepwalking
Amina, and her runs, with ornamentation, are pitch perfect and
bright. Her dark tone may seem a little harsh for some people, but
I believe it gives her voice personality. Saimir Pirgu is
an enjoyable addition as Alfredo.
My personal highlight is
the mad scene from Lucia, complete with the cabaletta ‘Spargi
d’armore pianto’ at the end. Having played the part for the first
time only a few days before this recording, Netrebko’s performance
is superbly in tune to the drama. She is haunting one moment,
pathetic the next. The glass harmonica played by
Sascha Reckert, written in the
score but usually substituted with a flute, lent a disturbingly
eerie atmosphere to the proceedings, dramatizing in music where
words cannot do, to describe Lucia’s gradual descent into madness.
However, I felt that her
scene from Otello is a little cold. The music is beautiful
of course, and she sings it well. Sara Minguardo, a mezzo and
long-time colleaque of John Elliot Gardiner, cameos as her maid
Emilia and she is a supportive partner for Netrebko, pulling off
the recitative parts with good rapport. But I thought that the
Willow Song could use a little more feeling, and the Ave Maria was
a little rushed. Surely more sentimentality could be milked out of
the music. But it is an okay performance, and Desdemona is a role
that she could fit quite comfortably in.
In the last number, O Mio
Babbino Caro, Anna Netrebko as Lauretta laments her supposedly
bitter fate, but knowing the Russian lass’ cheeky personality, you
can almost see her chuckling in the background.
All in all, this
well-timed release is quite enjoyable. While better performances
of these excerpts can surely be found elsewhere, the musical
quality is of a high standard, and recorded sound is much clearer
than the mono sounds of yore, and the static of cheap pirates. The
future looks promising for Anna Netrebko, and I hope that her star
will continue to shine. 4 out of 5 stars.
