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Crítica de su 2º cd para el New York Times, por Anthony Tommasini
When the Russian soprano Anna Netrebko entered the St. Petersburg Conservatory, she earned money washing floors in the lobby of the Maryinsky Theater. Before long she made her debut with the company as Susanna in Mozart's "Nozze di Figaro," with a year left in her schooling.
Now 32, she has had as quick a rise to the top as any singer in recent memory. Last season was particularly significant, with acclaimed portrayals of Violetta in Verdi's "Traviata" in Munich and San Francisco, and her debut solo recording for Deutsche Grammophon. You can tell how admired she has become by the eminent company she keeps in her new recording, "Sempre Libera," a program of mostly coloratura arias conducted by Claudio Abbado, no less, with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra.
Ms. Netrebko has been called the Russian Callas. Though I understand the comparison, I don't completely agree. Her voice is meltingly beautiful, with its creamy legato and luminous sound, tinged by a plaintive quality that never disappears, even in cheerful music. But she is a clear-headed musician, temperamentally cooler than Callas.
Her simple, vocally honest and sensitively phrased approach to Amina's sleepwalking aria from Bellini's "Sonnambula" is the more moving for its restraint. And Mr. Abbado's work here is revelatory. The tempo in the initial recitative, while essentially slow, is much fleeter than usual. Clearly Mr. Abbado does not sanction dawdling and vocal indulgence in the bel canto repertory.
Together, he and Ms. Netrebko make the phrases of Violetta's demanding Act I scene expand in the most natural way without letting the lyrical line lose its tension. Ms. Netrebko's nimble singing of "Sempre Libera" is capped by a solid high E flat.
The mad scene from Donizetti's "Lucia di Lammermoor," besides being handsomely sung, is notable for Mr. Abbado's decision to replace the conventional solo flute with a glass harmonica, the instrument Donizetti originally called for. Its gentle, hazy sounds, popular in the 19th century, lend an affecting fragility to Lucia's emotional breakdown.
The excerpts from Bellini's "Puritani" are also exquisite. And for this recording Mr. Abbado persuaded Ms. Netrebko to sing Desdemona's "Willow Song" and "Ave Maria" from Verdi's "Otello," vocally weightier repertory, which she has avoided until now. Her performance is disarming. A hint of things to come?
_________________ ...la scena a' miei tempi era altra cosa.
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