Lyric Opera 2018-2019 Issue 4a Anna Netrebko

P R O F I L E S | L Y R I C O P E R A O F C H I C A G O 14 | December 2, 2018 ANNA NETREBKO, who made a triumphant Lyric debut as Mimì/ La bohème in 2013, has redefined what it means to be an opera star. From singing at the opening ceremony of the 2014 Winter Olympics to becoming the first classical artist named to the “TIME 100” (the magazine’s list of the world’s 100 most influential people), the Russian soprano is one of opera’s foremost global ambassadors. In live performance and on award-winning recordings, her portrayals of iconic operatic heroines have made an indelible mark on the canon, establishing her as one of today’s most compelling, committed performers in any genre. Her recent ventures into bolder, more dramatic repertoire have confirmed yet further her place in the annals of operatic history. Netrebko launched the current season in New York, with a resounding success in the title role/ Aida at the Metropolitan Opera, followed by an appearance in the Richard Tucker Gala at Carnegie Hall. Alongside her husband, Azerbaijani tenor Yusif Eyvazov, she appeared in concert in Miami and in a Verdi gala at Moscow’s Bolshoi Theatre. She and Malcolm Martineau performed together in Graz and Prague, and look forward to reuniting for a recital at Carnegie Hall after their Chicago appearance. Other highlights of the soprano’s 2018/19 schedule include Adriana Lecouvreur at the Met, La forza del destino at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Andrea Chénier at the Vienna State Opera, a concert with Daniel Barenboim in Berlin, and a recital in St. Petersburg. A native of Krasnodar, Netrebko began her career at the age of 22 at St. Petersburg’s Mariinsky Theatre. She went on to triumph as Donna Anna/ Don Giovanni at the Salzburg Festival, before attaining superstar status in the leading lyric-soprano roles of Bellini, Donizetti, Gounod, Verdi, Massenet, Puccini, and Prokofiev. In the title role/ Anna Bolena in 2011 (Vienna, Met) and the title role/ Giovanna d’Arco two years later (Salzburg), she began to transition into heavier, more complex roles. She has since reprised Giovanna d’Arco at La Scala and made debuts as Leonora/ Il trovatore (Berlin, Vienna, Paris, Salzburg, Met), Lady Macbeth/ Macbeth (Munich, London, Met), and Maddalena/ Andrea Chénier (La Scala), as well as in the title roles of Manon Lescaut (Rome), Aida (Salzburg), Adriana Lecouvreur (St. Petersburg, Vienna), and Tosca (Met). Her Met Macbeth opened the tenth anniversary of the company’s “Live in HD” cinecast series, and a 2016 Dresden Lohengrin marked her victorious Wagnerian debut in a work she will reprise in her 2019 Bayreuth Festival debut. In addition to regularly headlining productions with the world’s leading opera companies, Netrebko has appeared extensively in concerts and recitals across five continents. Her performances in celebration of the World Cup openings in 2006 at Berlin’s Waldbühne amphitheater and in 2018 at Moscow’s Red Square were both televised internationally. Since 2002 she has been an exclusive Deutsche Grammophon recording artist, amassing a substantial discography comprising complete operas, concert repertoire, numerous bestselling solo albums, and a recording of love duets with Eyvazov. Among Netrebko’s many honors are a 2017 International Opera Award for “Best Female Singer”; the 2016 Opera News Award; Musical America ’s 2008 “Musician of the Year”; three Grammy Award nominations; Germany’s prestigious Bambi Award; the UK’s Classical BRIT Awards for “Singer of the Year” and “Female Artist of the Year”; the Russian State Prize and designation “People’s Artist of Russia”; and the rank of Austrian “Kammersängerin.” She is a global ambassador for Chopard jewelry. A mother and a passionate advocate for children’s causes, Netrebko shares her infectious joie de vivre – along with her love of family, fashion, and food – on social media, inspiring people to live their most colorful lives and to celebrate what makes them unique. Scottish pianist MALCOLM MARTINEAU is recognized as one of the leading accompanists of his generation. Among the singers he has partnered in live and recorded recitals have been Sir Thomas Allen, Dame Janet Baker, Olaf Bär, Barbara Bonney, Ian Bostridge, Angela Gheorghiu, Susan Graham, Thomas Hampson, Simon Keenlyside, Angelika Kirchschlager, Magdalena Kožená, Dame Felicity Lott, Christopher Maltman, Karita Mattila, Ann Murray, Anna Netrebko, Joan Rodgers, Michael Schade, Bryn Terfel, Anne Sofie von Otter, Frederica von Stade, and Sarah Walker. Martineau has presented his own series at London’s Wigmore Hall (a Britten and a Poulenc series and “Decade by Decade – 100 Years of German Song,” broadcast by the BBC) and at the Edinburgh Festival (the complete lieder of Hugo Wolf). Martineau has appeared in virtually every major European concert venue, from London’s Wigmore Hall, Barbican, Queen Elizabeth Hall, and Royal Opera House to La Scala, Paris’s Châtelet, Barcelona’s Gran Teatre del Liceu, Berlin’s Philharmonie and Konzerthaus, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, and Vienna’s Konzerthaus and Musikverein. He has also appeared throughout North America (including, in New York, both Alice Tully Hall and Carnegie Hall), Australia (including the Sydney Opera House), and at the Aix-en-Provence, Vienna, Edinburgh, Schubertiade, Munich and Salzburg festivals. Among Martineau’s recording projects have been Schubert, Schumann, and English song recitals with Bryn Terfel; Schubert and Strauss recitals with Simon Keenlyside, Angela Gheorghiu, Barbara Bonney, Magdalena Kožená, Della Jones, Susan Bullock, Solveig Kringelborn, and Amanda Roocroft; Britten song cycles as well as Schubert’s Winterreise with Florian Boesch; the complete Fauré songs with Sarah Walker and Tom Krause; the complete Poulenc songs; and the complete folk songs of Beethoven and Britten. This season’s engagements include appearances with Simon Keenlyside, Magdalena Kožená, Dorothea Röschmann, Susan Graham, Christopher Maltman, Thomas Oliemanns, Kate Royal, Christiane Karg, Iestyn Davies, Florian Boesch, and Anne Schwanewilms. Martineau, an alumnus of St Catharine’s College, Cambridge, received an honorary doctorate from the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in 2004 and was appointed International Fellow of Accompaniment there in 2009. This season American mezzo-soprano JENNIFER JOHNSON CANO returns to both the Metropolitan Opera (Emilia/ Otello , Meg Page/ Falstaff ) and Boston Lyric Opera (Offred/Poul Ruders’s The Handmaid’s Tale , role debut). In addition to numerous prestigious orchestral engagements, she will appear with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and, with tenor Matthew Polenzani and pianist Julius Drake, at Carnegie Hall. Cano’s major roles nationwide have included Orpheus/ Orpheus and Eurydice (St. Louis, Des Moines); Donna Elvira/ Don Giovanni (Boston, Phoenix, Tucson); the Fox/ The Cunning Little Vixen (Cleveland Orchestra); Carmen (Boston); Diana/ La Calisto (Cincinnati); and Marguerite/ La Damnation de Faust (Tucson). She made her European debut touring in John Adams’s El Niño with the London Symphony Orchestra and the Radio Filharmonisch Orkest (Hilversum, Netherlands). She has appeared with other prominent orchestras, including the those of Los Angeles, New York, Atlanta, San Francisco, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, and Munich. Cano has recorded Bernstein’s Symphony No. 1: Jeremiah , Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde, and a live solo recital from the Savannah Voice Festival. Cano is an alumna of Webster University (St. Louis), Rice University, Met’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, and Young Concert Artists. ROBERT HANFORD has been concertmaster of the Lyric Opera Orchestra since the 2004/05 season. The American violinist serves in the same capacity during the summer at the Aspen Music Festival. Previously Hanford was associate principal second violinist of the Minnesota Orchestra and a member of both the Milwaukee Symphony and Chicago’s Grant Park Symphony. He has appeared as soloist on many occasions with the Minnesota Orchestra, the Milwaukee Symphony, and other Midwestern orchestras, including the Chicago Philharmonic. Hanford attended Northwestern University and is currently on the faculty there as a violin instructor. He graduated with first prize from the Orpheus Conservatory in Athens, Greece. For many summers he was concertmaster and violin instructor at the Birch Creek Music Festival in Wisconsin. He has also performed and taught at the Apollo, the MidAmerica, the Milwaukee, and the Roycroft Chamber Music Festivals. In addition to his professional career as a violinist, Hanford has studied and performed on the theremin, one of the first electronic instruments. He is also an amateur artist blacksmith, having attended courses of study in Wyoming and Illinois. Robert Hanford is the Mrs. R. Robert Funderburg Concertmaster Endowed Chair.