On stage, Anna Netrebko is immediately present.

With her expansive clothes, her large gestures and facial expressions aimed at long-distance effects, she also fulfills all the expectations that the general public has of a prima donna.

And at her opera gala organized by DEAG in the Alte Oper, which was well attended despite ticket prices starting at 140 euros, Anna Netrebko found a truly large and grateful audience.

At the end, the audience applauded her, her husband, the tenor Yusif Eyvazov, and the Philharmonie Baden-Baden, conducted by Jader Bignamini, standing for a long time.

Guido Holze

Editor in the Rhein-Main-Zeitung.

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Under the enthusiasm there was not the slightest hint of protest against the Russian soprano, whose concert scheduled for the previous year had been postponed because she did not distance herself from Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine and was accused of being close to Putin.

A rather general statement against war has apparently washed her clean enough that she is allowed to perform again.

"The dream couple of the opera"

From a purely musical point of view, their performance was beyond reproach.

You have to say it so clearly: the way Anna Netrebko sings is simply perfect.

As "the dream couple of the opera", she and Eyvazov went straight into the highly dramatic subject with the duet "Già nella notte densa" from Verdi's "Otello".

Netrebko's strengths were immediately noticeable: the fine piano in the high register, the completely seamless transition into the well-developed low range and her fine distinction between long-drawn out melodies and melodies sung on the line and passages that were declaimed more clearly in favor of understanding the text.

With Eyvazov, who is on a comparable level with his radiance in this Italian style, she harmonizes very well in terms of the size of the voice and the approach.

Alternating solo performances and duets, this was followed by a very popular gala program with excerpts from Pietro Mascagni's "Cavalleria rusticana" and Ruggero Leoncavallo's "Pagliacci" as well as Puccini's "Madama Butterfly", "Tosca" and "Turandot".

Eyvazov got the biggest hits with arias like "E lucevan le stelle" and "Nessun dorma", but in the permanent role as a desperate, heroic tenor the numbers were similar in expression.

He tended somewhat to the affected in terms of vibrato use and crescendos.

Netrebko was able to show more facets, brighter, lighter with "Stridono lassù" from "Pagliacci" or fiery and designed by her with a dance interlude as Emmerich Kálmán's "Csárdásfürstin".

The Baden-Baden Philharmonic presented itself under the direction of Bignamini, who conducted by heart throughout, well disposed and in the accompaniment of the voices quite differentiated and confident.

The obligatory "Libiamo" duet from "La Traviata" was followed by the second encore "O solo mio" in general enthusiasm.

Also seen in the audience was Uwe Eric Laufenberg, the director of the Wiesbaden State Theater, who invited Netrebko to the May Festival there with all sorts of spectacles.