24. August 2024
Anna Netrebko at Klassik am Dom in Linz © APA/KLASSIK AM DOM/JULIAN QUIRCHMAIR
Anna Netrebko was scheduled to perform at the last classical concert of the year at the Cathedral Square, but a group from Ukraine tried to prevent this. Fortunately, the requested cancellation was not successful.
Under police guard, classical music fans flocked to the opera concert of the prima donna assoluta and experienced an extraordinary evening, as expected, which degenerated into a frenzy of enthusiasm.
Yes, there was a time when the Russian-born singer with Austrian citizenship perhaps fell a little out of favor with some audiences.
But her voice, unmistakable in its technical superiority, sensitivity and phrasing power, was convincing as always.
Music heals all wounds, unites all peoples and thus led to a veritable euphoria of victory. It was no surprise that the star, who was unbeatably famous, turned her performance into a homage to her revered Giacomo Puccini, radiating splendor and glory.
Nor did he notice that some of Netrebko’s friends were on the program, including ex-husband Yusif Eyvazov, still playing a perfect pair of lovers, which he made full use of with charm and vocal power.
It is a pity that the singer we are looking for, a representative of a protected species, does not always hold back his well-known voluminous organ enough to be able to express the tessitura as a fine expressive element with full effect.
The two participants, Daria Rybak, a Swiss soprano, and especially the French baritone Jerome Routillier with his soft-timbered voice and clear speech, provided pleasant encounters.
Under the Italian conductor Marco Boemi, the Vienna Volksoper Symphony Orchestra had a man who was clearly competent at the helm of the opera. Wonderful dynamic adjustments and colorful sound baths, which are not at all a given in open-air performances, were no less enjoyable in the two orchestral numbers (Intermezzo, Le Villi) than the arias and ensemble contributions.
One could not have wished for better administrators for Puccini’s music with its sentimental attitude and indispensable sensuality. Whether four times from “Turandot”, just as often from his first opera “Manon Lescaut”, “La Bohème”, “Tosca” and “Madame Butterfly”, all of which are well-known numbers of tragic roles, sung by elite artists, into a cloudless night sky with the romantically illuminated cathedral façade to the side.
If this mood didn’t evoke a Veronese atmosphere in Italy’s arena, for example? It was hard to say goodbye, which was not made any easier by the “Mio babbino caro” as the last encore from Puccini’s “Trittico”.
Von Georgina Szeless
