"Straight, ya know!"
Controversial soprano Anna Netrebko has gone on record categorically denying recent rumors that she... is a lesbian? (My dears, La Cieca has been out of the dating pool for a while, but even she wouldn't mistake Erwin Schrott for a girl!)Well, my dear Sapphic comrades, all La Cieca can say is, you win some, you lose some. Really, girls, how many toaster ovens does one actually need? After all, this week, your team got Jodie Foster plus a first-round draft pick for Queen Latifah. But, sorry ladies, no Netrebko for you! As blogged by Opera Chic earlier today, our Anna asserted, "Ein für alle Mal: Ich bin nicht lesbisch!"
It should perhaps be noted that she -- Anna, that is, not Opera Chic -- was speaking to a journalist from the glossy German-language celeb mag Bunte at the time. Presumably the declaration would hold up in any language: "Once and for all, I'm not a Gay!"
It seems that there were rumors swirling around Anna since she has been palling around (though not gal-palling around!) with out lesbian pop singer Lucy Diakovska from the band No Angels. La Netrebko explained to Bunte "We went out for a meal together. We happened to meet at a television taping and got along well. I was a huge fan of No Angels and Lucy loves opera. You shouldn't make anything more of it."
The article goes on to say that Netrebko is 36, which would suggest that the rest of the piece is fairly accurate. And, to tell the truth, that's about the whole story, except that Bunte posted a lavish photo gallery of Netrebkiana, with captions that don't always relate to the image. Well, anyway, this is what I mean:
Labels: lesbian erotica, netrebko, schwul schwul schwul schwul schwul
POSTED at
3:21 PM
22 Comments:
I honestly don't understand what you mean about the captions, Cieca! That's clearly a still from Netrebko's famous appearance as the Snow Maiden in the Pink Swing from Rimsky-Korsakov's Naughty Operetta, Snegoruchka on Ice.
Well well well...
to hell with netrebko, i want to see more dyke monger. perhaps la cieca can post a pdf scan for us. i'm curious as to what are normal lesbian pleasures as opposed to ....?
La Cieca, please check your facts dear. Renee announced today that she is NOT attending the Westminster show.
Is not the picture from the Vienna State Opera Ball where Netrebko sang an aria from Manon sitting on a swing? The dress with its long train is familiar. Netrebko's saga continues: she is unattractive; undisdinguished voice; all hype and PR with little substance; now she is a lesbian! The next think we know is that Netrebko is a female-opera singer impersonator! Netrebko a Drag Queen? Why not! Everybody wants to find an excuse to talk about Netrebko and her singing has nothing todo with it. There is a cult being cteated around her and anyone can chip in, no matter how outrageous!
Cieca;
Up until now, I have found you (sometimes)generally witty, erudite,and have even enjoyed your (sometimes) trashy gossip...
This leaves a VERY bad taste in my mouth, however(NO pun intended). As Anna seems to be the butt of nasty comments on this, and other sites, to use a scurrilous German gossip-rag to as a "source" to make fun of one's denial of gayness, is TO ME, as a Gay person , the height of creepiness, and really oversteps the bouundaries of your sometimes bad taste.
IF....and only IF there was a generally believable reason to think that Ms. N. had lesbian tendencies, which she was trying to "cover-up", would such a scuzzy "outing" possibly be in order.
I think you owe a huge apology to your Gay...and especially your lesbian readers...this is reallyy way beneath you...nu?
Is it really funny to accuse someone of lesbianism
unhappily....
seth/nyc
seth/nyc:
While I understand the emotion behind your comments, I don't think that LaC is trying to make fun of anyone. Lots of people, on this site and in other places, have commented that they have seen AN making out with women.
This isn't some nasty and hurtful rumour that LaC is spreading, it's something that lots of people talk about, and have BEEN talking about LONG before she was seen out with this chick from the rock group.
It's her total denial of something that people have actually seen happen right in front of their faces that is interesting, and I wonder why she is so strongly denying it. Perhaps she isn't a lesbian, but just has had fun trying things out (who hasn't), and maybe is very slightly bi, or maybe not bi at all, but has nonetheless been seen liplocked and hiplocked with other laydees.
The point is, why does she care what people think? She's an OPERA SINGER. It's a business where women play men all the time and women are CONSTANTLY making out with other women. It's like NYU for GOD'S SAKE. There are tons of lesbian directors and singers, and I for one am surprised that it's news at all. She's clearly dating Erwin, and I'm inclined to believe the rumours about her dalliances with women, and who cares??? No one is trying to ruin her reputation. I've heard she was really great in the Romeo and Juliette, and good for her.
Seth: La Cieca does think that when as big an opera star as Anna Netrebko does anything gay-related (even when the "thing" is saying "no, I'm not gay), it's parterre.com material. This might particularly apply to an artist about whom there has been a certain amount of same-sex relationship gossip, as there has been in the case of la Netrebko. (How true the gossip is and how much same-sex canoodling she might have been doing is another matter that La Cieca can't comment on since she hasn't anything but hearsay to go on.)
Frankly, Netrebko's answer seems to me perfectly fair: she doesn't seem to consider herself exclusively or primarily lesbian in orientation, so why should she self-identify as such? So far as La Cieca can tell, Netrebko is enjoying the company of Erwin Schrott at the moment, and, as we noted above, nobody is likely to mistake him for a girl.
Thanks, sugarmezzo..
It's not my intent to cause a battle over this....and perhaps I am so out of the "inside"loop...but I never heard any of these 'rumors' before..
But...and I think ya hit the nail squarely on the head...if they are true....SO WHAT?...either way it reeks of a subtile homophobia---and yeah, us fags can be as guilty of that as ur straight brethern...and it also reeks of an insidious dyke-bashing mentality common among some gay men..
seth/nyc
La C.
your reply placated me ...a bit(LOL)...my latent "political correctness" sometimes goes a little haywire on me..
And none of my dyke-friends have told me(at least) that Anna is the girl of their dreams...lol...
And Anna's Meine lippen du kussen so heiss (or however) definitely brought out the lesbian hots in ME! I've favorited it on youtube. Can one say more? (over and over)
All this talk of Lesbians. I especially hate some queens call you homophobic because you defend someone who is straight against being labelled a muff muncher.
Before anyone says it, I emphatically deny being a lesbian myself.
Don't care about Netrebko at all, I'm with Amneris, I find La Cieca's choice of DYKE MONGER to be the best part of this post. Though, it must be said, the idea that either of those lipstick lesbians would be considered butch stretches credibility. :-)
This is probably a bit off the topic but has anyone ever noticed on Youtube that the second you post an even slightly negative comment on a Netrebko video (I admit it ... I've done more than my share) the entire Netrebko search suddenly gets bombarded with a pile of really pointless videos that we have all seen before and they all come from the same person!
I can’t help but think that a certain persons PR Rep is trying to flush the negative comments to the back pages of Youtube where those comments won’t be seen!
Or is it just me?
Given that we're on the topic of Ms N...what are peoples' opinions of today's Romeo et Juliette? I'm sure some of this has been analyzed minutely already, but I have to say, those criticisms that keep coming up about her voice/technique seemed to be in full evidence today. Persistent pitch problems evident in the Waltz Song, and especially (poor Alagna) in the first duet's sections when both were singing. How he was able to stay on pitch as she sang sharp/flat deserves a big hand! Also, especially in contrast to her Romeo, Anna's French is pretty appalling. A sort of homogenized round, chocolatey sound with no real specificity in the nasal vowels, and for my taste, a vocal production that was less pointed and bright than the ideal. It's actually kind of surprising to me that a singer of her stature is performing somewhere like the Met with not even the most basic idea how to sing in French. Alagna's beautiful, bright, forward sound and Isabel Leonard's idiomatic-sounding French showed that we can expect a high standard in the language department, even on the International Opera Scene. That said, I do love AN's basic sound, and recognize her electric stage presence. I look forward to the reprise of the big-screen simulcast on Jan. 5 (unfortunately all sold out today in downtown Toronto) when I can see the whole package which I'm sure will be more satisfactory than the audio-only version I got today.
I enjoyed the HD broadcast very much. I didn't hear the pitch problems you did; I heard the Sirius broadcast of the prima and Alagna sang sharp with alarming frequency, as he did on other broadcasts. Not so today, and Ms. N. was very good, especially in the Poison Aria. Domingo's conducting was just there for me; nothing sparkling or lush.
The direction was often inventive but I expected more movement in the first act's ball scene. Whatever. I hope you'll enjoy it. I thought I'd miss Rolando but i didn't...well, maybe in the bedroom scene....
Sugarmezzo (and everyone):
Who cares about whether Trebs is gay and who she's canoodling with?
We do, of course!
That's why we come here!
I mean, really, if ALL we wanted to talk about was vocal technique, we could go to Opera-L or some Yahoo group.
And for me (and many of my brethren and sestren here on Parterre Box, I'm sure), suggesting that someone is lesbian is hardly something that needs to be defended against. Rather the opposite, I should think.
So if Anna can lock lips and hips with hot chicks and then land Erwin Schrott to boot, more power to her.
Eh, she's just claiming not to be a 5 or 6 on the Kinsey scale. "Not a lesbian" isn't synonymous with "straight." In any case, Erwin Schrott was at least in a relationship with Trebs fairly recently--she was even showing up at his rehearsals. Yanno', I'd lie and say I don't care about gossip, but I read this e-rag, don't I?
Posa, I'm simply astounded at your reactions from Toronto to yesterday's R&J.
From row P in the orchestra, it was not only nothing like what you described, but almost opposite.
A.N.'s singing and acting were above praise. I never dreamed that she could put in such a good performance. Alagna, on the other hand (and I'm generally an admirer) was alarmingly vague about pitch all afternoon -- with an almost Rameyesque vibrato -- and sometimes seemed that he might not make it through the opera that I was very fearful for him. (He looked unbelievably happy when it was all over.)
Also, as a sometime detractor of Domingo's conducting, I have to say that he did a wonderful job (with a few exceptional places where he rushed the singers at cadences).
As I said to the critic seated next to me, "Wow. I feel I've been to the opera." Which is, alas, not always the way I feel at the end of performances.
(P.S. Anybody else at *I Due Foscari* on Thursday? I loved it.)
DirkVA, you poor dear. If that is your idea of an opera performance, I feel sorry for you.
She is vapid, but at least it doesn't tax her desperately, except for a badly cracked high Db. My my.
He is a train wreck out for padded shorts and publicity
when he leaves, I won't cry. Placido as conductor?
That's funny.
Can't remember the last time I went to the opera and heard an opera perfromance.
I listened to the Saturday matinee broadcast on Sirius (my first try) and I thought the transmission quality was such that it wasn't really possible to get a good sense of how Netrebko fared in the house.
I did get to see Guleghina's Lady Macbeth live the other month. I thought she wasn't having a particularly good night, and I actually found myself enjoying Netrebko on Sirius more - sound compression notwithstanding - than I did her in the flesh.
So I was just wondering, for those who heard both ladies in the theater, who gave better value for money overall (read: was/is Netrebko really as bad as that?!?)
Sorry if this doesn't seem like a fair comparison - apples and oranges, perhaps - but I'm trying to get some perspective here. Thanks!
DirkVA
Actually, I did mention that I did *not* see this on the screen and what I got Saturday was the audio-only version on good, old-fashioned stereo (which imho is probably still a better way to listen, giving a more accurate account of the sound versus the sound compression one experiences listening via the internet). I also said that it might be a totally different experience once I see the whole package: singing, acting, staging, sets etc. when I *do* see the repeat simulcast on Jan. 5. I don't know, but I still stand by my initial aural impression: Nebs had a beautiful sound, and I'm sure acted well, but if so much of the French is mangled, in combination with off-pitch singing, no trill (surely a prerequisite for the Waltz), it's hard to enjoy as a purely vocal rendition. I didn't hear the pitch problems with Alagna, nor an exaggerated vibrato/wobble AND stylistically, his singing was a model versus Anya's: focused, forward sound, properly nasalized French vowels, clarity of diction etc.
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