addio della traviata: anna
Anna Netrebko will not sing Violetta in New York during the 2010-2011 season, La Cieca has learned. The long-expected La traviata (as discussed on Met Futures and elsewhere) was to be a version of the Willy Decker production the soprano did at Salzburg in 2005.
According to an interview the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung, Netrebko has decided to pull out for two reasons, a sense of routine in this production she loves so well, and a concern that she might not be as effective in the staging as she was in the well-known DVD release. (That second part at least has the ring of truth.)
The diva goes on to discuss future repertoire for her “new voice” (Anna Bolena and Faust, definitely; Trovatore and Lohengrin, possibly; but not Lulu, even though Barenboim and Decker want her to do it.)
Hippolyte, that would be wonderful beyond words to have Iolanta (hopefully with Trebs and Bezcala) and another short piece. It would also be wonderful to keep Netrebko in place and have a different production of “Traviata” – maybe Jack O’Brien? Even better would be to have Kaufmann, Bezcala or Calleja as her Alfredo.
However, if Peter Clark says that the Met is going forward with the Decker travesty then that I am sure is what they are doing. Poplavskaya, probably a Friend/Billinghurst fetish could get one of the scheduled revivals as could Kovalevska. Word going around is that Dessay is being pursued to replace Netrebko in the Decker “Traviata” with Villazon still in place (he has only been released from his Hoffmann contract – and Calleja’s image in now replacing his image in the promotional images on the Met site.) Frankly this “Traviata” is smelling like a disaster already.
The NY Times blog has announced the Gheorghiu “Carmen” cancellation and the Netrebko “Traviata” cancellation. However, it also notes that Marina Poplavskaya will indeed replace Netrebko. I don’t know what I think about this… I remember when Gheorghiu was replaced by Fleming who was replaced by Racette when Zef Mach II premiered.
But earlier today it was announced that Angela G. would be singing Traviatas at the Met — I assumed taking up for Nebrebko. It would make sense.