Erwin Schrott, who just launched his shiny-new, official website -- via Decca Music Group, of course -- gushes over his future baby's mama, saying: "Even though the baby isn't born yet, Anna is already a great mother. I knew it from the start." **coughs**. We like it when he sings & looks puuurty...like below, str8 e-chillaxing from his e-gallery.
German opera magazine, Das Opernglas, is carrying an interview with Erwin Schrott, where he is also this month's coverboy. If you don't want sexy time with Schrott, check yourself before you wreck yourself. Lusted after still, but I swear I've seen this picture in the window of a Midtown hair salon as "generic ambiguous hair model".
Schrott reveals that after mating with la Netrebko, he's a better cook, and he's learning Russian (while teaching her Spanish). He is mortified to be labeled as opera's new dream team, isn't having any part of it, and claims that they are a completley normal couple. o ok. Just your average couple that travels weekly around the world, gets $$$ tickets to VIP events, and has boxes of Jimmy Choos and 15K Escada gowns hanging in the closet. yah.
Go to Das Opernglas to access the online article...but no direct linkage allowed, so you'll have to dig around yourselves.
O.C., like a flash of lightning striking down your computer *zoom zoom* has more media! After liveblogging the Schloss Schönbrunn concert from last night with the trifecta of *~opera superstars~* -- Rolando Villazón, Plácido Domingo, and Anna Netrebko -- O.C. made you a flickr stream of 73 images captured from her plasma television. Go here for the spoils of last night. I curated some of my favorites below:
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ok ok, fine whatevs....she's like 11 months pregnant and it's the ~summer~. We've *been* there (minus that whole weird "with fetus" part). But we discovered that our favorite pregnant Russian soprano pulled an unforgivable sartorial faux-pas! *gasps*
Digging through recent photos, we came across pictures of Trebs just _one week ago_ at the June 21, 2008 Gala Ball for Valery Gergiev's White Nights Festival of the St. Petersburg Mariinsky Theatre. There she was, in St. Petersburg @ the Catherine Palace, wearing the same exact dress that she wore for last night's outdoor concert gala @ Vienna's Schloss Schönbrunn (with the same headband/hairstyle, too). C4urselvs teh horrar:
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Just to refresh your memory, here was Netrebko last night in Vienna...hmmmm:
Anna, honey, c'mon. we seened it all on teh intarwebz. You're in J.Lo league...you could buy $700 cashmere blankets for your baby and $300 suede play-mats if you want. And gawd knows this isn't gonna be your first pregnancy. Don't pull a Kathy Battle!
Also in attendance @ Catherine Palace was, obvs, Gergiev. But a treat was Rene Pape, who posed with Russian soprano Anastasia Kalagina, a soloist at the theatre since 2007, who won this year's "Montblanc New Voices Award".
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Gergiev on his tiny phone...it's smaller than his ear! Can u hear me??
Are you one of the optimists who bought tickets for I Capuleti e i Montecchi, in Paris, in the hope of seeing Anna Netrebko there?
Well, now that it's basically all sold out, turns out that Anna Netrebko won't probably be there that much: she seems about to cancel at least six 3 nights of her commitment there (from May 31 on). Goodness knows if she'll show up at least for the May 24 prima and the May 28 seconda rappresentazione.
update:
dear Mei (aka gtl torn t) alerts us that Opera de Paris says Netrebko only canceled three engagements, May 31, June 11 & 15.
end update
No official reason for the cancellation, but maybe she caught a cold the other night in London, due to the unusual choice of attire.
As our readers know we love la Ciofolina, so Paris audiences (tickets there are not as shamefully expensive as la Scala's, but pretty steep nonetheless) will be getting more than their monies worth anyway. But still.
Bait and switch, baby. Bait and switch.
A beaming, half-n4ked Anna Netrebko last week at the Classical brit Awards.
It's a boy.
(And they got married, too. They got their wedding bands in Dubai -- and one hopes her corporate sponsor, a famous jeweler, gave them at least a discount).
Opera Chic pleads guilty of having a soft spot for that big sweaty combover'd Russian mess that is Valery Gergiev, because even if he, may the Lord bless his vodka-soaked heart, can make the Pastorale sound like John Williams and Richard Strauss sound like Def Leppard, he nevertheless can make magic things happen whenever he is on. And the Lord knows magic things don't happen very often in your average concert hall / opera house.
We therefore hope that he's going to be on quite often at the big classical music marathon that is the seventh annual Moscow Easter Festival (the Russian Orthodox Easter obv.) Valery is running.
Among the highlights, a gala concert celebrating Gergiev's 55th birthday with ex-girlfriend Anna Netrebko, Olga Borodina and Vladimir Galuzin; performances of Mahler's 7th, 8th and 9th symphonies, two evenings of ballet with the Mariinsky ballet company and Ulyana Lopatkina.
Gergiev and the Mariinsky's orchestra will also bring music to the provinces and visit Kazan, Tver, Cherepovets, Ulyanovsk, Krasnodar and Vladikavkaz.
Reader "Knowbody" alerted us: this photo of Elina Garanca and Anna Netrebko demonstrates that Deutsche Grammophon has drastically cut back on the budget for hairstylists -- even for their two top girls.
What's with the extensions, indeed.
You know, all due respect to that big piece of beefy baritone that is Erwin Schrott, and big blessings to the bebbe-to-be of the Netrebko-Schrott couple, but this quote in a (bad) interview in today's Observer: What about the rumours she had affairs with both Justin Timberlake and Robbie Williams. 'I liked Justin, but he was too young.'
made us realize that Anna, by shooting down poor h0rny Justin Timberlake's pass at her, chose not to create a new golden era of popularity for opera.
Let OC explain:
Just as we recently imagined the monster crossover appeal of Juan Diego Florez getting married to Beyoncé (we like la Trappa but the star powah just isn't there), Netrebko + Timberlake would have meant a huge goldmine of media exposure for opera.
I mean, think of Netrebka showing up with Justin at the MTV Awards, Justin sampling Berlioz, Timbaland as special guest at the Vienna Staatsoper when Justin's there in the royal box wearing a tuxedo and Anna's on stage; Rolando Villazon having a steamy love story with Leona Lewis; rappers going to la Scala to catch some lieder recital; kids going nuts for opera after seeing Jay-Z date Garanca and declare that "Haendel is gangsta"; Madge Kozena going out with (monstrously hawt) soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo; Domingo dating Hillary Clinton. Angela Gheorghiu and Shaquille O'Neal. Lorin Maazel and Paris Hilton (just hold the secks video this time, PLEASE).
That'd mean paparazzi frenzies for opera singers; downtown Vienna like the Sunset Strip; Covent Garden as celebrity magnet, Ralph Fiennes going out with Patrizia Ciofi.
As David Beckham became known to all the people who don't care about soccer by marrying an otherwise lame, washed-up, soon-to-be-ex popstar, what opera needs to boost its popularity and crossover appeal is not opera singers doing popera records, but celebrity intermarriage.
Instead, Anna shot Justin down, and nothing of the sort happened.
In the photo below, Timberlake pining for Anna Bananna.
Anna Netrebko is back as Manon, in Vienna:
About the only physical sign that the diva is expecting was in the cut of her costumes — a baby doll in the bedroom scene that appeared a bit roomier than the sparse pajamas she wore in last year's premiere of the Andrei Serban production, a bodice that seemed less tight fitting and a bell-skirt dress that ever-so-slightly looked to be de-emphasizing the waist.
Aurally though, there was a difference.
Netrebko was in her usual effortless control of the full range this opera demands — including the famous Gavotte that calls for hitting notes sandwiching high C. But her warm voice acquired an extra coating of honey, giving it an almost mezzo-like quality in the middle register.
No bodice-ripping malfunctions? We're not getting those superexpensive tickets on Craigslist Vienna, no ma'am.
Just before we enter the air-conditioned auditorium of the Emirates
Palace in Abu Dhabi for a gala concert featuring three of the world's
greatest opera singers, we are each handed a copy of Chopard's Happy
News magazine. As the movers and sheikhs of the United Arab Emirates
take their seats, I read its interview with Russian soprano Anna
Netrebko. The interviewer poses questions that Paxman and Humphrys
would never dare: "You are now an ambassadress for Chopard. How would
you define glamour?" "Chopard jewellery really epitomises glamour,"
replies Netrebko, diplomatically. It's going to be a long evening.
OC is a Pomellato girl herself, but whatevs!
La Pregka Trebka's schedule:
She will be performing on April 6, 9, 12, and 15 in the Manon Lescaut, from Director Andrei Serban. She will also be making appearances in the Vienna Concert House on April 22, 25, and 28 in Vincenzo Bellinis’ "I Capuleti e i Montecchi."
Her final performance will be on 27 June, when she performs with Placido Domingo und (wtf?) Rolando Villazon at Schönbrunn Palace.
Whether you like her or not, pretty pony Anna Netrebko continues to saturate international media, putting shame in the name of anyone who tries to step up to the opera mic. This week, La Repubblica delle Donne is running an Italian translation of the Charles McGrath Netrebko feature that was in the New York Times Style magazine from December 2, 2007, but with a new crop of photos (above is an outtake from the Ruven Afanador photo shoot that wasn't used for the Times piece).
Here are the scans, and a zoom of la Anna's feet for all you secret fetishists out there. Yaes, we know.
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We call shenanigans: the "Russian Of The Year" award, whatever it is, was won by Russian pop singer and alleged lypsinching countertenor Vitas (scary YouTube link), pictured here by AP smiling at the award ceremony today in Moscow, and naughtily handling his new shiny, suggestively-shaped big thick glass thing.
u r our Russian of teh year anna xoxoxo OC!
Below are some exclusive shots from the Austria set of director Robert Dornhelm's La Bohème, with *~opera stars~* Anna Netrebko and Rolando Villazón singing the leads. We all know we're gonna see this one, so here's a preview. Her cap in the picture above looks like a giant thong.
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SUM1s BEAN CRYI?NG!-->
No bebbe! Not in the snow! You'll get all chapped!
She DEYUHD!!!
:"[
Anna Netrebko was won by an award (The People's Artist of Russia or something) earlier today in St. Petersburg (Vladimir Putin, pictured above trying hard not to scare the pregnant young lady, was in St. Pete's to attend celebrations marking the 225th anniversary of the Mariinsky Theater).
$ay what you want about Abu Dhabi, but it i$ certainly a fir$t-cla$$ venue for cla$$ical mu$ic, unlike provincial hou$e$ $uch as Covent Garden, Liceu, or, for that matter, la Scala (la Scala, where she has in fact never ever sung -- she's scheduled to do so in a very hazy future Otello that she may or may not want to study for).
Carefully choosing engagements now, after announcing her pregnancy and the streak of cancellations raining down on her schedule, Anna Netrebko will take the time to rawk the Abu Dhabi Festival, together with a team of gung-ho IMG arti$t$ willing to add such a venue to their already impressive resumes, all for the love of mu$ic.
The program opens March 22 and runs to April 2. Highlights will include
violinist Nikolaj Znaider and the London Philharmonic under the
direction of Vladimir Jurowski; pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet in an
evening of Mozart, Ravel and Prokofiev; and Grammy-nominated soprano
Anna Netrebko in a special gala with the Bolshoi Theatre Orchestra.
Anna Bananna on March 29 will be joined by Elina Garanca and Anna's own bebbedaddy Erwin Schrott in an evening of Mozart and Verdi with the Bolshoi group.
And then they make fun of poor Andrea Bocelli for singing in Vega$.
There's usually not much coming in OC's American mailbox and being forwarded to her in Milan that makes Opera Chic particularly homesick -- because all the sample sales here rawk so hard anyway -- but there's the occasional item that makes her nostalgic in a wish-I-was-in-NYC way.
Like the invitation for the new Jürgen Teller show Ukraine @ our dear Lehmann Maupin gallery on West 26th (where the genius of Isabella Tonchi has just been displayed, another very cool thing we missed, but then Tonchi's own adorable store is in OC's Milan neighborhood anyway), it srsly made us sorry we couldn't go. Especially when we learned from a friend that one of the highlights is the image of a Ukrainian model n4ked and slathered in a few kilos of yummy caviar.
We *heart* Jürgen, who also fed Arnold Schwarzenegger to an alligator (see above), so much -- he's Marc Jacob's image guy, and this goes to Jacobs's eternal credit, nevermind his latest antics, not many major designers since the great Moschino's passing would trust a gleeful iconoclast like Teller to do their campaigns. Teller is the perfect man to make you cool because he hates the slick fashion images that are everywhere, and OC dares to say he's the only photographer who can possibly shoot la Pregka Trebka. Because since the news of Anna Netrebko -- from now on, until the birth of the baby, "Pregs Trebs" -- pregnancy, many of our readers have been hoping for (link Not Safe For Work) a Demi Moore cover (link NSFW). After all, everybody in the pop skankeuse business, from Britney (ugh) to Xtina (eeew), has been doing that kind of cover, and our dear Anna is much more entitled to show off than those other girls. She can also sing unamplified. Also, her boi is hawt, unlike Britney's freak and Xtina's furball. (And frankly, she chose an Austrian tabloid magazine to break the news of her out-of-wedlock pregnancy, not exactly Granta or Lingua Franca -- or, like, her own or Schrott's official website -- so it's not like you haven't already chosen to go downmarket, rite?).
Photos from a press conference in Vienna on Monday, February 10, between journalists and Rolando Villazón, Plácido Domingo, and Anna Netrebko. They were there to play nice for their upcoming June 27, 2008 concert which will be at Schloss Schönbrunn, with Vienna's Radio Symphony Orchestra. Anna, again, is rocking that "I'm So Over It" face.
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Rolando is sporting his Gerbil King Lemmiwinks knit polo. Heed my words, Lemmiwinks! Your time is running out! Make for the large intestine, all will be made clear then.
Here are a few more images of La Netpregko we dug up as promised from her appearance at the Berlin "Cinema for Peace" event from yesterday. Enjoy!
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La Netpregko is in Berlin rocking her extensions and couture gowns for the paps at the 2008 Berlinale, a.k.a the Berlin Film Festival. She was spotted earlier tonight at the Konzerthaus am Gendarmenmarkt for the 7th Annual Cinema for Peace event to receive a CleanEnergy honor, rubbing shoulders with the likes of Sir Ben Kingsley, Catherine Deneuve, and Bob Geldof.
For now, you can go here to see shots of her red carpet arrival, shots 1&2 (also above), with high-res coming tomorrow!
OC reader Leonora (thanks Leonora!) alerted us to the Austrian NEWS Magazin that has just hit the newsstands with La Netrebk(a) on the cover. Although we can't find it here in Milan, you can still find the online version here, with an accompanying gallery of like 50 images of Anna throughout the years -- the good & the bad, the pretty & the ugly, the odd accessories and hair extensions -- including the images above and below. We all know how stunning La Netrebk(a) is onstage and via public appearances, but we <3 her even more when she's pulling random & spastic faces, embracing her inner d0rk. go trebs go!!
*~*~* HA HA O GURRL UR KILLIN ME
One was King.
The other was Alfredo. At la Scala. Under Muti. At 27. With Pavarotti's blessing. And, if you're an opera singer, or a Republican (in the UK sense, not in the Huckabee sense), it pretty much comes close to being King, too.
Then they both got married.
To Wallis & Angela (the double date from hail, when you think about it).
Anyway.
Roberto Alagna is now in beautiful Valencia to appear at the Palau in Le Dernier Jour D'Un Condamné, written by his brother David Alagna (the one who did the Orphée mashup that got savagely booed in Bologna and received some nastykinZ review as well).
His lovely wife Angela Gheorghiu, as she so often does, canceled on his a$$ so there's another soprano in the cast. But there's also Erwin Schrott appearing alongside Roburto, Schrott the daddy-to-be of Pregs Trebs's baby, so that's going to be one fun production (Anna netrebko is in Valencia too, eating ginormous amounts of fish). Esp. if an emerging artist like Ervino -- who could totally ride his supasta girlfriend's coattails to some serious level of fame in these next few years if he's smart and he may very well be -- studies Alagna up close. As a cautionary tale.
A post where the most elegant man of the XX century appears (the Duke of Windsor, not RA) can only end on a high fashion note: enjoy a close up of Alagna's interesting leather/herringbone overcoat.
Via Voices From Russia (thanks to reader "knowbody"):
"Yuri Nikolaevich Netrebko, the father of opera star Olga Netrebko, hopes that she and her future husband shall be married in an Orthodox ceremony in one of the churches of Krasnodar. 'Anna has usually agreed with me. We hope that the wedding shall take place in the St Ilya parish in Krasnodar, where Anna was baptised', he stated in an interview published on Wednesday in the newspaper Tvoi Den (Your Day)."
"Olga"?
Besides the funny translation of La Bohème from French to Russian back into English -- it magically becomes "Bohemia" -- we have to confess we always thought that Ervino Schrott, who already has a first wife (whose divorce status is unknown) and a daughter, was Jewish. (In this case, someone should alert il signor Yuri Nikolaeevich of the difference between Russian Orthodox and Jewish Orthodox).
Caption time! We came across in our archives a photo of Anna Netrebko and Erwin Schrott that begs for a caption. Are you up to the challenge?
(above: click for bigger)
Russian opera star Anna Netrebko is pregnant, she was quoted as saying in an Austrian media report Monday. According to the Austrian weekly News the 36-year-old soprano and her partner, Uruguay-born baritone Erwin Schrott, 35, are expecting their first child in autumn. "We are both very happy that we will be three soon," Netrebko was quoted as saying by News. Her spokesman was not available for comment at the time of writing. Netrebko and Schrott had performed together several times since 2003, but their relationship and subsequent engagement only became public in late 2007.
La Trebka, vain girl as she is, was just tired to hear that we made fun of her newly meaty silhouette, and so she decided to come clean and blame the baby fat instead of unruly eating habits. La Trebkens joins the ranks of Hollywood celebrity like Angelina Jolie, Jamie Lynn Spears, Gwen Stefani, Kate Blanchett, and Nicole Kidman, who all recenly announced pregnancies in the past months.
Let's just hope the baby doesn't look like a Russian Tony Danza
***update***
Reader Anastasia points out:
Don't the professional ballerinas dance well into the end of their second trimesters? Why is she pulling out of her performances so quickly? Exhaustion? Aside from looking chubby lately, is she really even showing? I don't mean to sound so doubtful of her actions, but is it really necessary to immediately quit all future performances like she did?
Answer: to devote more time to eating chocolate!
****update****
The Internets react: in Barcelona, essential Liceu blogger gtl torn t, writes:
Anna Netrebko ha anunciado hoy su embarazo
Viva el embarazo!
*****update*****
Moah opera blog reactions: La Cieca, in her snazzy redesign, joins in the Pregs-Trebs fun.
*****update******
Jessica Duchen blimeys!
Anna & Rolando on the set of their new, Dornhelm-helmed (lol) Bohème film, with Tim Mangan crush Nicole Cabell as Musetta (hopefully louder than in Santa Fe).
(click me click me yeah, everyone is waiting.)
Although we've already covered it extensively (here, too), we came across another video from the 2008 Vienna Opernball that we rilly rilly wanted to share. The raisin? A clip of José Carreras singing at the ball (unfortunately under some vary v a r y bad lighting), and then dancing a lovely waltz with Anna Netrebko in the Emperor's box.
Direct linking of the media is basically impossible, but you can try your luck here. If that didn't work, start here, and look for the video link called, "Video: Walzer und Fußball beim Wiener Opernball" in the middle of the page. Below are some screen shots for souvenirs, and OC included an idiot's guide to finding the easter egg below.
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Cancellation-prone Anna Netrebko was well enough to spend some quality time with various washed up celebrities at Vienna's Opernball tonight (guest of honor: Dita Von Teese). Here's Anna above in her black dress, by Escada. Anna Netrebko showed-up with escort, Robert Dornhelm, an Austrian film director, originally from Romania.
Also in attendance (aside from a few Hollywood celebrities like Teri Hatcher) was José Carreras, who sang Vurria by Furio Rendine, and Passione, an old Neapolitan song. In the first shot he was at the rehearsal, while the second was from his performance earlier tonight.
Below is Von Tess and Luger, the former who the German press is calling "Stripperin". heh. looole...TESSIE'S NOT A STRIPPER!!She's an exotic DANCER. WHAT SHE DOES IS ART!
Another entry in the "Most Embarrassing Valentine From A (Professional) Critic" Anna Bananna Contest:
" I watched her through my tears, added some hoarse yelping to the hubbub of acclaim that greeted her when it was over, then stumbled home to spend an entirely white night re-enacting it all in my head.
(...)
Now we all love her - and, not wanting to be outdone by the multitude, I personally adore her".
Next Sunday free Kleenex box with your copy of The Observer
Anna Netrebko Leads Male Critic To Publishing Embarrassing Valentine Under Own Byline, Part XXXVIII
An article on La Anna from today's Sunday Times:
”I am big,” she insists, dark eyes widening. “I am big!”
“I love to eat. If you let me, I’ll never stop. This is almost my biggest passion. And here it’s big, and it’s getting bigger because of the singing.” She presses the heels of her palms into the lats under her armpits. “Because of the breaths. All my dresses are getting small for me. I have to give them to my girlfriends – my pretty designer clothes. Before, I didn’t have any problem. After thirtysomething, I started to put on weight. I like it. Men like it. My boyfriend says, ‘Never lose it!’ But we’ll see. I don’t want to be fat, because I want to fit the beautiful clothes. This is most important.”
16:9, behbee. But you know what they say, Anna: Love makes you fat.
(I am not having intimate relations with this woman, says Anna Netrebko)
Update those score cards -- Anna Netrebko is speaking to the German-language press, and has issued the following statement “Ein für alle Mal: Ich bin nicht lesbisch”.
She felt she had to clear the air after recent rumors arose that she was getting cozy with Ludmilla "Lucy" Diakovska, a German-Bulgarian singer who started as one of the original members of the biggest selling German all-girl pop group called "No Angels", which was born out of the 2000 television talent show "Popstars".
The rumors started when Netrebko met with Lucy via a TV show. Both women have gone on the record to state their apparent disinterest in women.
I mean really, all Netrebko had to say is well, just look at her. ~@_@~
***update***
Anna may have watched too many episodes of Will & Grace, hence the confusion.
