A rerun, one advice: Play funny!
Saturday, 19 February 2011 , 19.00

Anna Netrebko returns to the Metropolitan Opera as Norina.

After five years, giving birth and interpreting a series of exceptionally difficult and dramatic roles, such as Lucia and Elvira in The Puritans last season, Netrebko came back to the Metropolitan Opera as the funny Norina in Don Pasquale by Gaetano Donizetti, enjoying each note, word or gesture of her character.

Here's a link.

She is as beautiful and sexy (Mariusz Kwiecień sees her even more beautiful!) as five years ago, at the première of Otto Schenck's staging. She masters her voice as confidently and charming as always. She may have lost a bit of her vivacity but she compensates with the current consistency of her voice, which sounds even more clearly in the exquisite acoustics of the famous New York theatre.

Anna Netrebko is still wonderful and generally an important figure of the 3rd millennium opera; at the first production in the series of Don Pasquale rerun at the MET, the great public and specialized critics also appreciated John del Carlo as an authentic basso buffo and one of the most valuable performers of Dr. Malatesta, baritone Mariusz Kwiecien, as well as tenor Matthew Polenzani as a sensitive and elegant Ernesto, an artist we had the chance of listening to in La Traviata on January 15th 2011.

'Play funny' seems to have been the only advice the interpreters received in October 2010, when they decided to perform again in Otto Schenk's production at the MET; so, before its live broadcast, on Saturday, February 19th from 20.00. Tune in for a delightful MET performance of Don Pasquale!