Singer Anna Netrebko
Photo: Anatoly ZHDANOV
Anna Netrebko, 51, lives and sings abroad. Over the past year, for the sake of a well-fed life and career abroad, Ella Netrebko has made several statements against Russia. But this did not help the opera star: she continues to cancel her performances.
At first, Netrebko made an anti-Russian statement, then she became nervous about treason accusations from her compatriots. She responded, reaching out to people on social media more often this way. “Escaped?! Hello! I have lived and worked outside of Russia for twenty years”; “I did not live the best part of my life in the Kuban”; “I worry about my family, I cannot please everyone. Yes, in a sense I want to sit on two chairs. And even three, if necessary. Someday people will understand that I did not betray Russia…”
Netrebko has Austrian citizenship and a luxurious apartment in the center of Vienna, where she lives with her husband and son. Anna Netrebko continues to play the leading roles in performances at the Vienna State Opera; however, there are much fewer of them than before: more precisely, one production remained. A year ago, her name was removed from theater posters. But then the general director of the Vienna theater said: “Personally, I do not believe that Netrebko should be prohibited from working in the country of which she is a citizen.” Therefore, her Anna opened the theater season in the fall and in January 2023 she sang in Aida.
Anti-Russian statements did not save Netrebko from breaking the contract with the Metropolitan Opera: in New York they refused his services. The management of the Metropolitan Opera said that the opera star must, in the long run, prove the absence of ties to the homeland. After losing his job at the American Opera, the star hastened to get rid of a very expensive apartment in Manhattan, for which he paid a mortgage: the house was bought on credit for a period of 30 years. Netrebko was also removed from the repertoire of several European theaters. Anna reported: “The Bavarian Opera terminated the July contract with me because I put up a photo with Gergiev.”
However, the opera singer Netrebko has world popularity, so she still has a job – she is developing new platforms with commercial performances. In the next few days, Anna Netrebko and her husband will sing for two days in a row in Hong Kong: ticket prices range from $250 (18,000 rubles) to $1,800 (135,000 rubles). Next on the bill: Tokyo, Milan, festival in Wiesbaden, Verona. For a commercial concert, an opera star receives an average fee, which, when converted into rubles, is approximately 2 million 400 thousand rubles. Her husband’s rate is lower.
However, now the opera diva’s concerts are often cancelled. That was what happened the other day. On March 5, Netrebko was supposed to perform on the island of Taiwan. The concert was cancelled, as reported on the website of the National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra. Netrebko planned to sing with her husband Yusif Eyvazov at the National Concert Hall in Taipei. All were canceled due to the “greater concern of public opinion”.
For Netrebko’s commercial performances in Russia, large companies that sponsor events paid between 200 and 300 thousand euros per concert. In Europe, his fees for commercial performances now: 20 – 30 thousand euros per concert.
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