Amata dalle Tenebre ("Beloved of the Darkness") is a collection of tragic arias by soprano Anna Netrebko, marking her first solo release since her voice entered new, middle-aged dramatic territory in the mid-2010s. The album was recorded at La Scala in late 2020 and early 2021, placing at least part of it after Netrebko's COVID pneumonia hospitalization. It is hard to hear any traces of that or to attribute any weaknesses to that instead of to the fact Netrebko, like any other singer, is stronger in some repertories than ...
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Amata dalle Tenebre ("Beloved of the Darkness") is a collection of tragic arias by soprano Anna Netrebko, marking her first solo release since her voice entered new, middle-aged dramatic territory in the mid-2010s. The album was recorded at La Scala in late 2020 and early 2021, placing at least part of it after Netrebko's COVID pneumonia hospitalization. It is hard to hear any traces of that or to attribute any weaknesses to that instead of to the fact Netrebko, like any other singer, is stronger in some repertories than others. She has sung a good deal of German opera by now, but she is not exactly at home in the likes of "Es gibt ein Reich," from Richard Strauss' Ariadne auf Naxos, Op. 60. In general, this is a fine souvenir of the "new" Anna Netrebko. Even in the Strauss, she seems immersed in the character, and she effectively produces German, Italian, and Russian voices that are shaded differently. In excerpts from Tchaikovsky's Pique Dame, she is, of course, nonpareil. What is more surprising is...
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