Right to Reply Read the full reply from Miguel Esteban (Anna Netrebko’s general manager) here. Feature by Warwick Thompson – Opera Magazine June 2023 Can there be a more polarizing name in the current world of opera than that of Anna ‘La Putina’ Netrebko? Because of her stance on the war in Ukraine, the Russian-Austrian soprano currently attracts boos and cheers with equal ferocity. As a little reminder, here’s why. She condemned the war in Ukraine only after much pressure to do so, and even then did not directly criticize Putin himself. Her cheerleaders say that she has said as much as she po ..read more

Richard Fairman pays tribute to Dmitri Hvorostovsky For an opera-lover it was one of those occasions when you always remember where you were at the time. I had missed most of the final of the 1989 Cardiff Singer of the World on television, but switched on just in time to catch a young Russian baritone sweeping on to the stage, looking full of confidence. His programme, ending with Rodrigo’s ‘Per me giunto’ from Don Carlo, was extraordinary. He had everything—the maturity, the nobility of style, and astounding breath control that stretched over two or three phrases, like an arching rainbow ..read more

It is a dreich July day at Oxenfoord International Summer School, a week-long course for solo singers and accompanists led by that peerless song pianist Malcolm Martineau, and I have just sung Puccini’s tiny lullaby L’uccellino. Now I am working through it again, broken up into small segments, syllable by syllable, encouraged every inch of the way by the meticulously rigorous, infectiously enthusiastic Matteo Dalle Fratte. He is a tenor, a musicologist and a vocal coach, born in Asolo and now resident in Britain, who has evolved a discipline of singing in Italian for which he has created ..read more