Album review: Anna Netrebko, Verdi (Deutsche Grammophon)

Anna Netrebko's contribution to the ongoing Verdi bicentennial celebrations opens in startling fashion with a suite of five arias from Macbeth which will surely divide opinion. Personally, I find her delivery here too shrill and imposing. The two songs from Giovanna d'Arco are more evenly modulated, especially the penumbral "O Fatidica Foresta", while the emotional topography of "Mercé, Dilette Amiche" from I Vespri Siciliani is negotiated with compelling subtlety. The most technically testing piece here, the lengthy "Tu Che le Vanità" from Don Carlo, is dispatched with confidence, while her interpretation of the lighter "D'amor Sull'ali Rosee" from Il Trovatore is perfect, its coloratura elements handled with an airily engaging touch.

Download: D'amor Sull'ali Rosee; O Fatidica Foresta; Mercé, Dilette Amiche; Tu Che le Vanità