Easter Festival

Acclaimed: Superstar Netrebko is back

Netrebko celebrated a highly acclaimed comeback at the Easter Festival.(Bild: Bernd Uhlig)

A superstar returns home: Anna Netrebko celebrated a highly acclaimed comeback in Salzburg at the start of the Easter Festival. A story by Larissa Schütz.

The Easter Festival is back on after a brilliant start at the weekend. The second program that Artistic Director Nikolaus Bachler has created under his sole responsibility is a festival program with luminous peaks, which began on Friday with dance, the discipline that Bachler newly established last year.

Thus, there was breathtaking and moving dancing to Bach's "St. John Passion" in the festival. The real highlight, however, was the opera premiere of "La Gioconda" on Saturday - in more ways than one. Whereas last year Bachler had to be reproached for bringing back yesterday's goodies from Munich (Romeo Castellucci's Tannhäuser production from 2017), this year he planned a real firecracker: "La Gioconda", a real rarity, never before performed in Salzburg and star-studded in the Grosses Festspielhaus.

Anna Netrebko and Jonas Kaufmann(Bild: Bernd Uhlig)

Maria Callas had this work to thank for her big breakthrough at the age of 23, but today it hardly appears in the repertoire at all. One reason for this is the extremely high demands placed on the singers. But Bachler knows plenty of singers who have this kind of cross to bear and he did not miss the opportunity to invite the biggest names to Salzburg. Jonas Kaufmann, Luca Salsi and above all Anna Netrebko.

As great as the program of the opening weekend was, in the end everyone was only interested in one question: will Netrebko make a big comeback on the Salzach or not? The answer is loud and clear: "Yes!" The Russian-Austrian singer was accused of failing to distance herself from the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine, which recently made her persona non grata at many international opera houses. Bachler was already criticized for her commitment when the programme was announced last year. But on the premiere weekend, nothing was left to remind us of this, at least almost. A few individual protesters had stood outside the Festspielhaus on Saturday, holding up placards and shouting "no Netrebko", which was quickly drowned out by the pouring rain and the rush for the sold-out performance. Shortly after her first appearance on stage, it was clear: Anna is back. The diva still knows her audience like the back of her hand, knows how to wrap them around her finger with her enthusiasm and strong expression and how to get applause peppered with bravos. This was undoubtedly more than justified, because regardless of one's opinion of Netrebko as a person, she is one of the most outstanding singers of our time. She enjoyed the role of Gioconda like a warm bubble bath, into which the diva with her now great voice was able to lie gracefully. She was able to play out her full and velvety mid-range perfectly.

The artistic director was therefore able to take some of the final cheers for her. The big coup has been pulled off, Anna Netrebko has been successfully rehabilitated on the Salzach and the singer will be able to celebrate two birthdays in Salzburg in the future. Her big breakthrough came at the Festspielhaus in 2005, and 19 years later she made her big comeback at the same venue.