When I just started my career, of course, I always try to look very good, and I changes the dress all the time on the performance. And people came to me and said, 'Oh, beautiful dress. Your dress is so beautiful, and you look so beautiful.' That's it. And I was so upset nobody saying anything about my singing.

Anna Netrebko

Categorized in : Me Good Dress Beautiful

I prefer it when the conductor follows me. It is more difficult to work with a conductor who does not listen - even if I understand that sometimes it makes sense when one person is ruling everything. But for bel canto, I have to have a conductor who listens and supports me.

Anna Netrebko

support doe sometimes

Im just a normal person. Its not like I come home and think about opera. My thoughts are about completely other things. Shoes! Dresses! Expensive ones: with a pretty silhouette, beautiful fabrics.

Anna Netrebko

home beautiful thinking

When I started, my teachers told me that I had to sing Mozart, Mozart, Mozart. I said, No, I want to sing all the other stuff. If you do not push yourself, you will stay the same. Maybe some singers are happy with that, but I have to move, I have to do something new always.

Anna Netrebko

want teacher moving

I have an intuition, and usually my intuition is right. I have a feeling for whether a role will be good or bad for me, and I almost never make a mistake.

Anna Netrebko

intuition mistake feelings

I know what I want, and I know what needs to be done to make my performance better. So I do these little askings, about the lights and costumes. Its not the diva speaking. Its the artist who knows how it has to be done.

Anna Netrebko

light artist needs

Maybe because Im a nice and sweet person in life, I like the darker roles. The really dark one is Lady Macbeth.

Anna Netrebko

nice dark sweet

Russians always need a little sh*t in our lives. If everything is good and we seem completely happy, then we become suspicious of that.

Anna Netrebko

suspicious littles needs

Lots of opera singers are just boring.

Anna Netrebko

opera singers boring

I think that the war should end as soon as possible. But this is politics, I'm not a part of it. I'd like to make this gesture in support of art where it’s most needed now.

Anna Netrebko

entertainment

After the baby, I got bigger, and I like it. I like me better now than when I was young and skinny. I don't understand this extreme fashion for being anorexic-skinny. We forgot about women with curves - real women. We're not embracing that anymore.

Anna Netrebko

me women fashion baby

When I am not on the stage, it is always very difficult for the public to find me! I am a private person who does not always want to be in the spotlight!

Anna Netrebko

person i-am me want

You will not see me dressed in plain, modest outfits.

Anna Netrebko

will see me you

Opera is an exclusive art form, so it cannot be that popular. I just do what I love to do.

Anna Netrebko

cannot just love art

When you're singing before 15,000 people at a summer concert outside, you need to look beautiful, because that's what people want.

Anna Netrebko

you singing beautiful people

Applause, it's very nice, of course. But when you're giving, and creating, and then there is the silence of everyone sitting there, listening, waiting, that is great.

Anna Netrebko

great you silence waiting

I prefer department stores. In boutiques, they come up and ask you if you need help. I can't get lost in the experience.

Anna Netrebko

help you experience lost

There are two types of conductors. One is the good conductor who can do passionate music but also listen to the singers and do the orchestra. And then there are great conductors, who have their own opinion on the music, who are ruling everything - and not listening much to the singers, but the orchestra play amazingly.

Anna Netrebko

great good opinion music

For me, St. Petersburg is the city that I can never escape because it has this special energy, even a dark energy. It keeps pulling me back.

Anna Netrebko

city me energy dark

I am still working on developing my voice. I am, I know, better as a coloratura singer than I was. It's a matter of strong breath control and yet making it sound as though it is the easiest thing in the world.

Anna Netrebko

i-am better voice world

I have no desire to become a crossover artiste, singing with microphones. I believe in opera; that it is something that young people would love if they had a chance to hear it.

Anna Netrebko

singing love believe people