There was a definite buzz in the house tonight during the season premiere of War and Peace: frenetic hordes of performers in the hallways, some stage animals lolling by the elevator (everyone is in love with Carmella the goat), and a glamorous audience in the lobby. The radio department stole the glamour award tonight though—we had Broadway star Michael Cerveris and Anna Netrebko to speak to us at intermission. Michael is appearing in Shakespeare’s Cymbeline next door at the Vivian Beaumont Theater, and spent his one free night of the week at the opera and “working” at intermission. What a trooper. And what a speaking voice! Hypnotic. However, it’s hard to remember anything from the evening beyond Anna Netrebko—she is just, well, amazing. Beautiful, chic, and spectacularly bejeweled, she spoke to us with absolutely no airs about the role of Natasha (in which she made a memorable Met debut in 2002) as well as her upcoming appearances in Roméo et Juliette. She even took a moment to compliment Margaret’s handling of the long list of difficult Russian names in the cast of War and Peace! In sum, we were all completely in love with her.

This entry was posted by Will Berger on Friday, December 14th, 2007 at 12:41 pm and is filed under 2007–08 Season. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.