On August 1, Marina Rebeka sings one of her signature roles, Violetta from ‘La Traviata,’ with Plácido Domingo as Giorgio Germont and Medet Chotabayev singing Alfredo. Although Violetta is one of her signature roles, Ms. Rebeka will make her house debut at the Astana Opera with this performance, located in Astana, Kazakstan. Lead by conductor Eugene Kohn, Sandra Plamenac as Flora, Yelena Ganzha as Annina, and Khalid Nuraliyev as Gastone round out the cast. The second performance takes place on August 3.
Ms. Rebeka has previously performed the role of Violetta at the Royal Opera House, Wiener Staatsoper, the Metropolitan Opera, and Lyric Opera of Chicago, among others. The Online Merker had this to say about her performance in Vienna:
“Now, with the soprano Marina Rebeka from Riga, the opera stage has one of the rare artists as Violetta Valery, who succeeds in all four acts! In the first act, she varies between exuberant lust and elegiac death. The voice is dark and broad, the coloratura is secure, the piano “hovers”, the height shines; At the end of the great aria, she sings the three-prolonged high Es …”
A video recording of her singing the role opposite Thomas Hampson and Francesco Demuro last year in Hannover was just released. Ms. Rebeka begins her 2017/2018 season in Munich with more Verdi, where she debuts the title role in the composer’s Luisa Miller.