Anna Netrebko

Anna Netrebko38 years old Russian soprano, andalready a German citizen.Now married with Rolando Villazon,a Latin America tenor. She has a number of great Opera’s appearances in Europe and America.

Anna Netrebko is a Star

• Anna Netrebko has the voice of an angel - and a devilish sense of humour.

• Superlatives are routinely applied to her soaring operatic soprano and to her dazzling physical charms.

• She has that singular amalgam of model-girl looks, acting ability and a rare vocal talent. She is, in short, the world's hottest diva.

• On the cover of her soon-to-be released CD, succinctly entitled Opera - and featuring arias from Verdi, Mozart and Puccini - she looks like a fusion of Snow White and a Vogue cover girl: lustrous black hair, milky skin and puce, diamond-studded ball gown.

• When I meet her I expect glamour and cool aloofness. But Anna is a minx: saucy, funny and sexy.

• In Germany, where the Russian-born singer regularly tops the pop charts, she is feted and pursued by the paparazzi.

• Scurrilous stories about her love life are the staple of newspaper gossip columns.

• She's even been linked with Robbie Williams. "Yes!" she says delightedly.

• "We were pictured sitting on a sofa together after we performed in the same programme.

• "As usual, after the show, Robbie was being very flirty. The papers were full of, 'Will he steal the Russian soprano?'

• "But sadly he went off somewhere else afterwards. So unfortunately I've never done anything with Robbie." She pouts, mock rueful.

• "

• There was even a suggestion that she'd fallen for the great tenor Placido Domingo.

• "Oh, he is charming! Pure charm," she says in her Slavonic-accented English.

• "If I'd met him when he was younger I would have fallen totally in love with him. He is amazing. But now? No."

• Finally - since we're on the subject of romantic tittle-tattle - what about the Mexican tenor Rolando Villazon, with whom she duets so passionately on stage? What of the rumour that they are real-life lovers?

• Who says it is a rumour?' she counters mischievously. Then she laughs.

• "If you listen to everything people say you go crazy! The funniest rumour of them all is that I've been pregnant many times by Rolando.

• "But the fact is, I love to eat and after a good dinner my stomach does have a little bump."

• So does she have a lover? "Yes! And he's fantastic! Very hot! Everyone wants him; he's so gorgeous," she makes another pout.

• "But I can't tell you who he is because it has only just started two weeks ago.

• "And what if it ended tomorrow? But I don't think it will. What I can say is that we met here in London."

• Anna was recently performing the role of Donna Anna in Mozart's Don Giovanni at Covent Garden.

• She returns to London in the autumn to perform in The Last Night Of The Proms.

• Although she has sung in the world's greatest opera houses, this schedule of events still fills her with girlish excitement.

• "I've sung at the Proms several times. But to be there on the last night - oh, my god! I'm so excited! I've seen it on TV and I know people will be screaming.'"

• Despite the adulation her celestial voice has provoked since she made her debut, eight years ago, in the Washington Opera's Verdi's Rigoletto, she seems joyously ordinary; possessed of an almost child-like delight in life.

• Almost every sentence Anna utters ends with an exclamation.

• She was born in the Black Sea port of Krasnodar, southern Russia, in 1971 into a close-knit and loving middleclass family. Her father Yuri, 72, still works as a geologist in Russia.

• Her mother, who died five years ago from cancer, was a telephone engineer.

• Her sister, a former model, now combines motherhood with working as a clothes designer.

• Was she - as musical legend has it - discovered singing as she wielded her mop?

• "No!" she says. "But people love that rags-to-riches stuff."

• Actually she was recruited to the Mariinsky by its artistic director, Valery Gergiev, after winning first prize in a vocal competition in Moscow. Gergiev, who became her mentor, entrusted to her the leading roles.

• "It was like putting a little puppy in the water and seeing if it would swim," she says.

• Gergiev's faith in her was not misplaced and her gratitude persists. "He believed in me.

• "He is my musical godfather," she says. Now, so glittering is her reputation, she is sponsored by jewellers Chopard.

• Often she is so laden with diamonds on stage that she has a bodyguard. 'For one concert I wore £3.6million worth of jewels and the bodyguard stayed with me all the time,' she enthuses.

• "After the performance I couldn't undo the clasp of the diamond necklace. I couldn't take it off for two days.

• "I had to go to the supermarket in it. I don't think anyone took too much notice. I suppose they thought I was a crazy woman going out in cheap bling."

• Today she wears a watch encrusted with a circlet of diamonds; on the ring finger of her right hand, which is small-boned and delicate, is a band also set with rows of tiny diamonds.

• Her high wedge sandals are by Chanel and she has teamed her white shift dress with black leggings.

• The look - chic and expensively under-stated - has become her signature.

• She is famously fond of shopping for designer clothes - Prada and Dolce &£038; Gabbana are favourites - and her own wardrobe is supplemented by glamorous outfits from another of her sponsors, Escada.

• Clearly she insists on the real deal; not cheap imitations. She applies a similar perfectionism to her art, calling on all the reserves of her creative and mental energy for roles such as that of the doomed Violetta in Verdi's La Traviata.

• She returns to Covent Garden for a revival of this role next season.

• "

• Violetta lives out her whole life on the stage; the excitement, the happiness and the tortured death.

• "There is a particular part when I almost lose my senses because I have to sing a high note and the air does not get to my brain," she says.

• "It is very difficult and it takes a lot of strength. Both physically and emotionally it is draining.

• "But I love to do it. I could not do it too often, though.

• "If I sang Violetta every night for two years I would be gone. And I don't want that to happen," she says, laughing again.

• The thrill of performing, live and to an enraptured audience, is addictive, she says.• "I love the theatre. It is like a drug." Better than sex? "Not better. Just different. Sex

is pretty good too!" she smiles.• She knows that if she succumbed to the lure of that hybrid of pop and opera - the

crossover market, popularised by such singers as Katherine Jenkins and Russell Watson - she would quickly make a fortune.

• But she will not compromise. "I'd hate it," she says. "It doesn't interest me. It isn't where my heart is.

• "

• "I love the theatre, the costumes; singing live without a microphone."

• Her talent has made her, if not prodigiously rich, then at least extremely well off.

• She has homes in St Petersburg, Manhattan and Austria, where she has dual nationality and regularly garners rapturous reviews at the Saltzburg Festival.

• "I'm trying to learn German, but I feel so guilty. So far, almost no results," she grimaces.

• The Russian brain does not want to take it in. But English, I found easy. A former boyfriend from the US - he teach me," she says in her sweetly fractured syntax.

• She had her first boyfriend at 22, because, she says, she was too intent on studying to make time for romance - she still rehearses for eight hours a day - and because (hard to credit) she was not attractive as a young woman.

• "When I was young the boys didn't look at me," she says.

• "In Russia they all like blondes. But it's funny: everyone tells me with age I became more feminine and attractive."

• Anna enjoys a drink and a party -

although not during a run of

performances - and listens to Green

Day, Gwen Stefani and the Black

Eyed Peas when relaxing. Salsa

dancing is another passion.

• But Anna is steely too. She knows,

professionally, precisely what she

wants. "And sometimes I have to

defend myself," she says.

• "The director will say, 'You have to do

this,' but I know what I want and how

to get it."

• She is moved to anger by

gratuitously spiteful critics -

"You can be tough, but don't

have to be nasty," she says -

and by the high ticket prices that

render Covent Garden

inaccessible to all but the

wealthy.

• "I would like to see people who

are less well off - and

particularly the young - coming

to the opera.

• "Young people in Britain have

no idea that opera can be

exciting, beautiful and sexy. My

dream is for everyone to be able

to enjoy it."

• On cue, it seems, her mobile phone

rings. On the other end is Simone

Alberghini, the Italian bass-baritone

who was her boyfriend for six years

before they parted company a

couple of years back.

• "I still love him very much. It was sad

when we split up," she says.

• "But there is no bad feeling. We're

very good friends." So why did the

romance end?

• "I can't say," she says, adding only:

"There was another person

involved."

Tenor and soprano a nice couple

Anna Netrebko• Anna Netrebko was born in Krasnodar, in the south of Russia,

in 1971. She received her vocal training at the St. Petersburg Conservatory, where she appeared as Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro and Violetta in La Traviata. In 1993 she was first-prize winner of the Glinka Vocal Competition in Moscow, and joined the ensemble of the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, to which she still belongs.

• In 1995 she graduated from St. Petersburg Conservatory and made her sensational US debut as Lyudmila in Glinka’s Ruslan and Lyudmila at the San Francisco Opera. Praised both for her glorious voice and beauty, Anna Netrebko is acknowledged today as one of the world’s most stunning young sopranos who sweeps audiences off their feet wherever she appears.

Anna Netrebko, the Russian opera superstar, and one of the world's most acclaimed

sopranos, will make her long-awaited return to the stage tomorrow after maternity leave,

starring in a Scottish Opera production. Netrebko will sing the title role in Lucia di

Lammermoor when it opens at the Mariinsky Theatre - formerly the Kirov - in St

Petersburg. The production, which won glowing reviews

when it was premiered almost two years ago, is the first by Scottish Opera to be presented on a Russian stage, and the news has given

the company an enormous boost. Alex Reedjik, its general director, said he was

enormously proud that the company had been chosen as the means for Netrebko to make her return to the stage. “We are truly

delighted,” he said. “She is one of the world's leading sopranos, who has created many

important roles around the world.

“It is a terrific opportunity not only for Scottish Opera, but it is also a way of showing to the wider world what is going on in Scotland. We like to think of it as an export made entirely in Scotland.” The opera is based on the novel by Sir Walter Scott, The Bride of Lammermoor; it is set in Scotland and the Scottish Opera production was directed by a Scot, John Doyle. Doyle's production is being staged by the Mariinsky Opera Company using its own cast and musicians, but will use Scottish Opera's sets, props and costumes. Daffyd Burne Jones, Scottish Opera's staff producer, accompanied the equipment when it was shipped to St Petersburg last month to help to recreate the production as originally directed by Doyle.

The opera, by Gaetono Donizetti, was premiered on September 26, 1835, in Naples. It is set in the early 18th century and tells the story of Lucy Ashton, a thwarted bride who succumbs to madness and death. The book is based on a real-life romantic tragedy from 1669 when a bride-to-be from the Dalrymple family seriously injured her bridegroom after her parents would not allow her to marry the man of her choice. She then descended into insanity and died. In the opera, Lucia Ashton, the heroine, is also married off against her wishes to a suitor of her family's choice, but kills her bridegroom, before dying. Upon hearing of her death, Edgardo, the man she truly loved, stabs himself to death, hoping to be reunited with Lucia in heaven.

• John Doyle's revived production, the first for 26 years, was a huge success, selling out performances and winning critical acclaim.

• It is thought that Valery Gergiev, the renowned conductor and leader of the Mariinsky Opera Company, heard about the Scottish Opera production of Lucia while he was at the Edinburgh International Festival last year. He had been seeking a version of the Gothic tragedy for Netrebko after she said that she wanted to play Lucia in Russia. Netrebko has already performed the role in Los Angeles.

Netrebko, took time off from her career to have her first child last September. Lucia will be her first role since giving birth to her son Tiago Arua. Mr Reedjik said that Scottish Opera was approached about the collaboration last October. Once it had agreed to the offer, the company had less than two months to restore the Lucia set before shipping it to St Petersburg in time for rehearsals this month. “Normally we've got a year or two to get organised, but we had to move quickly to find all the bits of the set and give them a quick lick of paint,” he added. Mr Reedjik is flying to St Petersburg today to attend the premiere. He hopes to explore opportunities to develop further cultural partnerships. The Scottish government has awarded the company a small grant to capitalise on the link. “

These things take time, but all the runes are pointing in the right direction,” Mr Reedjik said. Linda Fabiani, the Scottish Culture Minister, said that the performance was a great honour for Scotland. “It is a mark of the tremendous talent being nurtured in Scotland that the world-renowned Mariinsky Opera is presenting a Scottish Opera production in St Petersburg,” she said. “The Scottish government has provided funding from our International Touring Fund which will allow Scottish Opera to make the most of the opportunities presented, at the same time promoting Scotland to an international audience. “The Year of Homecoming is a particularly suitable time for Scottish Opera to be showcasing Scotland's contemporary culture to Russian audiences,” the minister added.

Hepburn with a voice Anna Netrebko is one of the world's most acclaimed sopranos. Her bewitching dark looks and talent prompted Charles Michener, the New York Observer critic, to label her “Audrey Hepburn with a voice” Signature roles include Mimì in La Bohème; Giulietta in I Capuleti e i Montecchi; Norina Lucia in Lucia di Lammermoor; and Violetta in La Traviata She has starred in concerts and recitals all over the world. Her outdoor concert with Plácido Domingo and Rolando Villazón at Waldbühne in Berlin on the eve of the 2006 World Cup Final was watched by millions globally Netrebko's recordings have won her a string of awards, including two classical BRITS for best female artist and singer of the year, and a prestigious German Bambi award In 2005 she received the Russian State Prize, the country's highest arts and literature award