Anna Netrebko Triumphs in London as Lady Macbeth

Netrebko gave one of the most stunning vocal performances heard in this theatre for many years. Her voice is now enormous, but miraculously retains its flexibility and range of colour. It is completely at her command, absolutely steady, and deployed with rare dramatic intelligence. Verdi would have been disarmed.

Her Lady Macbeth is three hours of unstinting, no-holds-barred singing... Make no mistake: this is a knock-’em-dead performance.

Frighteningly mesmerizing...

The Russian soprano is ablaze with the power and vocal control of a wold-conquering diva. To hear this star in her pomp is to appreciate how much ordinariness passes for quality these days. In the first world-class turn of the UK season by any soprano, she's an electrical storm of magnificence.

Netrebko gives us a remarkable Sleepwalking Scene, in which singing and acting fuse in a genuinely harrowing depiction of mental disintegration.

Anna Netrebko... now seems born to sing the role [...] Her timbre has a hard brilliance of polished steel, but in her sleepwalking scene it takes on a grave and rueful beauty.