ANNA AND MR. VERDI, THEY’VE GOT A THING GOIN’ ON

First there was Aida at the Arena di Verona, then Macbeth at the Teatro alla Scala, then last night, Anna debuted an all-Verdi gala programme at the Ljubjlana Festival that she will repeat at the Veszprém Festival and other European venues this summer. Along with Yusif Eyvazov, Željko Lučić and Elena Zhidkova, Anna and her colleagues had the audience on their feet. Anna is one of the rare artists today that can, in the course of a couple of hours, leap from Macbeth to Rigoletto to La forza del destino to Il trovatore to Aida and more and never leave you in doubt who is in control.