Anna Netrebko could open the 27th Canary Islands Music Festival in 2011

The Spanish newspaper La Provincia published yesterday that Anna Netrebko could open the 27th edition of the Canary Islands Music Festival in 2011 with a concert of arias. The orchestra and conductor have not been determined yet, but Fabio Luisi is one of the conductors who is expected to attend the Festival and he could be the conductor of the opening concert with Anna Netrebko.

If the performance is confirmed, this would be the first concert given by Anna Netrebko in Spain. The Russian-Austrian soprano made her debut in Spain as Natasha Rostova in Prokofiev's War and Peace, with Valery Gergiev conducting the Mariinksy Orchestra, at the Teatro Real of Madrid on 23. April and 2. May 2001. Anna Netrebko could return to the Teatro Real to sing the title role of Donizetti's Anna Bolena in the 2011-2012 season and make her long-awaited debut in Barcelona in a new role.

The Canary Islands Music Festival runs from beginning of January to beginning of February. The two main venues are the Auditorio Alfredo Kraus in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and the Auditorio de Tenerife in Santa Cruz de Tenerife.

The Festival was first organized in January 1985. Since then an impressive list of conductors, orchestras and soloists have visited the Festival.

Among the conductors we can mention the names of Valery Gergiev, Daniel Barenboim, Antonio Pappano, Claudio Abbado, Riccardo Muti, Sir Colin Davis, John Eliot Gardiner, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Sir Simon Rattle, Christian Thielemann, André Previn, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Riccardo Chailly, Bernard Haitink, Mariss Jansons, Zubin Mehta, Lorin Maazel, Mikhail Pletnev, Carlo Maria Giulini, Vaclav Neumann, Sergiu Celibidache and Sir Georg Solti.

Among the chorus and orchestras who visited the Festival we can mention the Wiener Philharmoniker, Chorus and Orchestra of the Mariinsky Theater, Orchestra della Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra and Staatskapelle Dresden.

Among the soloists who visited the Festival we can mention the names of Alfredo Kraus, Plácido Domingo, José Carreras, Jonas Kaufmann, Cecilia Bartoli, Cristina Gallardo-Domás, Ana María Sánchez, Ekaterina Gubanova and Thomas Quasthoff.