I think I'm in love...

...with Anna Netrebko.

Okay, I'll be a bit more serious...her voice won me over a long time ago, but today for the first time I got my hands on the DVD of the 2006 Salzburg Festival performance of Le Nozze di Figaro, in which she sings the role of Susanna. Now, two things:

(1) When I go to see an opera, I expect really first-rate music and really atrocious acting. (Thus I habitually think of singers as "singing" a role rather than "playing" a role.)

(2) The character of Susanna, from the original Beaumarchais play that Mozart turned into his opera, is one of the few characters in literature who can give Elizabeth Bennett a run for my money.

So you can imagine my delight to discover that Anna Yurievna (which is the polite way to refer to her) is not only just as good at singing her way through a DVD as she is at singing her way through a CD, but she also has the personality and joie de vivre necessary to bring Susanna fully and believably to life. Bravissima!

And since the rest of the performers were also first rate, I recommend that DVD to anybody who loves opera.

Only, to be fair, I didn't think much of the conductor. I was not very happy at the beginning because the overture, which is one of my favorite pieces, was actually draggy. How do you do that overture too slowly? But the singing I liked.