Following last year’s break from performing, opera stars Anna Netrebko and Yusif Eyvazov return to the stage of the summer Ljubljana Festival for the fifth time. The Russian-born Austrian soprano, today regarded as a world-class prima donna without equal, made her debut as Susanna in The Marriage of Figaro by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart at the Mariinsky Theatre in St Petersburg when she was 22. Her international breakthrough came in 2002 when she sang Donna Anna in Mozart’s Don Giovanni at the Salzburg Festival. She has been an exclusive artist for Deutsche Grammophon since 2003. Equally in demand on the world’s opera stages is tenor Yusif Eyvazov, who in 2007 was named a People’s Artist of Azerbaijan. He began his international stage career as Turridu in Pietro Masacagni’s Cavalleria rusticana in Verona and as Otello in Verdi’s opera of the same name at the Ravenna Festival. Known for his unique voice and charismatic stage presence, he is a regular guest at prestigious opera houses and concert halls around the world. They will be accompanied at the 73rd Ljubljana Festival by the Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra.