[7] Under Gergiev's guidance, in 1994 Netrebko made her operatic stage debut at the Mariinsky at age 22 as Susanna in The Marriage of Figaro despite initially being billed as Barbarina.

[6] In the same year, she also performed as the Queen of the Night in The Magic Flute with the Riga Independent Opera Avangarda Akadēmija under conductor David Milnes.

Following this successful performance, she was enrolled in the Merola Opera Program in summer 1996 and became a frequent guest singer in San Francisco in the next seasons, performing in L'elisir d'amore (Adina), Betrothal in a Monastery, Idomeneo (Ilia), La bohème (Musetta), The Tsar's Bride (Marfa), Don Giovanni (Zerlina), Falstaff (Nannetta).

[15] Her international breakthrough came in August 2002, when she sang Donna Anna in Don Giovanni conducted by Nikolaus Harnoncourt at the Salzburg Festival,[16] where she would be particularly associated.

[17] In September 2002, she returned to the Royal Opera for Servilia in La clemenza di Tito, and in next two seasons for Don Giovanni and Rigoletto.

[22][23] In November 2003, she made her Los Angeles Opera debut with Lucia di Lammermoor,[24] and would return in 2005 for Roméo et Juliette and in 2006 for Manon.

[26][27] She then starred in a Japan tour of La bohème in Robert Carsen's staging as Musetta conducted by Seiji Ozawa,[28] and subsequently returned to San Francisco Opera in the same role.

[36] She sang Elvira in I puritani at the Metropolitan Opera in January 2007, and on 30 May 2007, Netrebko made her Carnegie Hall debut with Dmitri Hvorostovsky and the Orchestra of St. Luke's, which was originally scheduled on 2 March 2006 but she postponed due to not feeling artistically ready.

[46][47] In October 2010, she returned to New York's Metropolitan Opera for Norina in Don Pasquale,[48] the matinee performance on 13 November of which was broadcast nationwide by PBS.

[50][51] On 7 December 2011, she opened the new season at La Scala in Milan, making her house debut, as Donna Anna in Don Giovanni.

[52][53] She has the distinction of being invited to appear in three consecutive opening night new productions at the Metropolitan Opera: Anna Bolena in 2011, L'elisir d'amore in 2012, and Eugene Onegin in 2013.

[73] In 2018, she performed in both gala concerts at the Red Square on 13 June and at the Bolshoi Theatre on 14 July, respectively commemorating the opening and closing of the 2018 FIFA World Cup.

[78] She was featured in the opening ceremony of 2019 European Games in Minsk on 21 June and inaugurated the first concert season of the Congress Hall at the Yekaterinburg Expo on 30 August 2019.

[79][80] In June 2020, Netrebko performed highlights from Verdi's Don Carlo in reduced concert form at the Semperoper as part of its "Aufklang!"

[90] Two days later, the Metropolitan Opera removed her from the upcoming Turandot, replacing her with the Ukrainian Liudmyla Monastyrska in the title role,[91][92][93][94] and from Don Carlos in the 2023 season.

[99] On 30 March 2022, Netrebko released another statement where she announced plans to resume her public performances from May 2022, and repeated her condemnation of the war in Ukraine,[a] distancing herself from Putin.

In fact, I have met President Putin only a handful of times in my entire life, most notably on the occasion of receiving awards in recognition of my art or at the Olympics opening ceremony.

A reviewer from the Frankfurter Rundschau wrote that her heavy soprano was precise in all registers, with a velvety middle range, and her acting responsive to the story-line.

[133] Subsequently, American soprano Angel Blue canceled her upcoming performances of La traviata at the Festival, citing the company's insistence on maintaining the practice.

[142] Netrebko serves as an honorary director of the Russian Children's Welfare Society and has featured in several editions of "Petroushka Ball", the major fund raiser of the charity.

[153] In 2012 she appeared on a list of 499 celebrities endorsing Putin in the 2012 Russian presidential election alongside Valery Gergiev and Denis Matsuev.

"[159] In December 2014, she gave a ₽1,000,000 cheque to Oleg Tsaryov saying she was donating to the Donetsk Opera and Ballet Theatre, and posed alongside him with a flag of Novorossiya, a self-proclaimed confederation in Ukraine.

In late February, she said on social media that she opposed the invasion, but subsequently described people who forced her to express her political position as "human s***s" who "are as evil as blind aggressors.

"[153] After her second statement on 30 March 2022, where she repeated her condemnation of the war in Ukraine, distancing herself from Putin,[165] the Putin-controlled Russian Duma denounced her a traitor to her nation.

[170] In response to the backlash in her native country, she cited the cumbersome and humiliating process of obtaining visas as a Russian citizen for her many performances abroad as the main reason for the decision.

[171][172] In late July, the Council of Ministers approved the application for her "special merits",[173] despite the fact that she neither spoke German nor lived in Austria.

[174]Netrebko started a relationship with Italian bass-baritone Simone Alberghini when they met during performances of Rigoletto at the Washington National Opera in 1999.

In February 2014, during rehearsals for a staging of Manon Lescaut in Rome, Netrebko began a relationship with Azerbaijani tenor Yusif Eyvazov [de], her co-star in that opera.

Their official wedding ceremony took place at the Palais Coburg, and the following celebration at the Gartenpalais Liechtenstein welcomed 180 guests in attendance, including Plácido Domingo.

[221] Forthcoming roles include the operas Un ballo in maschera; La fanciulla del West, Pikovoya Dama and Ariadne auf Naxos