Soprano Anna Netrebko expecting baby in autumn

Anna Netrebko, one of the darlings of the international opera world, has announced she is pregnant.

The Russian soprano, 36, says she will marry her fiancé, Uruguayan baritone Erwin Schrott.

Netrebko and Mexican tenor Rolando Villazon are considered a golden couple of opera and were scheduled to appear in Gounod's Romeo and Juliet at this year's Salzburg Festival.

She has cancelled that engagement as the baby is due in the autumn, her management company said.

However, Netrebko is expected to continue singing as long as doctors permit it, her manager said, adding that an April performance of Manon in Vienna will proceed as scheduled.

She and Schrott, 35, became engaged last year in New York. The couple met in 2003 and have performed together several times.

"We are both very, very happy that soon there will be three of us," Netrebko said in a statement.

Netrebko, who frequently performs with New York's Metropolitan Opera, has also withdrawn from the Met's revival of Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor set to begin in October. The singer is "still undecided" for performances scheduled for February 2009, according to a Met spokeswoman.