Sunday night brought the intriguing mix of Chelsea Opera Group, the amateur chorus and orchestra which hires professional conductors and singers, to the Queen Elizabeth Hall at London’s Southbank Centre. The occasion was a concert performance of Verdi's La Traviata, with the world renowned Romanian opera singer Nelly Miricioiu, the rising star Italian conductor Gianluca Marcianò and tenor Cosmin Ifrin making his UK debut. With some caveats, the evening was an overwhelming success with the audience springing to their feet at its close to reinforce their enthusiasm for the performance. Nelly Miricioiu is a passionate supporter of Chelsea Opera Group which over the past 10 years has given her the opportunity to sing some very appropriate but little performed repertoire.
On this occasion it appeared it was a gesture of its gratitude to give this generous singer the opportunity to revisit a role that she made her own on world stages. Unwilling to let her admirers down at the last minute she battled with a serious head cold and had to substitute vocal beauty with technical ability in order to sing through her disability. To support her diminished vocal prowess she brought more dramatic action into the equation than is usual in a concert performance.