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For those 900 or so people lucky enough to secure a place at the Queen Elizabeth Hall on Sunday night, they were treated to a rare gem of both an opera and a performance.

Cilea's Adriana Lecouvreur is this composer's best know opera which is not saying much as it is rarely performed. Suddenly though a variety of theatres are putting it into the repertory. As I write it is being staged in Palermo, The Metropolitan Opera and next year at the Royal Opera House. All will be hard pushed to match the level heard in Chelsea Opera Group's concert rendition.

In many ways, this opera can truly benefit from a concert performance. It is one of those typically silly opera plots. What you don't need in this opera is much in the way of staging - a few venemous glances and a bunch of violets conveys most of the action. What you do need is great singing and that was present in abundance.

Adriana was Nelly Miriciou poignant and touching with some sublime pianissimo singing at the top of the voice. The tour de force of the evening came from her rival Rosalind Plowright with as great a rendition of any role as I can remember. Clear, clean vocal projection, powerful focussed and beautiful of tone and just stunning to behold. This must be the Principessa at Covent Garden I hope. Peter Auty had much to do to keep up but he has a warm tenor that grew more confident as the evening progessed. Andrew Greenwood made the COG Orchestra sound amazing. His conducting was absolutely first rate.

- Anton Kamenetski, LONDON UK, 17/02/2009 09:13
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