…word je overweldigd door de ongelooflijk ontroerende sopraan Venera Gimadieva die de rol van de Tsarina van Sjemacha vertolkt.
Russian soprano Gimadieva makes for a subtle Violetta whose impact is only truly felt from the second act onwards; her excoriating two-hander with Salsi is a no-holds-barred tearjerker which will stay long in the memory.
Beautiful, dark-eyed, delicate of figure, she looks as if she has stepped out of a picture-frame labelled “Violetta Valéry”. Her voice is not small, though she prefers to float it at half-strength, a glimmering, silky sound with an attractive fast vibrato that touches the heart.
Violetta, and I’ve been busting to tell you this, is the glorious Russian soprano Venera Gimadieva who sang the same role with such radiance at Glyndebourne a year or two back. Here on her Royal Opera debut she surpasses even that achievement with a voice that blends Rossinian warmth and late-Verdian power, rock-solid technique and perfect intonation, together with a riveting stage presence. Gimadieva is the most moving Violetta I can recall: she inhabits the heroine’s story arc with total commitment from her first-act set piece “È strano! È strano!” to her devastating death scene.