Who would have thought that the Romanian born soprano, Nelly Miricioiu, after being one of the most demanded Belcanto singers would also succeed being a first class Abigail and Lady Macbeth ? Yet, after her successful debut in Nabucco at Opéra de Rennes, she again proves at the Queen Elisabeth Hall (London) what a great Verdi heroine she is. A few days ago, Nelly made her come back to Italy in the role of Elisabetta in Donizetti’s Roberto Devereux. The premiere’s final curtain has been the occasion of a vigorous triumph for the fifty five years old diva. Nelly’s next engagements include La Voix Humaine in Rotterdam and Adriana Lecouvreur at Queen Elisabeth Hall.

Nel di della vittoria | Macbeth | Act I

Reviews

The Independent | George Hall
Best of all were Nelly Miricioiu, who as Lady Macbeth found dramatic meaning in every note she sang, giving a considerable performance even amid the usual concert hall debris of music stands and bottled water...

Sunday Express | Clare Colvin
In the dominant role of Lady Macbeth , Romanian soprano Nelly Miricioiu was not going to allow a concert performance to impede some full-blooded acting as she wandered through the violins in sequined chiffon, reading Macbeth’s letter. Verdi envisaged the role as requiring a singing actress of extraordinary character and Miricioiu, a prima donna to her fingertips, fits the bill. The voice is technically accomplished, dark-toned and with a dramatic edge. She has a playful quality too, notably in the banqueting scene, where Lady Macbeth feverishly exhorts the guests to raise their glasses.

Musicalcriticism.com | Dominic McHugh
The advent of Nelly Miricioiu from the back of the stage as Lady Macbeth, reading Macbeth's letter, instantly put the performance into a different gear. Nobody else quite brought an air of the theatre to the evening. Her confidence, intensity and energy belied the fact that this was a role debut for her [...] In fact, there was even a Callas touch to the way she performed the Brindisi, the florid aria 'Trionfai! secure alfine' and the Sleepwalking Scene; I can't think of a part better suited to her talents, and it was only a shame not to be able to hear her perform 'La luce langue' (the replacement for 'Trionfai!').

Musicweb International | Evan Dickerson
Nelly Miricioiu sang the first Lady Macbeth of her career, but she drew the character with such precision that it spoke volumes for the completeness of her artistic integrity. Too much, perhaps, has been made of Verdi’s requirement for a singing actress with an ‘ugly, coarse and hollow’ voice. Therefore it was very much contrary to Verdi’s wishes that Nelly Miricioiu did sing the role with superb vocal awareness and great subtlety for nuances of tone and colour.

Classicalsource | John T. Hughes
Nelly Miricioiu was in terrific voice, well controlled and freely projected. Lady Macbeth was a lady by title but not in manners or morals; she has a resoluteness that her sometimes-wavering husband lacks. Miricioiu brought out the determination and single-mindedness of the woman. Without chewing the scenery she created a strong character by using her voice to convey the mood-swings and reactions: a quietly sung inwardness here, a happy-go-lucky outburst in the 'brindisi', amoral bravado, and mental disrepair in her final aria. Miricioiu found just the right inflections and fitting colourations in her tone.

MV Daily | Robert Hugill
Remarkably Saturday's performance was her début as Lady Macbeth and a notable début it was. Miricioiu is no canary, she sings coloratura with power and drama, giving each note its due weight and colour, rendering the fioriture as drama. But where she differs from some Lady Macbeths is that her passagework is accurate. Too often the Lady is characterised by fierce drama but rather vague passagework (hidden behind a firm vibrato), Miricioiu by contrast gave us fine, accurate but fiery passagework. You sensed that, on stage, her Lady Macbeth would be rather like Ellen Terry in Oscar Wilde's famous quip about Macbeth buying his clothes locally but Lady Macbeth shopping in Byzantium -- in other words a figure of elegance and power, but very controlling and fiercely ambitious.