Nelly Miricioiu

The Romanian-British soprano Nelly Miricioiu was born in Adjud in 1952 and began singing lessons at a very young age, winning first prize in the inaugural Maria Callas Grand Prix in 1975 and making her professional debut as the Queen of the Night in her native Romania; throughout the 1970s she was based at the Brasov Opera House, but fled the country’s communist regime in 1981 and made her international debut as Violetta for Scottish Opera shortly after arriving in the UK. A string of high-profile international engagements followed (including Pagliacci at Covent Garden opposite Jon Vickers, and Lucia di Lammermoor at La Scala); though her repertoire encompasses lyric and verismo roles such as Tosca, Madama Butterfly, Adriana Lecouvreur and Manon Lescaut, she is particularly acclaimed in bel canto repertoire (key roles include Norma, Semiramide, Anna Bolena and Elisabetta in Roberto Devereux) and has worked regularly with Opera Rara on their recordings of rarities by Mercadante and Pacini and forgotten operas by Rossini and Donizetti.