After triumphing as Violetta in her Opera Australia debut in 2017, Albanian soprano Ermonela Jaho has once again proved her star quality as Donizetti’s Anna Bolena. A tremendously challenging role, requiring both vocal display and control, its most famous proponents include Maria Callas, Joan Sutherland, Beverly Sills and that brilliant cult diva, Leyla Gencer. While Jaho isn’t a born bel cantista like those sopranos, more at home in the lirico-spinto repertoire, her artistry and dramatic conviction make her portrayal near as complete as could be. And with the prospect of her taking on the remaining Tudor Queens for OA in subsequent years, who can help but be excited given the strength of her performance here?

Ermonela Jaho. All photos © Prudence Upton

It’s a psychologically penetrating assumption of the unhappy queen, full of telling details that capture an Anna all too aware of her coming demise. Like Ileana Cotrubas before her, Jaho has that magical quality of a tear in the voice, lending easy pathos to Donizetti’s most affecting passages. While she lacks the necessary heft in the middle voice for important moments like Giudici, ad Anna and Coppia iniqua –...