When my husband Stephen Crout died in late November 2021, I welcomed all mementoes of our shared 40 years together to pull me through. A kind soul tipped me off that an admirer of Romanian soprano Nelly Miricioiu had posted this 1990 performance of her debut with Washington Concert Opera as Lucrezia Borgia to commemorate Stephen’s passing. He and I co-founded WCO in 1987 rather than having children, and this bootleg recording was a bracing reminder of why we’d thought it was well worth the effort.

Nelly had rightly taken the nation’s capital by storm starring in Washington National Opera’s November 1988 performances of La traviata. We immediately approached her about a return here to sing a less mainstream piece in concert and she unhesitatingly (and wisely) chose this one, which sold out the house weeks in advance. We cast the other roles with established Americans (Robert Swensen, Timothy Noble), terrific area singers who did Washington National Opera proud in countless featured roles long before there were Cafritz Young Artists to do so (Robert Baker, James Shaffran), and by robbing from “the Wolf Trap cradle” of recent Filene Young Artists (Ning Liang, Charles Workman, Edward Albert), a nod to my “day job” with Wolf Trap Foundation.

And they all did well: Swensen’s sweetness and Ning Liang’s dark agility registered effortlessly in Lisner Auditorium (capacity 1,500) while Noble had a field day twirling his mustache as a deluxe Duke. But this was Nelly’s show. She was on fire and utterly immersed in the character from her entrance, lifting all with her—an irresistibly charismatic singing actress. She made her entrance in the final scene downstage right, intoning her first lines (“Presso Lucrezia Borgia!”) in the shadows, then stepping just far enough center so that her features were half-lit as she confronted her prey. There was no “stage director;” this was Nelly’s spontaneous inspiration, and stagecraft that cannot be taught. As the cast exited the stage after bows, Tim Noble beamed at me and called out, “How ‘bout that Nelly? She’s The Real McCoy, isn’t she?” Indeed, and how lovely to have this performance as a reminder.