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Nelly made her western European debut for Scottish Opera as Violetta La Traviata (1981); her Covent Garden debut in 1982 as Nedda I Pagliacci, opposite John Vickers, Piero Cappuccili and Thomas Allen; and a triumphant La Scala debut as Lucia di Lammermoor in 1983*.

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Debut roles and notable performances include Puccini’s Tosca with Jose Carreras and Giuseppe Taddei (Frankfurt '84) Neil Schicoff and Robert Hale (Berlin '95), Jose Cura (ROH '96) and Ruggero Raimondi (Zurich '98); Mimi La Bohème with Placido Domingo (Madrid '86), Violetta La Traviata with Alfredo Kraus (Frankfurt '82), Jose Carreras and Juan Pons (Oviedo '84), Franco Bonisolli and Zancanaro (Verona Festival '87), Roberto Alagna and Piero Cappuccilli (Monte Carlo '89), Vincenzo La Scola and Renato Bruson/Leo Nucci (Ravenna '89).

 

Further to this, performances include Mimi La Bohème (Rome '86/San Francisco '86/Munich '87/NY Met '89), Tosca (Opera Bastille Paris '02/Barcelona '03/ROH '96-'09), Manon Lescaut (Scottish Opera Edin. Festival '82*/Monte Carlo '85/Florence '86/Munich '87), Magda La Rondine (Monte Carlo '91*/Torino '94), Verdi’s Luisa Miller (Netherlands Opera '97*), debut as Elisabeth Don Carlos (Brussels Monnaie '96*), Helena I Vespri Siciliani (Montpellier '98*/Vienna '01/Paris Bastille '03/NY Met '04), Amelia Simon Boccanegra (Copenhagen Tivoli '92*), Desdemona Otello (Copenhagen Tivoli '93*), Gilda Rigoletto (Philadelphia '91*/Zurich '97), Marguerite and Elena Mefistofele (Washington Opera '96*/ROH Barbican '98), Marguerite Faust (ROH '86*/Berlin '88/Paris Opera Bastille '93), Violetta La Traviata (US Debut San Francisco '83*/Reggio Emilia '86/Vienna '87/Washington '88/Parma '90), Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor (Modena '85); Anna Bolena (Brussels Monnaie '93*/Washington Opera '93), Lucrezia Borgia (Washington '90*/Marseille '02), Maria Stuarda (Wiener Staatsoper '93/Lyon '96) and Elizabeth I (Concertgebouw '94*/ROH '02), the title roles in Rossini’s Semiramide (Concertgebouw '88*/Chelsea Opera London '98/Geneve Opera '99/Barcelona Liceu '05), Armida (Concertgebouw '88*), Ermione (Brussels/Concertgebouw '95*), and Amenaide Tancredi (Salzburg Festival '92), Bellini’s Norma (Rome Opera '99*/Amsterdam '99/ ROH '00), Imogen Il Pirata (Brussels/Concertgebouw '03*/ Chelsea Opera Group London '03) and Giulietta I Capuleti e I Montecchi (Catania '86*), Cilea’s Adriana Lecouvreur (La Scala '00*/Bolshoi '02/Rome '02), Mercadante’s Emma d’Antiochia (Royal Festival Hall, London '03* Premiere), Puccini’s Tosca (Deutsche Oper Berlin '95/ Paris Bastille '02/Barcelona Liceu '03/ROH' 96-'09 ), Manon Lescaut (Scottish Opera Edin Festival '82*/Monte Carlo '85/Florence '86/Munich '87), Magda La Rondine (Monte Carlo '91*/Torino '94).

 

 In 1985 she began a 25-year series of Vara Matinee Concerts at Amsterdam Concertgebouw with Massenet’s Thais ('85*) -  the first of many role debuts there; Donizetti’s Anna Bolena ('89*), Maria Stuarda ('92*), Elizabeth I Roberto Devereux ('94*); the Netherlands premier of Catarina Cornaro (2010*); and Mascagni's Iris ('03*). Elsewhere, title roles in Gounod’s Mireille (Toulouse/ '88*), Cio Cio San Madam Butterfly (Hamburg/'92*), Zandonai’s Francesca Da Rimini (2000*), Giordano’s Fedora (Teatro Colon Buenos Aires/'98*), Respighi’s World Premier of Marie Victoire (Rome '04*) and Silvana La Fiamma (1998*), the three roles of Olympia, Giulietta, Antonia, in Ponnelle’s production of Offenbach’s Les Contes d’Hoffmann  (Paris Opera/ '83*) and Antonia (ROH '86); a debut as Valentine in Meyerbeer’s Les Huguenots (Montpellier '90*/ROH '91); Isabella in Meyerbeer’s Robert Le Diable (Deutsche Oper Berlin/ '01*), and Poulenc’s La Voix Humaine (Rotterdam/Maastricht '09*).

 

(* - Role/Company Debut)