Christian Federici completes the trio of Italian principals in this performance. As Alfredo’s father, Giorgio, Federici is as fine a baritone in this role as I have heard. Exquisitely rich, clarion, and beautifully orotund, he possesses a remarkable instrument. Not only did he probably win the pip to the post in the vocal stakes, but he was also by far the most convincing in character. He presents as an austere, business-like authoritarian, but melts into compassion in his interactions with Violetta, his voice displaying evocative phrasing and color.

[...] In the big act two confrontations, meanwhile, she is matched, in the other great performance of the night, by Christian Federici’s Germont. Handsome of voice and presence, he sings with unforced lyricism and exemplary dynamic control. Di Provenza, given in this instance in full, can so often seem anticlimactic after everything that has gone before, but here we really sit up and listen. He’s a good actor, too, giving us a finely considered – and unusually sympathetic – portrait of a man confronting the disastrous consequences of his own inflexible morality.