I first saw the Albanian soprano Ermonela Jaho starring in La Traviata in 2010 when I was highly impressed by her glorious voice and the powerful manner in which she portrayed the changing emotions of Violetta. Since then, she has played the role more than 300 times and become the number one choice for the part at the world’s finest opera houses. She is now over fifty and her voice may have lost a little power but as she showed at Covent Garden, her acting has gained in subtlety and her understanding of both Verdi’s music and the complex character of Violetta is masterful.

Her vocal technique has also matured and the manner in which she sang the more quiet and contemplative arias was stunning. Dropping her volume to a pianissimo, she somehow managed to fill the large auditorium with her passionate whispering, totally capturing the attention of the audience.

Although the opera has a large cast to convey the raucous conviviality of the party scenes, the story centres on just three people: Violetta, Alfredo and Alfredo’s pompous father, Giorgio. The latter insists that Violetta must leave Alfredo as his family’s reputation will be shattered by his son’s relationship with an ex-courtesan and the Second Act of the opera dramatically conveys the turmoil he creates in three tense meetings.

First, Giorgio arrives unexpectedly and dictates terms to Violetta, who realises what she must do but cannot bring herself to confess her plans to Alfredo, and finally Alfredo and his father have the biggest bust-up of all. And all this is happening while Violetta is dying of tuberculosis.

Ermonela Jaho conveys the tragic emotions of the death scene brilliantly, singing beautifully while intermittently coughing and wheezing, but the other two main parts complete the picture perfectly. Italian tenor Giovanni Sala handled the role of Alfredo very well, which is not easy as the character becomes increasingly out of his depth as the story progresses.

His love for Violetta is honest and intense, but he realises neither the financial nor emotional cost of the relationship and, worst of all, he does not seem to understand how ill she is. Sala portrays him as a decent man who loses his composure when pushed too far. Quite apart from his powerful yet sensitive voice, Sala showed the ability to convey intense emotion as his world collapsed and he lost control.

As Giorgio, Russian baritone Aleksei Isaev completed the trio of main characters perfectly. A large man with a commanding voice, he was perfect for the role of the domineering, father-figure, utterly convinced of the correctness of his own bigoted views.

Richard Eyre’s production of La Traviata first appeared at Covent Garden in 1994 and I have seen it four or five times, but thanks largely to the impassioned performance of Ermonela Jaho, this was the best of all. I have lost count of the number of times I have seen this opera, but this was by far the most convincing. With Italian conductor Antonello Manacorda coaxing a delightful performance by the Royal Opera House Orchestra, especially when they had to play softly to match the quiet intensity of Jaho, this was as close to perfection as one can hope for. Verdi would have loved it.