Albanian soprano Inva Mula electrified the audience at the Poly Theatre with her vocal artistry on Thursday evening at the Bejing Music Festival's gala opera.

Mula's voice was as dazzling as her scarlet dress, and she was rewarded with hearty chants of "Bravo!'' and waves of thunderous applause for her interpretation of Verdi's Gilda in "Rigoletto'' and Violetta in "La Traviata.''

The 40-year-old Mula was not the only shining star under the baton of Italian conductor Paola Olmi. The Orchestra of Teatro La Fenice from Venice and Italian tenor Massimiliano Pisapia and baritone Stefano Antonucci together presented the local audience and Italian Prime Minister Berlusconi a true operatic feast.

"It's a night of real Italian opera. All the musicians on stage performed an art in their blood. And the voice from Venice could help to open the local audience's vision of Western opera,'' said Yang Yang, assistant conductor of both the China Philharmonic Orchestra and the Beijing Music Festival.

Mula sounded a trifle nervous in the first two arias of Gilda, but soon commanded the stage with her impressive vocal stylings and touching expression. Especially as the quite spectacular Violetta, a role she has successfully performed in Avignon, Los Angeles, Tokyo and Berlin, she was emotionally sympathetic and vocally splendid.

"She is terrific,'' opera patron Zhang Kexin said after the concert. Zhang said he began to listen to Mula's CD after she won the Domingo Voice at the Opera International competition in 1993, and the live concert showed "she has grown much more mature.''

Mula won her first prize in the Singer of Albania competition in 1987 and the George Enescu Competition in Bucharest in 1991 before launching her international career.

She has performed all over the world and won numerous awards, notably the Grand Prix Madam Butterfly in Barcelona in May 1992 and the Placido Domingo Voice of Opera in Paris in May 1993.

She also sang in the soundtrack for the leading role Diva in Luc Besson's "The Fifth Element,'' with the London Symphony Orchestra under Frederic Chaslin.

Olmi's conducting appropriately brought out both the sound of the orchestra and voices of the singers. Under his baton, the orchestra performed like a delicate plate displaying three bright pearls.

Olmi has visited China several times since 1988 when he conducted the China Broadcasting Orchestra, which has since become the China Philharmonic Orchestra.

In 2000 he conducted Teatro Comunale di Firenze to perform "Aida'' to open the Shanghai Grand Theatre, and he conducted "Otello'' in Beijing's Century Theatre in 2001.

Thanks to multi-media enhancements, besides the live arias the audience could see the fascinating night scene of Venice through two screens flanking the stage and hear the heavenly voice of soprano Sara Alegretta, who was splendidly dressed and sang "Ave Maria'' from Verdi's "Otello'' in a church on the spacious square of the San Polo in Venice.

The concert was also broadcast to Italy, where it was about 3 o'clock in the afternoon and the viewers could see their familiar orchestra of La Fenice performing in a far-away Chinese theatre.

For more than 200 years since it opened on May 16, 1792, Teatro La Fenice was one of the world's leading opera houses. In 1835 it was the venue for the premiere of "La Traviata'' and 100 years later, Benjamin Britten's "The Turn of the Screw.''

But on December 13, 1836, a fire, probably caused by a poorly functioning stove, destroyed the theatre hall and part of the theatre itself. The theatre collapsed, though the flames spared the atrium and the Apollinean halls.

Although it was inaugurated complete with its new decorations the next December, the theatre burned down a second time on January 29, 1996.

La Fenice will not rise again from the ashes until this coming December 14 when an opening ceremony for the newly-built facility will be performed by its orchestra and choir under the direction of Riccardo Muti.

With the help of the Italian Embassy in China and La Opera Italiana, a non-profit society to promote opera and other Italian culture in the world, the Sixth Beijing Music Festival has the prestigious theatre to premiere in China. And they also specially chose the arias from "La Traviata'' and "Rigoletto,'' because both of the operas debut in La Fenice.

"We are following Maco Polo's way to your ancient nation and bringing along our best music,'' said Francesco Stochino Weiss, director of Opera Italiana.

The orchestra will perform a concert on Saturday featuring "music from Rome'' at the Poly Theatre. The programmes include Bizet's "Roma (Symphony No 1 in C Major),'' Respighi's "Fountains of Rome'' and Berlioz's "Roman Carnival.''

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