A sick Alfredo sees the young Australian tenor make his Covent Garden role debut at less than four hours notice.

It’s every young singer’s dream to step in at the last moment at one of the world’s leading opera houses, and last Saturday night that dream came true for Australian tenor and Jette Parker Young Artist Samuel Sakker.

A last minute illness (apparently Sakker didn’t find out until 15:45) saw Albanian tenor Saimir Pirgu laid low forcing him to withdraw from singing the role of Alfredo Germont in Richard Eyre’s classic production of Verdi’s La Traviata. Sakker, who joined the prestigious Jette Parker Programme at the start of the 2014/15 season is no stranger to Eyre’s staging, having been especially noteworthy in the role of the hedonistic, world-weary Gastone de Letorières for its run in 2015. He also has previous in the male lead. “I was thrilled to bits to jump in for Alfredo as it’s a role I am so comfortable in, having performed it in Melbourne and New Zealand,” Sakker told Limelight.

The rest of the cast remained unchanged, with rising star Russian soprano Venera Gimadieva a much-praised...