La Traviata

Opera (1853)
by Giuseppi Verdi

With Anya Matanovic (Violetta Valéry), Chelsea Basler (Flora Bervoix), David Wadden (Marchese D’Obigny), David Kravitz (Baron Douphol), David Cushing (Doctor Grenville), Jon Jurgens (Gastone de Letoriers), Michael Wade Lee (lfredo Germont), Rachel Hauge (Annina), Omar Najmi (Giuseppi), Weston Hurt (Giorgio Germont), Ron Williams (Messenger), Jeremy Collier (Flora’s Servant)

Violetta Valéry is a beautiful courtesan who has learned not to take love too seriously until a young, passionate admirer, Alfredo Germont, expresses his devotion and she falls for him. Unfortunately, Alfredo’s father is none too pleased and comes to Violetta to talk her out of the affair. Somehow he does, supposedly on the it’s a bad rep for our family score, and she leaves Alfredo who doesn’t understand at all why. But Violetta has consumption which brings things to a head soon enough and everybody gets on the same page before the inevitable comes to pass.

The Boston Lyric Opera has a history of producing grand opera in an intimate way and the results are generally delightful. This production is no exception.

With simple, but clever and appealing, sets (designed by Julia Noulin-Mérat), the BLO pulls off a compelling production in a way that more elaborate opera companies could never do, and the results are very congenial.

In this case, the first act is quite literally framed, at least partially, by a gilt edged painted masterpiece, and the design recapitulates in the last act quite convincingly. The party scenes are done cleverly, with a raked stage, a table, and a mass of chorus members gesticulating in one way or another, suggesting enormous activity. It works well.

Though there are large party scenes it this opera, basically there are only three major roles: Violetta, Alfredo and Germont. The intimate setting of the BLO production works particularly well when this sort of small ensemble is the focus and gives a sense of closeness that other more grandiose productions sometimes lack.

The Violetta here, Anya Matanovic, is delightful. She has a crystal clear voice that does the trick for the demanding range required by the role. She is also a good actress, conveying the giddy sense of indifference required early on, and the devastated, then devotional, stances later on.

Michael Wade Lee as Alfredo was vocally a little thin at the outset, but that evolved shortly into a richer experience.

Weston Hurt as Germont was quite compelling and his duet with Violetta in the second act was wonderful.

The orchestra played decently. There was a little shrillness from the violins at times early on in the high, ever so tenderly fragile, parts, but that didn’t show up as an issue later on.

– BADMan