La Traviata

Opera (1853)
by Giuseppi Verdi

With Violetta (Natalie Dessay), Alfredo (Matthew Polenzani), Giorgio Germont (Dmitri Hvorostovsky)

Afflicted by consumption, but still vibrant, Violetta (Natalie Dessay) is a courtesan in Paris and attracts the attention of Alfredo Germont (Matthew Polenzani), who pledges his love. After capturing her heart, Alfredo and Violetta escape to the country where they take up residence. When Alfredo is absent, his father, Giorgio Germont (Dmitri Hvorostovsky), approaches Violetta and appeals to her to break off the relationship. Somehow his argument that his son’s association with a courtesan is ruining the family reputation and endangering the marriage prospects of his daughter, convinces Violetta. She proceeds to trump up an excuse to break off with Alfredo and does so, drawing, in response, a furious reaction. He does not know, of course, the real reason for Violetta’s action, and it takes until the final part of the last act, when Violetta is in her last hours of life, to draw Alfredo and his father to her side. Both apologize, the elder Germont accepts her, in name, as his daughter, and Violetta dies.

What a great opera La Traviata is! It was the first opera I ever saw staged (I was eight) and it holds a special place in my heart. The story is poignant and the music is memorable. And typically the staging is colorful and dramatic.

I had looked forward all year to this production and brought a composer friend, not very familiar with opera, along for the ride.

Unfortunately, I found the production, overall, a disappointment. The chief malady was the modernistic design, which seemed like a terrible idea overall.

This is a romantic opera par excellence and it was staged as a contemporary abstraction. For me it simply did not work at all. I thought many of the design elements quite trivial and laughable: the large clock which was the main set piece seemed trite and ridiculous. And the floral theme of the second act was extremely odd – as though a linen department had been sacked and emptied on the stage.

In short, the stage design was very bizarre and unfulfilling.

The stage direction, on top of that, was particularly ineffective. The romantic theme simply did not come across and the use of the chorus was also strange.

What had always been, in other productions I have seen, an excuse for color and movement, came across as a dreary presence, moving with a kind of spookiness. I found it awful. There was a singularly horrible sequence in which an old male member of the chorus dresses up as a pseudo-Violetta. This seemed like a kind of horror movie choice rather than something for this beautiful and plaintive opera.

The choice of Nathalie Dessay as Violetta struck me as equally weird. She has a pixieish quality which seems to make her well suited to more comedic and histrionic roles. Here, as a tragic heroine, it simply did not seem to fit. But, I do wonder if she had better direction whether that might have helped.

Matthew Polenzani as Alfredo seemed oddly unromantic in his role – more like a grown up boy scout than a passionate lover.

The best of the bunch was Dmitri Hvorostovsky, whose big baritone came across fully. He also conveyed the distance between paternal tyranny and conscientious repentance very well in the space allotted.

I sure hope that the Met does not hang onto this production of La Traviata as its main one for years to come. That, indeed, would be a travesty.

Fabio Luisi led the music fairly well, though it did not come across, at least in the Live in HD transmission, as a performance above and beyond.

There was a technical problem with the synchronization of sound and video and the movement of mouths did not quite agree with the sounds. This technical glitch made a mediocre production seem that much worse.

– BADMan