James Karas
The Royal Opera,
Covent Garden, seems to have struck gold with Richard Eyre’s 1994 production of
La
Traviata. It has been reviving it every other season since then with
great success and every major soprano and tenor seem to have sung the leading
roles. For the current season they have assembled three casts for the principal
roles and the opera will be performed fourteen times.
Venera Gimadieva
as Violetta in Richard Eyre's Royal Opera production of La Traviata, 2016. Photo
by Tristram Kenton
Russian soprano
Venera Gimadieva makes her debut at the Royal Opera House as Violetta and will
sing most of the performances and perhaps rightly so. The night I saw her she
brought the house down. Her voice is big enough to dominate the Royal Opera
House with its lyrical beauty and passionate tones. When she cries, we weep as
she goes from the exaltation of love to a devastating death scene where only
false hope remains and it is followed by death.
Albanian tenor
Saimir Pirgu as her lover Alfredo Germont was a match and a foil for Gimadieva.
He has a limber voice that scaled up easily with nice control and display of
emotion. The final encounter and reconciliation with Violetta was splendidly
moving.
Luca Salsi made
his Royal Opera debut as Giorgio Germont, the father who destroys Violetta’s
and his son Alfredo’s love for the sake of his daughter’s happiness. He must
exude sympathy and humanity to gain our grudging approval especially when he
tells her that she can always find somebody else to love. Verdi steps in to
help with “Purra siccome un angelo”, a poignant affirmation of paternal love and
the even more moving “Di Provenza il mar, il suol” with which he tries to
convince his son to leave Violetta for the sake of family love and duty. You
need a singer with vocal resonance but also emotional conviction to persuade us
of the rightness of his cause. Salsi does it all.
The sets by
Designer Bob Crowley consist of a gorgeous salon in Violetta’s house at the
beginning and a stunning gambling table and sculptured ceiling in Flora’s
house. The country house after Violetta’s salon and her bedroom in the final
scene are of necessity threadbare.
There have been
innumerable productions of Traviata
since the premiere of Eyre’s staging. From Zeffirelli’s over-the-top opulence, to
Jean-Francois Sivadier’s dark, minimalist approach to Willy Decker’s dazzling
“clock” staging, La Traviata has covered a lot of ground.
Eyre’s
production can best be described as traditional and that is meant as a high
compliment. Non-traditional approaches can vary from the brilliant approach to
directorial self-indulgence. Eyre and the current cast with the brilliant
playing of the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House under the baton of Yves Abel
and Royal Opera Chorus bring an outstanding night at the opera even after
repeated viewings.
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La Traviata by Giuseppe Verdi opened on January 16 and will be performed fourteen
times until March 19, 2016 at the Royal Opera, Covent Garden, London, U.K. It will
be shown live in cinemas on February 4, 2016. http://www.roh.org.uk/
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