By James Karas
The Metropolitan Opera has sent Willy
Decker’s inspired production of La Traviata around the world live
from the Met once again. Decker directed the opera for the Salzburg Festival in
2005 and it was shown in movie houses Live from the Met 2012. It is a
production that rates the word masterpiece.
Decker almost reinvents the opera as he
focuses on the characters in the tragedy which is performed on an almost bare
stage with the most prominent feature being a huge clock. It is the perfect
symbol for Violetta, the courtesan pursued by many but loved by none, who is
under sentence of death to her illness and the clock is ticking towards her
final demise.
Sonya Yoncheva as Violetta in Verdi's La Traviata. Photo by Marty Sohl/Metropolitan Opera.
When the curtain opens, we see an empty stage
and during the overture Violetta (Sonya Yoncheva) stumbles towards a forbidding
old man with gray hair wearing a black coat. He will appear a number of times
throughout the performance. In the final scene we will see him as Dr. Grenvil (bass-baritone James Courtney), the
sympathetic physician who attends on Violetta, but that is not his real role in
this production.
He struck me as being Charon, not just the
ferryman who took souls across the Styx in Greek mythology, but the being who takes
the souls of people from their deathbed. The mysterious figure in Decker’s interpretation
of the opera may be the personification of death but I prefer to see him as
Charon who waits for Violetta’s time on earth to run out so he can take her
soul.
There are many splendid touches by Decker
that illuminate the opera. The guests at the party in the opening scene are all
men. Even her friend Flora (mezzo soprano Rebecca Jo Loeb) is turned into a
pants role. Violetta has no friends, only clients.
For the second act scene in the country, the
five couches that are all the props on stage are covered with brightly colored
fabric and Violetta and Alfredo wear housecoats that match the couch covers.
This is domestic bliss. They are happy, playful and in love. Charon is nowhere
to be seen and the clock that is ticking towards Violetta’s death is covered.
When Giorgio Germont appears and wrecks the
couple’s happiness, the couch covers are removed and the clock is uncovered to continue
its relentless pace.
Michael Fabiano and Sonya Yoncheva in La Traviata. Photo by Marty Sohl/Metropolitan Opera.
Yoncheva makes an astounding Violetta. She
presents a tough exterior and knows that being a courtesan will not allow her
the luxury of a conventional love relationship and she is equally aware that
her death is imminent. But all of that goes by the board when Alfredo declares
his love and proves his devotion to her. Yoncheva has a plush voice that evoked
her character with splendor. The final scene where she knows she is about to
die and Charon is right there to take her soul is extraordinarily moving. The
clock disappears, Charon pulls back because he probably has her soul and she
finds peace and almost apotheosis as we ache with sorrow at her fate.
Michael Fabiano as Alfredo makes a perfect
match for her. He is tender, fragile, shy and the perhaps the type that would
fall madly in love with a beautiful courtesan. This Alfredo is believable
because a strong personality would more likely use Violetta as a paying satisfier
of his ego and lust rather than desiring her as a wife. A clue to his character
is given by an incident when he is with his father. When Alfredo resists his
father’s imploring, the latter hits him across the face so hard that he knocks
him to the floor.
Baritone Thomas Hampson has sung the role so
many times that he can do it on automatic
pilot. He does not. He is effective both in his vocal output and as the
conniving father who is prepared to use emotional blackmail and violence, and
as a sympathetic father and eventually friend to both Alfredo and Violetta.
Matthew Diamond directs the performance for
live cinema with in measured camera shots that allow us to see the performance.
He does not think La Traviata is a
video game and it is a pleasure to watch a sensibly directed broadcast.
Nicola
Luisotti conducts The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra in this defining production
of the perennial favorite.
____
La Traviata by Giuseppe Verdi was
shown Live in HD from the Metropolitan Opera on March 11 and there will be
encore broadcasts on April 15, 17 and 19, 2017 at various Cineplex Cinemas. For more information visit www.cineplex.com/events
No comments:
Post a Comment