Dazzling star in a downbeat setting
La traviata Glyndebourne
If the success of La traviata hangs on the soprano singing the central role of Violetta, then Glyndebourne hits the jackpot with this revival of Verdi’s most popular opera.
The young Russian Kristina Mkhitaryan, groomed by the Bolshoi, has a smooth, olive-tinted Slavic timbre not dissimilar to that of her compatriot Anna Netrebko. Slender and beautiful in physique, she handles her voice with disciplined technique – no shrieking or wobbling – and a degree of musical imagination that bodes well for her future. In the first act, she sparkles gamely through the diamantine coloratura, in the second she rises to noble moral grandeur, and in the third, she sinks to a poignant dying fall – particularly in an Addio del passato spun on a delicate pianissimo.
Perhaps she fails as yet to present the deeper sense of a woman who knows she is doomed from the start, but her acting is lively and heartfelt throughout – even if the staging’s present–day setting leaves one incredulous that a girl as independent as this gives Germont’s impertinence the time of day. But Mkhitaryan is without doubt a talent to watch.
After his disappointingly pedestrian Il trovatore at Covent Garden last December, Richard Farnes redeems his reputation as a Verdian with some bold and punchy conducting.
Other elements of the performance inspire less enthusiasm. Zach Borichevsky makes a gawky and geeky Alfredo, full of sophomoric ardour but not fully in control above the stave, while Igor Golovatenko’s richly voiced Germont is stiff of demeanour in a way that suggests bad acting rather than the character’s bourgeois inhibitions.
But the real dampener on the evening is Tom Cairns’s dourly downbeat production. Set neutrally in the present day and half-heartedly playing with naturalistic detail, it features a weirdly unattractive set by Hildegard Bechtler that fails to suggest any contrast between gaudy Parisian splendour and sunny rustic simplicity.
This review appeared in some earlier editions