LOVERS DOOMED FROM THE START
Course of true love never did run smooth… especially in the world of Verdi’s La Traviata
‘Amanda Woodbury’s Violetta is a superb creation… in voice and acting skills’
MICHAEL MOFFATT SHOW OF THE WEEK
La Traviata Gaiety Theatre and touring to Cork ★★★★★
Verdi himself called the first performance of La Traviata in Venice in 1853 a fiasco. There was booing, jeering, the singers were not up to scratch and, worst of all, the audience started laughing at the overweight soprano who was supposed to be dying of consumption, while the baritone struggled to lift her from where she lay dying. Verdi had warned the producers that he wasn’t happy with the singers, but he was ignored.
The opera is essentially a love story, complicated by fatal illness, family disapproval, the search for a meaningful life, changing relationships and well-meant white lies that cause major upheavals. Central to it all is Violetta, a courtesan (the polite term for an elegant young fallen woman, the traviata of the title, who could play the field with wealthy men).
In this Irish National Opera production, American soprano Amanda Woodbury’s Violetta is a superb creation, with a voice of exceptional range and control and acting skills that created a genuine tragic figure; a terminally ill beauty torn between a life of licentious pleasure and the possibility of love.
Verdi’s score is a luscious blend of melody and dramatic scenes between the three main characters in which their loves and future lives are at stake.
But when Alfredo, who actually loves her, comes along she must choose between the hedonistic lifestyle of Paris, and true love.
There’s another problem: Alfredo’s father, Giorgio Germont, is angry that his son’s alliance with a courtesan will ruin the chance of a respectable marriage for his cherished daughter.
This production had Leon Kim flown into the country at very short notice to replace Brett Polegato as the elder Germont. The scenes between him and Amanda Woodbury’s Violetta were dramatically powerful.
Germont is a difficult role, requiring the performer to be both imperious father and compassionate human being who can appreciate the terrible demands he is making on the unfortunate Violetta. Kim’s beautifully controlled baritone was a perfect emotional blend with the passionate soprano range of Woodbury.
Her performance of Sempre Libera, the aria in which she contemplates the hedonistic world of high-society Paris compared to genuine love, was a lovely balancing act. And her euphoric outburst of deluded hope at the finale was both moving and dramatically powerful.
I was less impressed by the rather harsh tenor tones and charm-free personality of Mario Chang’s Alfredo. It was hard to believe he could lure such an attractive young woman away from the high life to live in the country. He came across better later as the belligerent lover out for revenge over Violetta’s apparent decision to drop him for the ungracious Barone Douphol (Brendan Collins).
The production spells out Violetta’s consumptive problems from the start, showing her coughing in bed while the opening prelude is playing. And having her bed on stage so long, even having it hanging from the ceiling was a piece of symbolic overkill about approaching death, that looked more likely to threaten her life from a falling bed than from consumption.
The supporting roles were well cast, and the chorus provided great fire power in the joyful and angry ensemble numbers, although their choreography was occasionally more inelegant than erotic. Never mind – Verdi’s music remained solidly lush and dramatically potent throughout. ■ Italian with English surtitles: touring to Cork May 29&31.