La Traviata – Verdi – Royal Opera House
Image taken from the Royal Opera House website
La Traviata may have inspired countless works – including Moulin Rouge – but the opera itself is actually based on a real life Violetta, who was a courtesan named Marie Duplessis, born in Normandy, France in 1824.
For the 25th anniversary of Richard Eyre’s production of La Traviata, the opening night had an unusual number of empty seats in the auditorium. This wonderful production, with particular reference to the gambling scene in Act 2, has been a remarkable success for the ROH, but perhaps there have now been too many revivals of this old production - which is beginning to look somewhat worn.
Two new principals were rolled out, both from Armenia, with the 40 year old soprano Hrachuhi Bassenz coming with real credentials, even though her Italian was somewhat difficult to decipher. However, the first Act was somewhat of a struggle for her. Although she could ping all of her top notes she tended occasionally to screech at the very top, particularly in Sempre libera and her lower notes did not blossom until later in the performance. She really came into her own in the second and third Acts where she and her lover Alfredo Germont were able to sing with each other, as opposed to at each other. Even so, her death scene did not have the dramatic impetus that had been portrayed by some other sopranos, notably Jaho.
Alfredo was sung by the 30 year old tenor Liparit Avetisyan. He has a really nice Italianate tone with the occasional struggle at the very top, but he presented well as a young spritely lover to Violetta. His father Giorgio Germont was sung by the wonderful British baritone Simon Keenlyside, whose real quality shone through throughout the evening.
There were other solid performances, particularly from Jeremy White as the Marquis D’Obigny, Sarah Pring as Annina and Neil Gillespie as Giuseppe. There were also three Jette Parker Young Artists singing well and learning on the ‘boards’ - Stephanie Wake-Edwards as Flora, German Alcantara as Baron Douphol and Andres Presno as Gastone de Letorieres.
The smaller than usual Chorus sang heartily. The Conductor Daniel Oren caressed his somewhat reduced size Orchestra and always cared for his singers, but it was, at times, an incredibly laborious evening, with some of the melodies being played at a snail’s pace. This was particularly the case in the last Act and Violetta’s Tempi seemed to be affected throughout the evening’s performance.
The lady next to me described the evening as ‘efficient’, which rather said it all!
