Giuseppe VERDI (1813-1901)
La Traviata - Opera in three acts (1853)
Violetta Valery, a courtesan - Tiziana Fabriccini (soprano); Flora, her friend
- Nicoletta Curiel (mezzo); Annina, her maid - Antonella Trevisan (soprano);
Alfredo Germont, an ardent admirer - Roberto Alagna (tenor); Giorgio Germont,
his father - Paolo Coni (baritone); Gastone, Visconte de Letoirieres - Enrico
Cossutta (tenor); Doctor Grenvil, - Francesco Musinu (bass); Baron Douphol,
an admirer of Violetta - Orazio Mori (baritone)
Chorus and Orchestra of La Scala, Milan/Riccardo Muti
rec. live, over four performances at La Scala, Milan in March and April 1992
SONY OPERA HOUSE 88697581422 [61.37 + 74.08]
Some operas get off to a bad start and go on to be mainstays of the repertoire,
widely loved and recognised as masterpieces. Perhaps the most famous examples
are Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia, and Verdi’s La
Traviata. Verdi himself described La Traviata as a fiasco after
the first night. In both cases there were reasons for the initial failure.
After the composition and staging of Rigoletto in 1851 Verdi was financially
secure and recognised as being at the height of his artistic powers. During
the composition of Il Trovatore in 1852, which at that stage had no
settled theatre or date for its production, Verdi undertook to present an opera
at Venice’s La Fenice in March of the following year, 1853. When he eventually
agreed that the premiere of Il Trovatore would be in Rome it was delayed
by the death of its librettist. The upshot was that at least the first act
of La Traviata was composed contemporaneously with the later portions
of Il Trovatore, the two operas being wholly different in musical mood,
key and period. To add to the pressures Verdi ended up having only six weeks
between the premieres of these two diverse operas. Even so, these factors were
not issues in the work’s initial failure.
La Traviata was Verdi’s nineteenth opera and the most contemporary
subject he ever attempted to set, embattled as he constantly was by the restrictions
of the censors. The initial failure of La Traviata had more to do with
the singing and staging than with the music. Whilst on a visit to Paris, Verdi
had seen and been impressed by Alexander Dumas’ semi-autobiographical
play La Dame aux caméllias. The subject appealed to him, but
he recognised that it might cause problems with the censors. Having
spent the winter worrying about the suitability of the soprano scheduled to
sing the consumptive Violetta, Verdi was also upset that La Fenice decided
to set his contemporary subject in an earlier period thus losing the immediacy
and relevance that he intended for the audience. He was correct in worrying
about the censors and the whole project was nearly called off when they objected.
As to the singers, all went well at the start and at the end of act 1, with
its florid coloratura singing for the eponymous soprano. Verdi was called to
the stage. However, the audience was much less sympathetic to the portly soprano
portraying a dying consumptive in the last act and the laughed loudly. The
tenor singing Alfredo was poor and the baritone Varesi, who had created both
the title roles of Macbeth and Rigoletto, considered Germont below his dignity
and made little effort.
Although other theatres wished to stage La Traviata, Verdi withdrew
the opera until he was satisfied that any theatre concerned would cast the
three principals, and particularly the soprano, for both vocal and acting abilities.
The administrator of Venice’s smaller San Benedetto undertook to meet
the composer’s demands. With five numbers revised in the score La
Traviata was acclaimed on 6 May 1854 with wild enthusiasm in the very same
city where it had earlier been a fiasco. Verdi was well pleased by the success,
but more so with the circumstances and location.
Every major theatre in the world wants to stage La Traviata but often
finds difficulty in casting the eponymous role with its wide range of vocal
demands. Each act of La Traviata represents its own particular challenges
for the soprano singing the title role. Act one calls for vocal lightness and
coloratura flexibility, particularly for the demanding near twelve-minute finale
of E strano … Ah, fors’e è lui and Follie…follie! (CD
1 trs.8-10). For the first scene of the second act an Italian verismo voice
capable of wide expression and some power is needed as Alfredo’s father
confronts Violetta and turns the emotional screw (CD 1 trs.16-21). Act three
needs limpid lyricism allied to vocal colour, dramatic intensity and a histrionic
ability beyond many singers. These qualities are particularly called on in
this final act as Violetta recites the phrases in Teneste la promessa …. Addio
del passato (CD 2 tr.16) as she reads Germont’s letter indicating
Alfredo’s imminent return and realises it is all too late. After Alfredo’s
arrival, in their duet Parigi, o cara, (tr.19) with its echoes of their
declarations of love in Act one, ardent lyricism is called for. Violetta then
has to pull the heart-strings with expressive poignancy and gentle lyricism.
She must fine her voice down in Prendi quest’e l’immagine for
one of the most poignant duet passages in all opera as in (tr.23) as she gives
her lover a portrait of herself, requesting he pass it to pass to the virgin
he will marry. Finally, raising herself from her bed for one final dramatic
vocal outburst Violetta collapses and dies in Alfredo’s arms (tr.24).
Surprisingly, Verdi himself did not regard La Traviata as a prima donna
opera in the conventional sense. He specified sincerity, feeling and a good
stage presence as being more important (Budden. The Operas of Verdi. Vol.
2 1978. p165). Well, at La Scala in 1955 it got even more in a production by
Visconti, conducted by Giulini and with Callas as Violetta. These were performances
that have gone down in the annals of opera. Having achieved that zenith, the
theatre, seen as the home of Italian opera and of Verdi in particular, shied
away from the work until a new production in 1990/91 - a gap of twenty-six
years! This live recording reprised that production, with the same cast, two
years later. From that series of live performances this recording is derived.
Muti, by then Music Director of the Theatre, determined to cast the lovers
with young singers who looked the part. As ever with Muti, he also purged any
accretions or interpolated high notes, sticking faithfully to the published
autograph.
I have not seen reports of the first run of this production by Liliana Cavani,
but it must have made some waves as cameras and microphones were present for
this reprise two years later. The original CDs were issued contemporaneously
with a video version on the short-lived Laserdisc format and also on VHS tape.
As far as I know, the production is not available in DVD video format. Whether
that absence has anything to do with the standard of performance I have no
idea. However, I personally have grave reservations, particularly in respect
of the recorded sound and particularly in relation to the singing of Tiziana
Fabriccini in the title role. I do not know if she was consciously modelling
her singing and acting on those of her famous predecessor, but I find her off-note
singing, over-covered and occluded tone altogether lacking in any virtue. That
said, after distinctly choppy phrasing and poor tuning in the Brindisi (CD1
tr.4), she sings more freely in the coloratura ending to act one. In the Act
three Letter Scene her hollow tone and later poor diction gets the lukewarm
applause it deserves. She is kept in line by Alagna, in one of his better Verdi
interpretations, in the duet Parigo, o cara (CD 2 tr.19) and makes some
emotional impact, despite variable diction, as Violetta gives Alfredo the picture
for his future wife. Her singing sounds altogether too much like a Callas clone
in the latter’s downward vocal spiral after 1957 when she featured more
on the front pages than the arts pages of the newspapers of the world. Having
said that, Callas did bring a magnificent stage presence to her performances
as well as a dramatic intensity to her singing even when it was flawed. It
may be that Miss Fabriccini did likewise and her performance here, despite
its vocal flaws was admired. There are certainly no sounds of disapproval from
the La Scala gallery habitués as commonly would be present if they disapproved,
but then this recording is a conflation of four performances and editing might
well have been applied.
As I have already noted, Alagna sings altogether better than in many later
recorded Verdi performances. His lyric tone and clear diction is easy on the
ear although his variety of expression does not erase the likes of Di Stefano
or Bergonzi from memory. Paolo Coni as Giorgio Germont is vocally strong, but
rather penny plain. His Di Provenza il mar, as Germont pleads with his
son, does not pluck at my heart-strings (CD 2 tr.4). The supporting comprimario
figures are adequate and the chorus are, as one would hope from this theatre,
idiomatic.
There are two further downsides to my enjoyment. One will be shared, the other
not, by those who prefer a live to a studio performance and do not mind the
interruptions of applause. But in an opera such as La Traviata, with
many vocal highlights, these interruptions are not rare; caveat emptor.
The second matter for me is the nature of the recorded sound. La Scala has
always been a problematic recording venue and the rather manufactured sound,
maybe with added resonance, I find false. The accompanying leaflet has a track-listing
and, in English, French and German, a track-related synopsis.
As they extend this series, I hope Sony will not forget that they are the guardians
of other performances of this opera, not least that involving Montserrat Caballé as
Violetta and Carlo Bergonzi as Alfredo (see review)
where the singing is outstanding albeit the conductor is weak. A better all-round
prospect for Muti fans is available from EMI (see review).
A colleague reviews a
Callas live performance from 1958, whilst another finds more than I in his
appraisal of the 2003 issue of this one (see review).
Robert J Farr