Giuseppe VERDI (1813-1901)
La Traviata - Opera in three acts (1853)
Violetta Valery, a courtesan - Svetla Vassileva (soprano); Flora, her friend
- Daniela Pini (mezzo); Annina, her maid - Antonella Trevisan (soprano); Alfredo
Germont, an ardent admirer - Massimo Giordano (tenor); Giorgio Germont, his
father - Vladimir Stoyanov (baritone); Gastone, Visconte de Letoirieres -
Gianluca Floris (tenor); Doctor Grenvil - Roberto Tagliavini (bass); Baron
Douphol, an admirer of Violetta - Armando Gabba (baritone)
Orchestra and Chorus of the Teatro Regio di Parma/Yuri Temirkanov
Stage Directors: Karl-Ernst Herrmann and Ursel Herrmann; Set and Costume Designer
(original), Karl-Ernst Herrman
Video Director: Tiziano Mancini
rec. live, Parma Verdi Festival, 16-20, 22 October 2008
Sound Formats: DTS-HD MA 5.1, PCM Stereo; Filmed in HD 1080i; Aspect ratio
16:9
Booklet languages: English, German, French
Subtitles: Italian (original language), English, German, French, Spanish,
Chinese, Korean, Japanese
Also available in DVD format
C MAJOR BLU RAY 723704 [133:00 + 11:00 (bonus)]
Numbered eighteen in the Tutto Verdi (‘All Verdi’) series,
La Traviata is the most popular of Verdi’s operas. It comes in
at number two of all performed operas. It was premiered at La Fenice, Venice
on 6 March 1853, a mere six weeks after Il Trovatore at the Apollo,
Rome. This was because of the delay in completing Il Trovatore following
the death of its librettist, Commarano before he had completed his work. Consequently
Verdi composed parts of both operas contemporaneously, quite a challenge considering
the differences in key, and particularly in the orchestral patina.
Even before this opera, the last staged of Verdi’s great middle period
trio, the composer his fame assured, could, both artistically and financially,
have afforded to relax. Giuseppina, his partner and later wife appealed to
him to do so. His artistic drive allowed no such luxury. Whilst on a visit
to Paris where the two enjoyed their life together without the intrusions
at Bussetto, the composer had seen, and been impressed, by Alexander Dumas’s
semi-autobiographical play La Dame aux Caméllias based on the
novel of the same name. The subject appealed to him, but he recognised that
it might have problems with the censors. Even before the choice of subject
was made it was decided that Piave, resident in Venice, was to be the librettist
for the new opera for La Fenice. Verdi put off the choice of subject until
the preceding autumn, constantly worrying the theatre about the suitability
of the available singers. The theatre in their turn wanted to get the censor’
approval of the subject to satisfy their own peace of mind. Piave produced
at least one libretto that Verdi turned down before he finally settled on
Dumas’s play. La Traviata was the most contemporary subject he
ever set, embattled as he constantly was by the restrictions of the censors,
something that Puccini and the later verismo composers never had to face.
Having spent the winter worrying about the suitability of the soprano scheduled
to sing the consumptive Violetta, Verdi was also upset that La Fenice had
decided to set his contemporary subject in an earlier period thus losing the
immediacy and relevance that he intended. Verdi 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. The audience was less sympathetic to the portly soprano portraying
a dying consumptive in the last act; they laughed loudly. The tenor singing
Alfredo was poor and the baritone Varesi, who had created both the roles of
Macbeth and Rigoletto thought Germont below his dignity and made little effort.
Verdi himself considered the premiere a fiasco. He did, however, compliment
the players of the orchestra who had realised his beautifully expressive writing
for strings, not least in the preludes to acts 1 and 3. Although other theatres
wished to stage La Traviata, Verdi withdrew it until he was satisfied
that any theatre concerned would cast the three principal roles, and particularly
the soprano, for both vocal and acting ability. The administrator of Venice’s
smaller San Benedetto theatre undertook to meet Verdi’s demands. He
promised as many rehearsals as the composer wanted and to present the opera
with the same staging and costumes as at the La Fenice premiere. Verdi revised
five numbers in the score and on 6 May 1854 La Traviata was acclaimed
with wild enthusiasm in the same city where it had earlier been a fiasco.
Verdi was well pleased by the success, but particularly the circumstances
and location.
La Traviata is now recognised not merely as one of
Verdi’s finest operas, but one of the lyric theatre’s biggest
hits. In terms of its popularity worldwide it is second only to Mozart’s
Die Zauberflöte in the canon of most performed operas.Much
of the success of any performance depends on the diva in the title role. First
she must look the part. Gone are the days when an overweight Violetta is accepted
as dying of consumption in act three. There was hilarity at the premiere and
such a situation today would bring even more adverse audience response when
the expectations are for singing and acting as being vital necessities in
the realisation of a role. Second, the Violetta must be able to bring off
the diverse vocal demands of the three acts. In this performance Svetla Vassileva
certainly has the figure du part. Add the opulent costumes and an appealing
stage presence and she is off to a flying start. Each act of La Traviata
makes its own particular vocal demands on the soprano singing the role of
Violetta. Act one demands vocal lightness and coloratura flexibility, particularly
for the demanding finale of E strano … Ah, fors’e è
lui (Ch.9) and Follie … follie! (Ch.10). In this performance
cabalettas and second verses are eschewed and this shelters her a little from
the coloratura demands which, while being adequate, are not her strongest
suit.
For the first scene of the second act a fuller tone of voice is needed, capable
of wide expression and some power as Alfredo’s father confronts Violetta
and turns the emotional screw. Here Vassileva comes more into her own in vocal
heft, variation of colour and expression as she resists Germont’s demands
that she forsake Alfredo. She stands up to him and wrings the emotion in Non
sapette telling Germont how much Alfredo means to her and she is a sick
woman (Ch.15). Then, after emotionally conceding she will forsake Alfredo,
and being embraced by Germont, she acts and sings with even better expression
and characterisation as she writes to Alfredo and deceives him, leaving him
to meet his father, all the time acting with conviction in terms of facial
expression. In act three she really rises to her histrionic and vocal peak,
bringing taut emotion to her words and acting with her whole body. These qualities
are particularly called on as Violetta recites the phrases in Teneste la
promessa … Addio del passato (Ch.33) as she reads Germont’s
letter indicating Alfredo’s return and she realises it is all too late.
After Alfredo’s arrival, and their duet Parigi, o cara, with
its echoes of their declarations of love in act one, when both singers caress
Verdi’s phrases with real feeling (Ch.36), and after Germont has arrived
and embraced her as a daughter (Ch.38), Vassileva pulls the heart-strings
with even greater poignancy. It is one of the most heart-rending duet passages
in all opera, as the soprano has to fine her voice as she gives her lover
a portrait of herself, requesting he pass it to the virgin he will marryPrendi
quest’e l’immagine (Ch.39), before finally raising herself
from her bed for one final dramatic vocal outburst as she collapses and dies
in his arms. If achieved with the vocal and histrionic conviction that it
gets in this performance it is guaranteed to leave not a dry eye in the house;
nor by the applause at the curtain and the flutter of handkerchiefs did it
in Parma in 2007.
I have devoted much space to Svetla Vassileva’s Violetta, as her interpretation,
together with the costume and sets, is the strength in this performance. As
Alfredo, Massimo Giordano spends too much time in can belto mode, talking
at Violetta rather than to her. The exception is the act three-duet
Parigi o cara (CH.36) where he shows that he can sing softly and caress
a Verdian phrase; together with his soprano this duet becomes the vocal and
emotional zenith of this performance.
Vladimir Stoyanov as Germont sings strongly, but without much tonal variation
and hardly looks the part. The verse No, non udrai rimpovera that follows
Germont’s appeal to his son to return to Provence, is cut. Neither principal
man is helped in the first two acts by conductor Yuri Temirkanov’s rather
hard-driven approach, one he softens for act three and where he really milks
the pathos and which adds to those tears.
The production directed by Karl-Ernst and Ursel Hermann goes back to the late
nineteen-eighties and has seen service in several centres. The costumes are
opulent, more fin de siècle than that of the composition, but
wholly illustrative of the Parisian demi-monde. Some of the frolics
in act one are over the top whilst that in act two scene two for the gypsy’s
dance is rather crude and not particularly in tune with the music. The mise-en-scène
for act two scene one makes up for a lot: I will not spoil the story with
the detail.
A traditional production, in mainly colourful and elegant sets and costumes,
is graced by a very well acted and sung interpretation of one of opera’s
most demanding title roles.
Robert J Farr
A traditional production, in mainly colourful and elegant sets and costumes,
is graced by a very well acted and sung interpretation of one of opera’s
most demanding title roles.
See also review of the DVD release by Dave Billinge
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