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La Traviata
Reviewed by Pauline Adamek
LA Opera/Dorothy Chandler Pavilion
Through Sept. 28
RECOMMENDED:
LA Opera has launched its new season by bringing back their 2006 staging of La Traviata. Director and designer Marta Domingo’s chic concept reimagines and transposes Giuseppe Verdi’s timeless romance to the decadent Roaring 20s. The spare, almost minimal, sets are buoyed by dazzling flapper-style gowns, wreaths of diamonds and stylish tuxedos to convey the giddy, glitzy world of 1920s Paris, where a naïve young man falls head over heels for a glamorous party girl.
Nino Machaidze, one of LA Opera’s favorite leading ladies, returns to the Dorothy Chandler stage to step into the role of Violetta Valéry for the first time in her career, and truly owns the stage with her magnificent performance. Proving herself more than capable of meeting the vocal challenges of the demanding lead role, Machaidze also beautifully and authentically conveys the depth of emotions of this tragic heroine. Playing her besotted beau Alfredo Germont, Arturo Chacón-Cruz does not fare as well. Initially his voice sounds thin and weak, gaining some strength once he crosses downstage. The young tenor appears to be in the soprano’s shadow and the two leads seem mismatched in power until Act 2, when Chacón-Cruz gains more confidence.
Admittedly, this imbalance does serve the storyline; she’s an upwardly mobile courtesan and he’s a bourgeois milquetoast. Playing Alfredo’s imposing father Giorgio Germont, tenor and LA Opera General Director (and husband to the show’s director) Plácido Domingo brings his legendary status and charisma to the stage. Once again, the relative inexperience of Chacón-Cruz is evident in his Act 2 duets and scenes with Domingo, whose rich vocal interpretation and gravitas speaks of a decades-long career. Better vocally matched, the duets between Machaidze and Domingo are electric.
While Machaidze’s bright and warm performance is enjoyable, she only sends thrills down your spine once, with Amami, Alfredo, amami quant’io t’amo — “Love me, Alfredo, love me as I love you,” during Violetta’s forlorn duet with Alfredo in Act 2. Music Director James Conlon conducts with a furious intensity and delicacy.
Former soprano turned director, Marta Domingo has a lot of fun with the ‘20s staging, bringing a classic automobile — a rare, collectible vintage Chrysler — onto the stage in Act I for Violetta’s grand entrance. The gypsies of the party scene of Act 2 are reimagined as statuesque ballet dancers, clad in gold helmets and tinkly gold mini-dresses. Barefooted, they pirouette and strike angular poses reminiscent of both Egyptian friezes and the automaton from Fritz Lang’s futuristic silent movie classic Metropolis. (Divine choreography is by Kitty McNamee.) Two of the dancers return in Act 3 for a brief fantasy scene, where Violetta hallucinates during her final hours. During the overture of Act 3, an ailing Violetta lies motionless on a large daybed draped in a white lace coverlet. Behind her, surrealistically, is a backdrop of stars, while fine snow cascades fall upstage. Especially here do we see how the elegant simplicity of Domingo’s staging permits the music to dominate our focus.
According to Edgar Allan Poe, “the death of a beautiful woman is, unquestionably, the most poetical topic in the world.” The intoxicating and melodramatic storyline of La Traviata is one of the classics of literature. Alexandre Dumas (the younger)’s novel The Lady of the Camellias, about his mistress Marie Duplessis, was first published in 1848. He transposed his novel to the stage to great acclaim, which inspired Verdi to adapt the story to music in 1953, complemented by an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave. To date, 16 versions of Camille have been performed at Broadway theaters alone.
La Traviata is one of the most accessible and exquisite opera classics, with its ethereal high string chords evoking Violetta’s fragility. While this production might not be exemplary, it’s definitely a wonderful experience.
Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, 135 N. Grand Ave, Los Angeles, schedule varies, through Sept. 28. laopera.org
