By Giuseppe Verdi
At State Theatre, Melbourne Arts Centre
On March 18, 21, 24, 28, 31, April 8, 19, 22 1995
Sex, love, death and fabulous tunes; Giuseppe Verdi's La Traviata has the lot and Elijah Moshinsky's production for the Australian Opera is lavish and enthralling. Our excellent State Orchestra is conducted expertly and tastefully by Carlo Felice Cillario.
This tragic-romantic tale is based on Alexandre Dumas' Lady of the Camellias and translates loosely as The Corrupted One.
In case you don't know the plot: beautiful but ailing floosy, Violetta, rages with the fast-set in decadent late-19th century Paris, falls in love with rich boy Alfredo and gives him up at his Papa's request only to be reunited with him on her consumptive deathbed where she has found peace and religion.
Gillian Sullivan sings Violetta impeccably, giving the role, both vocally and in performance, a dynamic range which balances the feisty courtesan with the fading beauty. Her dying aria was heart-wrenchingly beautiful and her duets with both Alfredo and his father were charming and the aria "Fors e' Lui" at the end of Act One was a virtuoso demonstration of her coloratura.
Tenor, Jorge Lopez-Yanez has a fine vocal quality and plays the love-sick Alfredo less as the ardent lover than as a callow and enchanted youth. Barry Anderson velvety baritone has the requisite strength for Alfredo's worldly and patriarchal Papa, although he concentrates on the voice in isolation from the performance and the stage relationships.
La Traviata is spectacle. The set design by Michael Yeargan echoes both the extravagance of the Parisian demi-monde and its high-class poverty. While Violetta's apartment in Act Three is grandly spartan in its simplicity, Flora's salon in the second act is gaspingly beautiful with its rich colours, Moorish style and darkly gypsy overtones. The lavish interiors force the crowd scenes forward so that the impression of a lurid, cramped and clamouring hot-bed of iniquity is palpable.
Kate Herbert
No comments:
Post a Comment