Soon after it's disastrous premiere in 1853, La Traviata became one of the most widely performed operas in the standard repertoire and with Verdi's 200th Birthday this year it is the #1 performed opera in the world for the 2013-2014 season. Beyond the obvious appeal of Verdi's melodies, Alexandre Dumas' story of heartbreak, and the classic tale of redemption, is the integral theme of women's role in society. The Lyric Opera of Chicago had the chance to say something that is both culturally pertinent and dramatically artistic with their latest production of La Traviata running through December 20th. Unfortunately that did not come to fruition as I hoped given the many skips and squeaky wheels that kept the performance from achieving that end.
La Traviata is the story of a beautiful courtesan named Violetta Valery who, the audience will soon learn, is dying of consumption. She is a kept woman of the wealthy Baron Douphol and enjoys her role as high society party goer which helps draw her attention away from the sad inevitably that she will be confronted with in the near future. Violetta is introduced to a young admirer named Alfredo Germont who has pined for her from afar. He quickly declares his love and is met with frivolous laughter on the part of Violetta. He continues to shower her with affection to which she soon becomes infected by. As dawn approaches he and the other party hoppers leave and Violetta faces off against her own fears of love, life, and death.
Time passes and we see Violetta in love with Alfredo and with life looking to the future. Love is quickly interrupted by Alfredo's father who pleads with the sickly courtesan to leave his son for the sake of their family honor. She finally gives in to Germont Pere and accepts her plight of the fallen woman unable to attain happiness. Alfredo thinks her unfaithful and seeks revenge at a party Violetta is to attend along with her former lover, Baron Douphol. Alfredo lucky in cards yet unlucky in love, humiliates her and in his embarrassment flees the party. The final act takes us back to Violetta's room where she lays in wait for either Alfredo or death, which ever is to arrive first. Alfredo makes it in time accompanied by his guilt stricken father with barely enough time to refresh their mutual love before she succumbs.
The part of Violetta Valery was beautifully sung by the radiant Latvian lyric soprano, Marina Rebeka in her Lyric Opera debut. She sang with a great range of dynamics without breaking the melodic line, ever so important to Verdi's music. Ms. Rebeka easily projected in to the large civic opera house and sounded in wonderful voice as she easily danced her way through the vocal acrobatics of the psychologically conflicted recitative and aria, "Ah, fors'รจ lui - Sempre libera". Her stage movement was fluid and uninhibited during the more vocally challenging parts of the role, yet at times stale and stiff in the more dramatic acting moments act 2.
Ms. Rebeka was still vocally fresh sounding at the beginning of act 3, but did show signs of fatigue near the end, which I can not blame her for given the difficulty of Violetta and the endurance required to sing it.
Alfredo Germont was sung buy international tenor, Joseph Calleja who was last heard at the Lyric in the role of Rodolfo. There are two things I should admit with respect to my thoughts on Mr. Calleja. I had heard him in La Boheme last season opposite Anna Netrebko and I was not impressed. During that performance he sounded tired which became more evident with each one of his entrances to the point where his vibrato was wide and his tone shallow and brittle. His performance of Alfredo was much better than that of his Rodolfo. My second admission is that I am not an ardent fan of his voice. Many critics describe it as a throwback to the golden era of opera with his tight squillo vibrato and bright tone, but there seems to be an ever present edge that robs it of its depth. Mr. Calleja sounded a bit tight at the beginning of the performance, but slowly warmed up as the night went on. Unfortunately it wasn't until the last act that he sounded his best. To be fair, he sang with sensitivity and dynamic variation and was in good voice from top to bottom, but consistently clipped off the ends of musical phrases which gave the impression that he was anticipating the breath too quickly. His acting was stiff, a theme shared by most all of the players. Mr. Calleja consistently dashed off stage during his exits as if the character had pressing matters in town that required his immediate attention, or taxi carriages were in short supply in Paris during the mid 19th century.
The part of Alfredo's father, Giorgio Germont, was sung by baritone and Ryan Center alumni, Quinn Kelsey, whose performance I thoroughly enjoyed in last season's Simon Boccanegra. Mr. Kelsey has become an internationally renowned Verdi baritone with his beautifully rounded and dusky tone. Mr. Kelsey's voice is nicely connected with an easy sounding upper register which has no problem projecting in to the house, yet maintains its sweetness. Still, I was disappointed by how Mr. Kelsey chose to sing much of his showcasing moments, such as the famous act 2 aria, "Di Provenza il Mar, il suol", with a Verdian sprech stimme making him sound choppy and disconnected. Although this stylistic choice may give the audience an aural appearance of an older man, it robs the singer of color and depth of sound which, in my humble opinion is needed in a part like Germont. Mr. Kelsey's dramatic interpretation was quite one sided and brutish, as if Alfredo's father was not an educated Parisian, but a disciple of Russian Tsar, Peter the Great. Given the consistency of placid acting evident in the absence of sensitivity towards a humiliated and dying woman, one has to question if this shortcoming is the responsibility of the performers or an absence of proper stage blocking and overall vision.
The comprimario roles were mostly sung by Ryan Center young artists with mixed results. Young baritone, Nicholas Pallesen sang the role of Baron Douphol. Mr. Pallesen has a lovely, bright tone that I look forward to hearing more of, although I prefer a darker sounding voice for this role given the fact that the Baron is middle aged. Mezzo soprano, Julie Ann Miller stood out in the role of Violetta's maid, Annina. She sang with a connected line and lovely tone that blended well with that of Marina Rebka.
Conducting the Lyric orchestra was international Maestro, Massimo Zanetti, considered to be a Verdi specialist. The Lyric Opera Orchestra sounded beautiful as always, but much like the performance of Parsifal that I heard last month, I didn't feel that Maestro Zanetti brought more out of the orchestra than was already there with respect to interpretation. Early on during the act 1 party scene, the orchestra and chorus were unmistakably off from each other which was quite surprising at this level of production. I would have expected something like this from early performances of a long running Broadway production that was still gaining traction, but not from a top tiered opera house ensemble and well respected conductor.
Making her Lyric Opera directing debut in the production was New York based associate artistic director at Theater for a New Audience, Arin Arbus. Her previous directorial experience in opera was with the HGO in their production of The Rape of Lucretia. I thoroughly enjoyed the sets by Riccardo Hernandez and costumes by Cait O'Connor (especially that of the over sized puppets), but was disappointed by the unrealized dramatic potential. As mentioned in the beginning of this review, although La Traviata is timeless, the story of women's plight in the 21st century in the hands of the right director can add an energy and life that so many operatic productions are desperate to acquire. This production missed those opportunities as evident in the party scene of act 2 where Ms. Arbus missed blocking opportunities to convey the strangling effect of being a courtesan had on Violetta and having to withhold her true feelings for Alfredo. Operatic audiences have always been asked to extend quite a bit of leeway with respect to suspension of disbelief, but the unrealistic staging and lack of sensitivity towards the action became ridiculous. Characters squabbled with one another as Violetta lay unconscious or dying which made them appear unsympathetic and cruel, rather than repentant and guilt stricken as Verdi intended.
Even with these obvious blemishes, I enjoyed Lyric Opera's production of La Traviata because of the higher than normal caliber of singing and the obvious star of the show being the birthday boy, Giuseppe Verdi. I did not shed any tears in the moments that I should have, so might I suggest that audience members take advantage of the 2 intermissions and indulge in an extra libation or two before the last act.
