La Traviata, Royal Opera House - perceptive, different

Outstanding Verdi La Traviata at the Royal Opera House, London. Richard Eyre's 1992 staging may have been revived many times, but this production reveals striking new depths of interpretation. Good singing is never routine. this production will be memorable because it highlights deeper aspects of the opera.

Verdi writes gloriously for Violetta, so it's a star vehicle for any soprano. But Violetta doesn't exist in isolation. Although the many great singers who have created the part ensure that Violetta is central to the opera, she doesn't exist in isolation. The drama evolves around the changing relationships between Violetta, Alfredo and Germont. This current production is important because Piotr Beczala's Alfredo brings out the full complexity in Alfredo's personality. Beczala is passionate about historic tenor traditions and this awareness infuses his performance. (Read more about him in this interview). This superb performance proves how important highly experienced high quality casting can be. La Traviata can be as much about Germont family values as it is about Violetta,

We can perhaps understand why Violetta is in her profession, but Alfredo poses more difficult questions. What kind of man gives up family and status for a demi-mondaine? It's much more than youthful lust. Even Violetta doesn't believe him at first, but she's persuaded by his intensity.Verdi pointedly raises the emotional stakes with the rousing Libiam ne'lieti calici. It's more than a drinking song, it's a hymn to life.

Because Beczala takes his cue from the music, his Alfredo is infinitely more than a lightweight charmer. The energy in his singing suggests that Alfredo represents an affirmative life-force, in contrast to the shallowness of life on the party circuit. Verdi is making a strong moral statement. Beczala's Alfredo expresses the strength in the character - firm phrasing, vibrant colour and absolute technical control. Beczala sings the high "Lavero!" at the end of the cabaletta so rings out with a confident flourish. Beczala's lucid elegance shows that Alfredo's emotional depth springs from strength of character.

Beczala's Alfredo also emphasizes the relationship between father and son, a connection sometimes under-estimated. Simon Keenlyside sings Giorgio Germont with gravitas. There's real chemistry between Keenlyside and Beczala. Their dialogues bristle with the bitter energy of shifting father/son power struggle, but the richness of the singing suggests fundamental warmth. One senses that after Violetta is is gone, Alfredo and his father will have an ever stronger connection. Lovely "pura siccome un angelo", so this family will thrive. Keenlyside's acting was stiffer than his singing.. He used his stick, not with a swagger, but more as a crutch, as if he had a real life injury. Keenlyside is an athlete and has mishaps. Usually, he's much more animated..


Expectations were high for Ailyn Peréz after the publicity generated during the Royal Opera House's Japan tour, last year, where she stood in after both Angela Gheorghiu and Ermolena Jaho had to cancel at the last moment. Heroic circumstances. Last month, at the Placido Domingo Celebration, she sang a pleasant if unremarkable Gilda. Her Violetta was attractive enough  allowing for uneven intonation and odd phrasing, which she might overcome with experience. One day perhaps she'll be able to act with her voice, so her gestures come from within. The scene where Violetta squirms in horror as Alfredo enters the casino was unconvincing, though Peréz warmed up, ironically, in the final act. Although Violetta's music is so well written it cannot help but impress, the role is complex and by no means "pretty". She's much more than a projection of male fantasy. Violetta fascinates Alfredo because he can sense in her something others can't, so whoever sings the part needs to suggest what that special quality might be.

Rodula Gaitanou was until only last year a Jette Parker Young Artist. Her Haydn L'isola disabitata at the Linbury was extremely mature for someone so young (read about it HERE) so it's good that she's directing a high profile production like this. In a revival, the moves may be the same, but the way they're done makes all the difference between dull repeat and fresh enthusiam. Gaitanou's precision illuminates another sub-theme of this opera that's often overlooked. The gambling table is a metaphor for fate. It's mechanical, and in Eyre's original concept, dominates the stage like a juggernaut. The gypsies dance in strict formation, though they sing of love and freedom.  There's something quite sinister about the bacchanale. So the crowd scenes are tightly executed to express this tension, while subsidiary roles like Flora (Hanna Hipp), Gastone (Jin Hyun Kim), D'Obigny (Daniel Grice), Douphol (Eddie Wade), Dr Grenvil (Christophoros Stamboglis) and Annina (Gaynor Keeble) stand out as individuals, doing justice to excellent singing. It's a pity that the conducting (Patrick Lange) was erratic, especially since he comes with good credentials (Chief Conductor at the Komische Oper, Berlin).

There's no such thing as a staging that lets a story tell itself.  In a good production, clues are always present if you're alert to them. Bob Crowley's set may look "traditional" but it comments powerfully on the drama.  In Act One, the diagonals in the set seem to be caving in on the stage, warning that something's awry. At the centre of the famous country house scene is a doorway which opens onto a trompe-l'œil suggesting many distant doorways beyond. Everything is illusion, even the "books" on the shelves are painted, not real, Grand paintings are haphazardly strewn across the floor. In the final act, behind Violetta's deathbed looms a giant picture frame covered in black, as portraits used to be covered when a person died. For a brief moment, Alfredo's image is projected onto the cloth, but fades. Mirrors, a dressmaking dummy, and  huge, overpowering shutters, all of which add to meaning. This is a beautiful production but it's also intelligent. With casts like this, revivals ae fully justified.

A full review will appear shortly in Opera Today.
You might also like: La Traviata and the Credit Crunch and La Traviata as Chinese movie
Photos copyright Catherine Ashmore, coutesy Royal Opera House (details embedded)

La Traviata - moral, universal?

Verdi's La Traviata starts its second run of three this year at the Royal Opera House. But please read La Traviata and the Credit Crunch by David Chandler in Opera Today.  And my review of the November production with a much stronger cast. "One way of thinking about La Traviata is to consider it as a portrayal of bubble wealth that makes artistic capital from the shimmering, rainbow hues of the surface rather than showing any interest in what sustains the bubble."
 
Violetta lives the champagne lifestyle to excess because it's like an escape from brutal reality. Like the petals of a camellia which shatter at the height of their beauty, La Dame des Camellias knows she has to live for the moment. Yet she can see the wider situation and the effects on other people. That gives her the true nobility Germont respects.

The lady in the photo is Lin Dai 林黛 (1934-64) perhaps the most celebrated Chinese actress of her time. She came from an upper class background in Guangxi, a poor province ruled by an enlightened, reformist leadership under General Bai Chongxi (father of Professor Pai of Kunqu Opera fame) After the Communists came power, Lin Dai's family became refugees. Lin Dai started making movies at 17 and starred in many great classics from historic costume dramas like The Kingdom and the Beauty to comedies.

In Love Without End (不了情) (1961) Lin Dai plays Qing Qing, an orphan from the country who comes to neon-lit Hong Kong. Wearing a simple qipao, she sings a folksong in a nightclub, but impresses the patrons so much she becomes resident singer. Nightclubs were an important part of social life then, so they represent much more than entertainment. Qing Qing falls in love with Teng Pengnan (Kwan Shan 关山) a rich young man. But Teng's father dies suddenly, leaving huge debts. Pengnan has to save the family business and honour but can't find the funds. So Qing Qing rescues the Tengs by giving them money under a false identity. Qing Qing then seduces Pengnan (shocking in those chaste days) because she wants to lose her virginity with him. She's got to spend a year as the "secretary" of the millionaire who gave her the money but at least her first night will be love. So she's heroic because she sacrifices herself for others. But Pengnan, disgusted and enraged, walks out when he finds out. Eventually they reconcile and are about to marry when Qing Qing discovers that she has a fatal illness. So she runs away to a retreat on  a remote island where she's tended by a Catholic priest. In real life, there were Catholic ministries in Hong Kong's outer islands, and Lin Dai was a devout Catholic. But the La Traviata connection is obvious. Pengnan tracks her down, but, as in the opera, it's too late. 

Lin Dai is incandescent on screen. She was a "natural girl", whose cheeky charm and perky optimism appealed to audiences in the turbulent 50's and 60's, but she's also an archetype of the ideal Chinese heroine who throughout history sacrifices her beauty for higher causes.  So  Love Without End is even more in the tradition of  Diau Charn (貂蝉) and Beyond the Great Wall. than a mere remake of La Traviata.  (Diau Charn falls in love with the general of a despot she's on a mission to destroy. In Beyond the Great Wall, a royal concubine marries a Mongol to save the nation), So Qing Qing in  Love Without End is Violetta who can see beyond conspicuous consumption. Consumption got them in other ways!  Lin Dai committed suicide at the age of 29. Possibly it was an aberration, an accident that went wrong. Her husband left their room intact until he died last year. Even the hair in her hairbrushes, and lipsticks half used.  So maybe life imitates art. The song below (sung by Gu Mei, Lin Dai lip syncs) is so famous that it evokes the whole period.

Please also see Chinese Carmen Wild, Wild Rose and lots more on Chinese film and values on this site.

La Traviata and the Credit Crunch

We've all seen the current production of Verdi La Traviata at the Royal Opera House. It runs til February 2012 if you want to catch it again, with different conductors, different casts etc. It's a hardy perennial that's easy on the eye and always pleases. But consider what the opera is really about. That's Marie Duplessis in the picture, the real life model for Marguerite Gautier and Violetta.  A country girl who became a courtesan, living the high life on credit, selling dreams as much as sex.  So here's a lively reminder that opera, like so much else in life, is a glorious illusion. A very different review of the ROH production in Opera Today, by David Chandler :

"One way of thinking about La Traviata is to consider it as a portrayal of bubble wealth that makes artistic capital from the shimmering, rainbow hues of the surface rather than showing any interest in what sustains the bubble....At the heart of La Traviata there is a financial crisis as Violetta attempts to trade in the trappings of wealth for actual cash, but it is touched on as lightly as possible, and really serves simply as a catalyst for the moral crisis that Piave and Verdi wanted to explore."

La traviata - Royal Opera House. May 2010

Richard Eyre’s production of La traviata is so beautiful that it can be watched repeatedly, yet still yield pleasure. Here is a link to my review of the November production with a much stronger cast.  But appearances, however splendid, aren’t quite enough to make a completely satisfying evening. Below is a review of the October production. Please also see "La Traviata and the Credit Crunch"



"For a great many in the audience at the Royal Opera House on this occasion, it probably didn’t matter. Opera going is a great experience and La traviata is great theatre. I’ve never seen so many cameras popping, or people texting on their mobiles, even during the performance. Routine applause, for the sake of applause, deserved or not, inhibiting the flow of the drama. Opera has always been a social experience. Now it’s audience participation.....

"......Dimitri Hvorostovsky’s Germont has vocal authority, honed through experience in the role. Yet, when he sings “Pura siccome un angelo”, his timbre softens and glows. In “Di Provenza il mar”, Hvorostovsky captures the lilting melody so cannily that he creates the impression of a distant, happier world far removed from Parisian artifice. .Hvorostovsky fills the role, not just the costume. His Germont is a fully realized personality, more interesting, perhaps, than his son. Hvorostovsky’s “Dove’e’ mio figlio?” makes the confrontation feel intensely profound, his voice colouring expressively............"

PS A friend went to the second night and said it was much better, the best show of the season, praising Jaho and Pirgu in particular. Must have been First Night Syndrome before.
Read more HERE in Opera Today, with production photos.

Chinese La Traviata - Lin Dai Love without End

There is no goddess of Chinese film greater than Lin Dai. Yes, others had greater range and the opera singers are icons, but Lin Dai touched something in the Chinese soul and continues to do so today, nearly 50 years after her tragic death.

This is a clip from the end of perhaps her most famous film, Love Without End. (But liu Ching in Cantonese). She's sitting on an island and flashbacks of her past fill her mind. She was a sweet, simple girl who became a nightclub star and fell in love with a playboy. He has money problems so she goes abroad with a rich man to pay his debts. When she comes back, she has bliss with lover and he finds out and walks out on her. Then she gets a fatal illness and retreats to the island to die (where she is cared for by a Catholic priest). Finally lover tracks her down and they're reunited but she dies, anyway. La Traviata ! Only the screenplay opens out wider and Lin Dai's portrayal is so memorable, so poignant, that no one has ever been able to top it.

The second clip shows the beginning of the film - wonderful historic footage of Hong Kong neon in 1961. Nightclubs were serious business then, the "modern" equivalent of teahouse or opera house. They were a cultural indicator of modern ideas and westernization. We see the young singer, in an old fashioned cheongsam, sing a folk song with a "mor dun" show band complete with electric guitar and bongo drums. Culture clash ! She goes on to be a big star but she is still a nice girl with Chinese values. In that era everyone was uprooted, thrown into different worlds, so people identified with Lin Dai, the nice, pure girl who didn't survive.

That's why Love Without End (Shaw Brothers 1961) is such a classic, in its own way a historic document. It's available on DVD with (I think) English subtitles. It deserves its place in the iconography of world film.



More nightclub scenes below for aficionados of 50's style. Note the revolving stage and Rachmaninoff pianist. This is the best clip for sound quality, and the wonderful performance of the song Wang Bu Liao, ("Can never forget") so haunting that it's imprinted in the psyche of all who know the genre.

La Traviata London and cinemas beyond

La Fleming's back in town ! Her presence alone made this La Traviata an absolute must-see for everyone, including people who never go to opera. And of course, she was a star. Read a sensible proper review by Claire Seymour HERE.

But if you want to read off the wall you'll have to do it with me. Not at Covent Garden but in the cinema behind my local supermarket. Cinema opera is "interesting" in the sense that it's nothing like the real thing and yet very different to watching a DVD. The scale, for one thing, so in your face that you can see tears – or perspiration? we're all human – running out the corner of a diva's eye. Then there's the overpowering volume of being in a venue designed for Star Wars effects.

On the other hand it's like a Glyndebourne experience on the cheap as you can bring cola in and munch popcorn through lachrymose moments. My local being where it is offered no pop or popcorn but 32 different wines by the glass, which made me suspicious. How can 100 people drink one glass each without most of it going off ? Perhaps it's better consuming your opera mega screen outdoors with a real picnic and more laidback ambience. But I dunno. I go to opera for the music not the social aspect, so cinema is a compromise. And I can get my groceries and be home in 15 minutes.

Luckily La Traviata (and most Italian opera) is ideally suited for big screen and social pleasure. Everything about this production was entertaining eye candy and fun, like glamour magazines come alive. The last scene, though, was dramatically strongest. She can hear the crowds celebrate Carnival, their shadows thrown up against shutters the full height of the stage: in contrast, Fleming looks small and frail. As she should be, Violetta is broke and dying.

Very strong singing too. La Fleming doesn't disappoint and Joseph Calleja was vocally very convincing. We often forget how physically demanding it is to sing, so watching on big screen lets you see muscles twitch and chests expanding before florid legato. These are arias everyone knows well, so it's good to follow how much technique goes into producing familiar sounds. Singers of the calibre of Fleming and Calleja make it look easy, but it isn't.

But Thomas Hampson, wow! That is what serious vocal authority is, and in Hampson's case warmed by sensitivity and depth of characterization. Papa Germont is not a sympathetic role and could be played veering towards cardboard, but Hampson's Germont was a fully rounded personality with real, complex motivations. No wonder Violetta's friends think she might be better off with father than son. Were Calleja more of an actor, there might have been deeper frisson to their relationship. When Hampson blows up at Alfredo for demeaning women you want to shout "Yes!!!!". Alfredo's a pup, Dad is the Real Thing.

Praise for other roles too, especially Haoyin Xue who has natural presence. Richard Wiegold as Dr Grevil is frequently placed centre stage but the costume really doesn't work : the silly glasses, wig and beard make him look like someone in uncomfortable disguise. He doesn't get to sing much til the end so the part really needs to be fleshed out by good acting and movement. If not, place him on the sidelines, the character's natural territory.

Orchestrally, this was magnificent. I have a lot of respect for Tony Pappano, though in some repertoire he's better than in others. Verdi is one of his fortes, so he let rip with fulsome Romantic surges. Music, after all, is all-important in La Traviata. The plot is so melodramatic it's embarrassing and action is introduced with little sense of build-up. But when you follow the musical line it all makes luscious sense.

After the movie we were all given a satin goodie bag with a bottle of "La Voce", Renee Fleming's own brand perfume. To her credit it was created as a fundraiser for the Met. You bet a classy lady like that doesn't wear celebrity perfumes.

Photo credit : Andrew Eccles/Decca from IMG Artist Management