La Traviata at La Fenice with Sadovnikova, Secco and Meoni, under Myung Whun Chung, by Michael Miller
Libretto di Francesco Maria Piave
dal dramma La dame aux camélias di Alexandre Dumas figlio
prima rappresentazione assoluta: Venezia, Teatro La Fenice, 6 marzo 1853
versione 1854
Teatro La Fenice
September 19, 2010
Cast:
Violetta - Ekaterina Sadovnikova
Alfredo Germont - Stefano Secco
Giorgio Germont - Giovanni Meoni
Flora Bervoix - Rebeka Lokar
Annina - Sabrina Vianello
Gastone, visconte di Letori - Iorio Zennaro
Il barone Douphol - Elia Fabbian
Il dottor Grenvil - Luca Dall'Amico
Il marchese d'Obigny - Armando Gabba
Giuseppe - Cosimo D’Adamo
Un domestico di Flora - Nicola Nalesso
Un commissionario - Claudio Zancopè
Conductor - Myung-Whun Chung
Orchestra e Coro del Teatro La Fenice
Chorus director - Claudio Marino Moretti
Director - Robert Carsen
Scene and costume design - Patrick Kinmonth
Choreography - Philippe Giraudeau
Assistant director - Christophe Gayral
Light designer Robert Carsen e Peter Van Praet
Piave’s and Verdi’s adaptation of Dumas fils’ La dame aux camélias is ubiquitous these days, both in regional companies and the major houses, but for some time it hasn’t caught up with me...until now. It is without a doubt regrettable that the audience draw of a handful of operas pushes outstanding less familiar works from the repertoire, and La Traviata is one of the most egregious culprits, but a cast, staging, and musical direction of the calibre I witnessed at La Fenice this Sunday afternoon make all these considerations irrelevant and make it impossible to resist La Traviata as an extraordinary masterpiece that touches basic issues in us all: the life of women in society, the faith of young men in passion, the blindness of good intentions. The results are genuinely tragic, and a performance like this goes far beyond the usual ritual and can genuinely move us.
