As the 102nd Opera Festival is well under way, Hugo De Ana’s current staging shines a light in favour of the protagonists’ voices. Dancers added colour to the production.
Photograph: EnneviFoto
VERONA, ITALY — Not even the heaviest downpour could have dimmed the light on the finest aria of this year’s production of La Traviata, once again staged as part of L’Arena di Verona’s Opera Festival.
Aware that the work’s throughline was considered subversive in Verdi’s day, Hugo De Ana stages it as a modern-set conversational act, from which any trace of euphoric drama or histrionic theatrics has been stripped away. We are closer to the composer’s essence than to operatic flamboyance.
However, there are a couple of slips: like many stagings, De Ana doesn’t quite know what to do with the divertissement in Violetta’s moments of joy, and the way the overall sets turn increasingly spare atop a multi-framed scenography as Violetta’s life slowly fades away strikes an important note.
Photograph: EnneviFoto
Photograph: EnneviFoto
But the absence of imposing details and a narration of deep and characterisation-driven elements takes us into the protagonists’ psyche to a great extent. We believe in the attraction between Gilda Fiume’s troubled Violetta and her charismatic Alfredo. They sometimes stray off pitch in places of fervour or rage. She sings with a light, extensive richness of tone and a great feel for text and character.
Elsewhere, Sempre Libera is about emotional intensity rather than technical display of colour: the diaphragmatic support wasn’t always full throttle, and the arias’ final E flat felt slightly rushed and uneven. Her duet with the severe yet serene father, heartbreakingly done, is a true lesson in musical and dramatic artistry on both sides.
Photograph: EnneviFoto
Dramatically, she’s brilliant. Few Violettas interpreters have fulfilled the notions of consumption and relationship to their troubled state with quite such rigour, yet seemingly careful touch. Panic crosses her facial expression when she experiences moments of collapse, and the final scenes imbue a great intensity that only the most talented interpreters can accomplish.
The overall impression is of deep, contained drama rather than eccentric gestures of theatricality, and the evening wrapped up with great effect despite the odd quibble.
by Chidozie Obasi