Libiamo, libiamo ne’ lieti calici, Che la bellezza infiora...

(Let’s drink from the joyous chalice, Where beauty flowers...)


That's the opening line from arguably one of the most famous musical pieces from Verdi's La Traviata, the Brindisi (toast/drinking song) from Act 1. I wasn't going to do a review of this opera, but Sarah said she was looking forward to it, and I loved it so much anyway!


Now, I need to preface this with the fact that for a lot of big opera geeks Traviata is one of those that we've all seen plenty of times, that we've heard the memorable tunes from more times than we can count, and that we generally don't get terribly excited about. This time, however, was a little different. We were very lucky to see quite an all-star cast, led by Renee Fleming, my favorite soprano, in the role of Violetta, Thomas Hampson as Germont, and Matthew Polenzani as Alfredo.

The story is pretty simple: [Act 1] young, naive guy (Alfredo) falls in love with a kind-hearted courtesan with high moral standards (Violetta, and yes, I know the description sounds weird). [Act 2] When she falls in love with him and they go off to live together, the naive guy's dad (Germont) comes in and tells her she's ruining the son's reputation and has to give him up. She convinces the young guy she doesn't love him, he gets really mad and violently insults her, and then leaves town. [Act 3] She's on her deathbed (did I mention she has consumption?) holding out for Alfredo's return, as Germont has sent a letter telling her he's told Alfredo everything and the two will return to her. She's just about to die when Alfredo rushes in, they sing a little bit, and she dies in his arms.

Now, first things first, the singing was nothing short of incredible throughout the performance. This is an absolute marathon for any soprano, as she is onstage and singing almost constantly for the duration, and to pull it off with ease is amazing. The baritone (Hampson) was incredibly clear - his Italian was so easy to understand that the need to actually read the supertitles was much less than normal for me. Ensemble wise, as was the case with the minor roles, it was great. Nothing was lacking in terms of the singers.

What really struck me about this performance, however, was the depth of the three main characters. It's so easy to have a Violetta who is unwilling at first, telling Alfredo that he should find a nice girl and all that, and then have her give in. It's also easy for Alfredo to be just to seem a little naive, and then turn gleeful when Violetta give in. This time was different.

Violetta's character really went back and forth through much of the first act. That act takes place during a party as well, and the way she moved suggested she was maybe a little drunk as well - fabulous. The second act for her, however, was very striking. The act calls for Violetta to stand up for herself and be a lady, and between vocal inflections and movement the first has was powerful to say the least. The second half had her pulling off the complete devastation I imagine Violetta would feel as Alfredo insults her to the point of making the audience feel almost ill for her in response. The third act opens with Violetta in bed and many directors will keep her there while the few minutes of music go by, but this one had her wandering around her bedroom in almost a delirium, putting on the red party dress she wore in act one and 'dancing' around by herself - considerably more moving in a theatrical sense than having her just lay in bed.

Alfredo was great from a character standpoint as well. Being a tenor role, normally I'll hear the first act sung beautifully, the vocal lines sounding as they might in a recital or something. What Polenzani did, however, was sound 'immature' vocally. Next to Renee Fleming he sounded incredibly unrefined and almost clumsy vocally (everything was well supported, in tune, and all of the notes were correct, but he was doing weird stops and starts and generally sounded un-polished). From a character standpoint it was really brilliant to have Alfredo actually sound young and naive. After the first act he did sound more refined - as much into character as good opera singer get, I don't think anyone would want to sound unrefined for an entire opera.

Thomas Hampson, as young as he is in real life, moved like an old man and just looked so stiff and crotchety. Of course, he sounded brilliant, too - as I mentioned before, he was so clear we really didn't need much in terms of the supertitles. I think my only beef with him was that I didn't quite agree with his interpretation of the character. I like to see a Germont who is a little more compassionate toward Violetta after she agrees to make the sacrifice and leave Alfredo, but this one didn't give in so much.

Ok, I think this is getting a little long, but all in all it was really a remarkable performance, far exceeding my expectations even for the cast. Next up - Falstaff on February 6!