My obsessed post on La Traviata
Mar. 23rd, 2018 09:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cahnVerdi/Piave 4/5, Salzburg 2005 Netrebko/Villazón, Hampson 5/5, 2016 Rebeka/Demuro/Hampson 3+/5 (Hampson 5/5)
So somehow I never figured out that La Traviata is based on La Dame Aux Camelias -- I would have listened to it much earlier had I known! I had never actually read or seen Camelias (though now I have skimmed it), but I did know from King of Paris, the fictionalized biography of Alexandre Dumas (mostly pere, but also fils), to expect it to be chock-full of daddy issues, and I was not disappointed. La Traviata is, indeed, hilariously clearly written by someone with parental Issues. (I don't know anything about the librettist, but wow, even compared to Camelias the parental angst was punched up to the max.) I mean, no judgement here. I am basically in this opera for the parental issues, to the extent that when I start watching a new Traviata I literally just skip to the scenes with Giorgio Germont (henceforth just Germont) first. (It also helps that in all of Germont's solo arias he's simultaneously interacting with someone else on the stage. I don't have a lot of patience for solo arias! Yes, I really am a Philistine.)
I mean, these scenes are just so good! You get all these things:
-Violetta, the courtesan with a heart of gold, is so sweet and in love and awesome that in the space of a single scene she has converted Germont, her lover's father, from thinking she is a floozy who has corrupted his son to the point where he's totally sold on her being the (second) best ever. Although it still does not prevent him from demanding she and Alfredo break up, because his own daughter is the Actual Best Ever (and unless they break up she can't get married, yeah, I know, it's opera, roll with it) --
-So the thing is, Germont Sr. isn't a bad person, an irredeemable villain -- it would be easy to write him as one (and occasionally that's how he's played). Over the course of this scene, he gets Violetta and her love for Alfredo in a deep way, and understands that he's asking a really hard thing of her. Really his fatal flaw is that he doesn't actually believe that Violetta is terminally ill, and so from his point of view he's asking her to end a relationship she should be able to quickly replace, and not one that will literally be the Only One of her Life. (Yeah, it still sucks, but we're in opera-logic-land, and hey, in opera-logic-land it's not so bad.) And also that he has Certain Ideas about God -- here again I feel like the libretto uses a light hand where it could have been a heavy one, and it's great that way. It's not that he is self-righteous in an icky way, or not very much; but he does come into this thinking that he is inspired by God, and he also believes that Violetta will be rewarded by God with happiness for doing the right thing, whereas life (and tragic opera) doesn't actually work that way. (In the 2016 video linked below, Hampson really plays up this aspect of it, having Germont get a bit grandiose as he says "È Dio che ispira, o giovine, tai detti a un genitor" (It is God who inspires, O young lady, a father saying such things), and then realizing he's gotten grandiose and looking a little embarrassed. It's actually a cute moment, in a tragic kind of way.) Germont's sympathetic, and that is what makes it so tragic. (And also what makes me like Traviata so much. Sympathetic antagonists are my jam!)
-Violetta herself clearly having parental issues so that getting a hug from Germont Sr. is what she needs to steel her to reject Alfredo. I have SO MANY FEELINGS about that part of the scene.
-"Ah! dite alla giovine," which when sung by a good soprano is so dang beautiful and heartbreaking that I expect the baritones who play Germont don't really need to act the their part of the duet particularly. I also greatly admire this aria because the first bit of it is literally singing the notes of a scale. I mean, the melody is the simplest and most banal thing imaginable. And then the orchestration underneath is this almost comical carnivalesque waltz beat. I don't understand how it can be so beautiful. (My only real exposure to Verdi before this was his Four Sacred Songs, where he totally does the same kind of trick of playing around with simple and repeated motifs/scales. Anyway, yay Verdi!)
-Scene where Germont sings a beautiful aria to his son about Provence, but which is really him trying to get his son to pay attention to him, to see him. And failing.
-The second half of this scene, where Germont Sr. strikes his son (or threatens to), and then has a bunch of fast beats on how love can forgive everything, which he's saying as if it applies to his son, only it actually applies to him, only really he's still just trying to get his son to listen to him, and by striking him he's just completely demolished the chance that this will ever happen. Double layers of subtext. I am so there for the libretto saying one thing and the singing getting across another.
-And then you get Violetta's deathbed ending! Where Germont's all "OMG I WAS WRONG!! I will be sad for the rest of my life!!!" which is basically the Holy Grail of Parent Validation. Which even Dumas fils thought was Too Much (this scene is not present in Camelias), but it's Not Too Much for Opera. (Which I guess can sum up a lot of opera, really.)
(Also, there are some of what I think are hilarious missteps, like the ending when -- after a really beautiful and moving death scene by Violetta -- the whole orchestra bongs out fourths fortissimo -- like the fast bits of Also Sprach Zarathustra -- it always startles a laugh out of me, which I am pretty sure was not the intention.)
I have also fallen totally in love with Thomas Hampson and his Giorgio Germont (though Sherrill Milnes is amazing too, and his recording with Ileana Cotrubas and Placido Domingo is probably my favorite recording). To be honest I quite like the way he looks -- but really I've fallen in love with his voice (which is much more smooth and pure-toned than a lot of other Germonts out there), and his superlative acting, both with his body/face and his voice.
There are two full-length Hampson Traviatas on Youtube that I think are spectacular:
2005 Salzburg Decker Netrebko/Villazon/Hampson (the entire freaking thing)
This is a modern production, the Willy Decker production (which is so famous that I'd actually previously seen clips of it) from 2005 (Netrebko, Villazón, Hampson). It was the first one I watched and it is AMAZING; I went and bought my own copy after seeing half of it. While I'm not sure I would recommend it as a first version (I at least knew the storyline and had seen clips of other productions, but even so there were points it was making that I didn't understand until watching more conventional versions), I really really loved it. The staging is minimalist and rather starkly beautiful in pure whites and blue lighting. It's an interesting take on it that is much more cold and overtly tragic than the text dictates, with everything about the concept going to bolster a certain impersonality of life (the crowd scenes really bring this across) and the solitude each of us is in. (For example, Violetta and Alfredo are together on stage at the beginning of Act 2, which is contra-indicated by the libretto, but it underscores their essential solitude that they're talking past each other saying lines that assume they're alone.) There's no joy in this production that doesn't get ruthlessly crushed; though Netrebko and Villazón do occasionally get to smile, it's pleasure rather than actual happiness. [ETA: Actually they are really happy in the beginning of Scene II, I apparently forgot that with all the doom and gloom that happens after that.] (Hampson just about never gets to smile, which, more on that later.) Everything about it is really well done. There are some really broad symbolic strokes that might be almost too much, like a big clock counting down Violetta's life and an old man representing Death. Anna Netrebko makes a really compelling (and tbh sexy) Violetta, and she sells both a desperation and an essential sweetness that really works well both for the text in general and for this production in particular. And the chemistry between her and Rolando Villazón is unreal. The whole thing is riveting. Well, okay, I could have done without the bullfighting/crossdressing bit, but other than that.
Hampson's Germont gets a really interesting arc, in my opinion. He's perfectly comfortable with berating and imposing his wishes on Violetta when he enters in Act II, even comfortable with sitting next to her on a sofa and putting his hands on her shoulders to get his point across; but when he has to confront the truth of Violetta (symbolically, she removes her flower-patterned bourgeoisie dressing gown, at "l'uomo implacabil per lei sarà" -- man, for her, will be implacable!) he stops short: this is where he starts understanding how terrible it and he is, and he shies away from that understanding. He becomes awkward and stiff and his facial expression also goes very stiff: worried and uptight and miserable (to varying degrees), and stays that way until the end of scene. (Look at Hampson's face in the credits, when he can finally relax and smile -- it's completely transformed.) I feel like this is a bit of a waste of a super expressive face (though to be fair Hampson can pull it off precisely because he can do such fine gradations with his expression), but it is also very effective in this production which very much highlights the ways we fail each other and are alone in our misery.
The choreography also very much plays into it here: after this point, the two of them almost never look directly at each other during the duets where they are supposed to be supporting each other -- they're almost always singing past each other or away from each other, and are generally separated by most of the stage, alone in their own miseries, as Violetta gets back into her red dress, the symbol of her old life. The only exception to this is a super awkward hug -- and just the second hug in the libretto, not the first (which is opposite of the other productions I've seen, and they actually do make an abortive effort towards the first hug and then Germont just gives up on it), and is quite effective there, in that we are (I am, anyway) just aching for them to have any connection at all between them by that point. Finally Violetta initiates the hug, with Germont very hesitantly overcoming his stiffness just enough to make the connection. Interestingly, and it's really clear on the CD of this performance (I KNOW I HAVE A PROBLEM), his singing is quite expressive and supportive of Violetta -- it's like he's saying everything in the singing that this pent-up Germont can't get across in his actions.
(With his son, Hampson's Germont is a little less separated, more trying to get physically closer, more willing to touch him and embrace him, but just as awkward, and of course here it's Alfredo who is distancing himself from his father both emotionally and physically. This leads to that slap, and in reaction to what he did Germont goes completely frantic; he doesn't know whether he should be apologetic or anguished or angry, and vacillates between them, finally physically forcing Alfredo into something that's half a headlock but resolves into, sort of, a hug, before the crowd pushes them apart. When this Germont sings that God has led him there, it's to try to convince himself that it's true; it's painful rather than sweet. )
And then again later in the act, in the aftermath of "Di sprezzo degno" (when Alfredo attacks Violetta and Germont confronts him), is another moment for Germont, where he is totally shocked and crushed by Alfredo's actions, and the full force of what he's done presses down on him (symbolized by the crowd pressing towards him while he looks on, aghast). Following that is a really brief moment of connection (Violetta semi-embracing him as she gets up, very-on-point to "Dio dai rimorsi ti salvi allora!" May God save you, then, from remorse!), and Germont's closer to figuring things out than he was before, he's gotten to the point where he extends his hands to her, he wants to make that connection, to help her, but he can't or won't hold on to her, and she slips away from him.
This is, by the way, a key part of Violetta's arc as well, which I haven't really talked about -- defying and fighting her fate to accepting it, and Netrebko is AMAZING, by the way, in selling the whole thing, the whole thing is brilliant. It's human connection that anchors us to life in this world, and she tries so hard for it in this scene: she connects with Germont briefly, but he fails to hold on, and she tries again with Alfredo, but Alfredo is so horrified by what he's done and thinks she can't forgive him that he turns away from her -- and now she has nothing holding her to life; she changes back from her red dress into her white slip and, at the head of the crowd, runs to Death, who gives her the white camellia -- and these words do not even a little bit capture how compelling and riveting this scene is, it's just a masterpiece of direction and staging completely melding with the music and Netrebko's singing and acting.
And then the last scene where Germont comes back and he finally, finally makes the first move towards connecting with Violetta (even then he's hesitant, but he overcomes it, he DOES make that move, and he almost smiles), he's finally ready, he holds on to her, embraces her as a daughter ("A stringervi qual figlia vengo al seno, o generosa") -- and it's too late; now she is the one who moves away from him, dying. (And of course plotwise it's always too late for Germont to realize he was mistaken, that's the whole point -- but this production also makes it about an arc forward for him.) And then he tries to reconnect to Alfredo through their shared pain, tries to touch him, and Alfredo rejects it. It's just an amazing (and depressing) performance, and clearly carefully thought out by both Decker and Hampson.
I love the staging of the ending -- I think the staging would make no sense to someone who didn't know the story, but if you do know, it is really cool. Annina, Germont, and even Alfredo are each alone in his or her own little despairing huddle on the stage -- with Violetta gliding between them, as the connection between them as she dies -- she takes Germont's hand at one point, and drops it as she moves past him, as he keeps his hand extended towards her for a moment, in a way that I'm convinced is meant to echo the hug they shared earlier. And then of course she does die, alone in the middle of the floor, and everyone else stays separated.
2016 Rebeka/Demuro/Hampson (mostly for the scenes with Germont)
The second link is a semi-staged production (Marina Rebeka, Francesco Demuro, Thomas Hampson) -- the orchestra is on stage and it's a really minimal staging. So honestly to me Rebeka is fine (I've read reviews that say she acts awfully healthy for someone dying of consumption, and I guess that's true) if not riveting like Netrebko, and Demuro was a little underwhelming to me (maybe just because to me Alfredo is a kind of underwhelming part in general, though Villazon sells it with his frenetic energy) -- but Hampson was totally amazing. His face is so expressive! And he gets to do a lot more with it here than he got to do in the Decker production. Here he gets to be the affectionate, supportive, though mistaken father that the text calls for; here he gets to respond dynamically instead of stiffly, and OH GOSH is it a relief after watching the Decker production.
There are just so many subtle touches he puts into it -- he sits down on a bench, sort of discouraged, after making his plea to Violetta, his head in his hands, and I don't think this is supported by the text but he is totally broadcasting that he's thinking she's not going to go through with it, and then about halfway through "Ah! dite alla giovine" he realizes what she's about to say and slowly looks up at her with this look of shock on his face. And then when she's asking him, later, to let Alfredo know about her sacrifice ("Conosca il sacrifizio") and he answers, "Sì!" both his face and voice -- and even his body language -- are so full of pain that you almost expect him to call it all off right there. And in the deathbed scene, the warmth that he brings in when he comes to embrace her, and the way his face changes as he realizes it really is too late -- AGH. I also think he and Rebeka have good (non-romantic) chemistry in their scenes together; I really buy a mutual filial feeling between them.
Okay, so now that I've dipped my toes into Verdi and shockingly liked it (at least I was shocked!), what other opera should I get obsessed with now? I, uh, might be currently going through any opera that Hampson has footage in, which means Thais and Tosca are on my list (ha, and after saying I liked sympathetic villains!) and maybe Arabella -- but even for Fleming and Hampson, and Strauss, I'm not sure if I can do it, the synopsis looks incredibly boring to me.
So somehow I never figured out that La Traviata is based on La Dame Aux Camelias -- I would have listened to it much earlier had I known! I had never actually read or seen Camelias (though now I have skimmed it), but I did know from King of Paris, the fictionalized biography of Alexandre Dumas (mostly pere, but also fils), to expect it to be chock-full of daddy issues, and I was not disappointed. La Traviata is, indeed, hilariously clearly written by someone with parental Issues. (I don't know anything about the librettist, but wow, even compared to Camelias the parental angst was punched up to the max.) I mean, no judgement here. I am basically in this opera for the parental issues, to the extent that when I start watching a new Traviata I literally just skip to the scenes with Giorgio Germont (henceforth just Germont) first. (It also helps that in all of Germont's solo arias he's simultaneously interacting with someone else on the stage. I don't have a lot of patience for solo arias! Yes, I really am a Philistine.)
I mean, these scenes are just so good! You get all these things:
-Violetta, the courtesan with a heart of gold, is so sweet and in love and awesome that in the space of a single scene she has converted Germont, her lover's father, from thinking she is a floozy who has corrupted his son to the point where he's totally sold on her being the (second) best ever. Although it still does not prevent him from demanding she and Alfredo break up, because his own daughter is the Actual Best Ever (and unless they break up she can't get married, yeah, I know, it's opera, roll with it) --
-So the thing is, Germont Sr. isn't a bad person, an irredeemable villain -- it would be easy to write him as one (and occasionally that's how he's played). Over the course of this scene, he gets Violetta and her love for Alfredo in a deep way, and understands that he's asking a really hard thing of her. Really his fatal flaw is that he doesn't actually believe that Violetta is terminally ill, and so from his point of view he's asking her to end a relationship she should be able to quickly replace, and not one that will literally be the Only One of her Life. (Yeah, it still sucks, but we're in opera-logic-land, and hey, in opera-logic-land it's not so bad.) And also that he has Certain Ideas about God -- here again I feel like the libretto uses a light hand where it could have been a heavy one, and it's great that way. It's not that he is self-righteous in an icky way, or not very much; but he does come into this thinking that he is inspired by God, and he also believes that Violetta will be rewarded by God with happiness for doing the right thing, whereas life (and tragic opera) doesn't actually work that way. (In the 2016 video linked below, Hampson really plays up this aspect of it, having Germont get a bit grandiose as he says "È Dio che ispira, o giovine, tai detti a un genitor" (It is God who inspires, O young lady, a father saying such things), and then realizing he's gotten grandiose and looking a little embarrassed. It's actually a cute moment, in a tragic kind of way.) Germont's sympathetic, and that is what makes it so tragic. (And also what makes me like Traviata so much. Sympathetic antagonists are my jam!)
-Violetta herself clearly having parental issues so that getting a hug from Germont Sr. is what she needs to steel her to reject Alfredo. I have SO MANY FEELINGS about that part of the scene.
-"Ah! dite alla giovine," which when sung by a good soprano is so dang beautiful and heartbreaking that I expect the baritones who play Germont don't really need to act the their part of the duet particularly. I also greatly admire this aria because the first bit of it is literally singing the notes of a scale. I mean, the melody is the simplest and most banal thing imaginable. And then the orchestration underneath is this almost comical carnivalesque waltz beat. I don't understand how it can be so beautiful. (My only real exposure to Verdi before this was his Four Sacred Songs, where he totally does the same kind of trick of playing around with simple and repeated motifs/scales. Anyway, yay Verdi!)
-Scene where Germont sings a beautiful aria to his son about Provence, but which is really him trying to get his son to pay attention to him, to see him. And failing.
-The second half of this scene, where Germont Sr. strikes his son (or threatens to), and then has a bunch of fast beats on how love can forgive everything, which he's saying as if it applies to his son, only it actually applies to him, only really he's still just trying to get his son to listen to him, and by striking him he's just completely demolished the chance that this will ever happen. Double layers of subtext. I am so there for the libretto saying one thing and the singing getting across another.
-And then you get Violetta's deathbed ending! Where Germont's all "OMG I WAS WRONG!! I will be sad for the rest of my life!!!" which is basically the Holy Grail of Parent Validation. Which even Dumas fils thought was Too Much (this scene is not present in Camelias), but it's Not Too Much for Opera. (Which I guess can sum up a lot of opera, really.)
(Also, there are some of what I think are hilarious missteps, like the ending when -- after a really beautiful and moving death scene by Violetta -- the whole orchestra bongs out fourths fortissimo -- like the fast bits of Also Sprach Zarathustra -- it always startles a laugh out of me, which I am pretty sure was not the intention.)
I have also fallen totally in love with Thomas Hampson and his Giorgio Germont (though Sherrill Milnes is amazing too, and his recording with Ileana Cotrubas and Placido Domingo is probably my favorite recording). To be honest I quite like the way he looks -- but really I've fallen in love with his voice (which is much more smooth and pure-toned than a lot of other Germonts out there), and his superlative acting, both with his body/face and his voice.
There are two full-length Hampson Traviatas on Youtube that I think are spectacular:
2005 Salzburg Decker Netrebko/Villazon/Hampson (the entire freaking thing)
This is a modern production, the Willy Decker production (which is so famous that I'd actually previously seen clips of it) from 2005 (Netrebko, Villazón, Hampson). It was the first one I watched and it is AMAZING; I went and bought my own copy after seeing half of it. While I'm not sure I would recommend it as a first version (I at least knew the storyline and had seen clips of other productions, but even so there were points it was making that I didn't understand until watching more conventional versions), I really really loved it. The staging is minimalist and rather starkly beautiful in pure whites and blue lighting. It's an interesting take on it that is much more cold and overtly tragic than the text dictates, with everything about the concept going to bolster a certain impersonality of life (the crowd scenes really bring this across) and the solitude each of us is in. (For example, Violetta and Alfredo are together on stage at the beginning of Act 2, which is contra-indicated by the libretto, but it underscores their essential solitude that they're talking past each other saying lines that assume they're alone.) There's no joy in this production that doesn't get ruthlessly crushed; though Netrebko and Villazón do occasionally get to smile, it's pleasure rather than actual happiness. [ETA: Actually they are really happy in the beginning of Scene II, I apparently forgot that with all the doom and gloom that happens after that.] (Hampson just about never gets to smile, which, more on that later.) Everything about it is really well done. There are some really broad symbolic strokes that might be almost too much, like a big clock counting down Violetta's life and an old man representing Death. Anna Netrebko makes a really compelling (and tbh sexy) Violetta, and she sells both a desperation and an essential sweetness that really works well both for the text in general and for this production in particular. And the chemistry between her and Rolando Villazón is unreal. The whole thing is riveting. Well, okay, I could have done without the bullfighting/crossdressing bit, but other than that.
Hampson's Germont gets a really interesting arc, in my opinion. He's perfectly comfortable with berating and imposing his wishes on Violetta when he enters in Act II, even comfortable with sitting next to her on a sofa and putting his hands on her shoulders to get his point across; but when he has to confront the truth of Violetta (symbolically, she removes her flower-patterned bourgeoisie dressing gown, at "l'uomo implacabil per lei sarà" -- man, for her, will be implacable!) he stops short: this is where he starts understanding how terrible it and he is, and he shies away from that understanding. He becomes awkward and stiff and his facial expression also goes very stiff: worried and uptight and miserable (to varying degrees), and stays that way until the end of scene. (Look at Hampson's face in the credits, when he can finally relax and smile -- it's completely transformed.) I feel like this is a bit of a waste of a super expressive face (though to be fair Hampson can pull it off precisely because he can do such fine gradations with his expression), but it is also very effective in this production which very much highlights the ways we fail each other and are alone in our misery.
The choreography also very much plays into it here: after this point, the two of them almost never look directly at each other during the duets where they are supposed to be supporting each other -- they're almost always singing past each other or away from each other, and are generally separated by most of the stage, alone in their own miseries, as Violetta gets back into her red dress, the symbol of her old life. The only exception to this is a super awkward hug -- and just the second hug in the libretto, not the first (which is opposite of the other productions I've seen, and they actually do make an abortive effort towards the first hug and then Germont just gives up on it), and is quite effective there, in that we are (I am, anyway) just aching for them to have any connection at all between them by that point. Finally Violetta initiates the hug, with Germont very hesitantly overcoming his stiffness just enough to make the connection. Interestingly, and it's really clear on the CD of this performance (I KNOW I HAVE A PROBLEM), his singing is quite expressive and supportive of Violetta -- it's like he's saying everything in the singing that this pent-up Germont can't get across in his actions.
(With his son, Hampson's Germont is a little less separated, more trying to get physically closer, more willing to touch him and embrace him, but just as awkward, and of course here it's Alfredo who is distancing himself from his father both emotionally and physically. This leads to that slap, and in reaction to what he did Germont goes completely frantic; he doesn't know whether he should be apologetic or anguished or angry, and vacillates between them, finally physically forcing Alfredo into something that's half a headlock but resolves into, sort of, a hug, before the crowd pushes them apart. When this Germont sings that God has led him there, it's to try to convince himself that it's true; it's painful rather than sweet. )
And then again later in the act, in the aftermath of "Di sprezzo degno" (when Alfredo attacks Violetta and Germont confronts him), is another moment for Germont, where he is totally shocked and crushed by Alfredo's actions, and the full force of what he's done presses down on him (symbolized by the crowd pressing towards him while he looks on, aghast). Following that is a really brief moment of connection (Violetta semi-embracing him as she gets up, very-on-point to "Dio dai rimorsi ti salvi allora!" May God save you, then, from remorse!), and Germont's closer to figuring things out than he was before, he's gotten to the point where he extends his hands to her, he wants to make that connection, to help her, but he can't or won't hold on to her, and she slips away from him.
This is, by the way, a key part of Violetta's arc as well, which I haven't really talked about -- defying and fighting her fate to accepting it, and Netrebko is AMAZING, by the way, in selling the whole thing, the whole thing is brilliant. It's human connection that anchors us to life in this world, and she tries so hard for it in this scene: she connects with Germont briefly, but he fails to hold on, and she tries again with Alfredo, but Alfredo is so horrified by what he's done and thinks she can't forgive him that he turns away from her -- and now she has nothing holding her to life; she changes back from her red dress into her white slip and, at the head of the crowd, runs to Death, who gives her the white camellia -- and these words do not even a little bit capture how compelling and riveting this scene is, it's just a masterpiece of direction and staging completely melding with the music and Netrebko's singing and acting.
And then the last scene where Germont comes back and he finally, finally makes the first move towards connecting with Violetta (even then he's hesitant, but he overcomes it, he DOES make that move, and he almost smiles), he's finally ready, he holds on to her, embraces her as a daughter ("A stringervi qual figlia vengo al seno, o generosa") -- and it's too late; now she is the one who moves away from him, dying. (And of course plotwise it's always too late for Germont to realize he was mistaken, that's the whole point -- but this production also makes it about an arc forward for him.) And then he tries to reconnect to Alfredo through their shared pain, tries to touch him, and Alfredo rejects it. It's just an amazing (and depressing) performance, and clearly carefully thought out by both Decker and Hampson.
I love the staging of the ending -- I think the staging would make no sense to someone who didn't know the story, but if you do know, it is really cool. Annina, Germont, and even Alfredo are each alone in his or her own little despairing huddle on the stage -- with Violetta gliding between them, as the connection between them as she dies -- she takes Germont's hand at one point, and drops it as she moves past him, as he keeps his hand extended towards her for a moment, in a way that I'm convinced is meant to echo the hug they shared earlier. And then of course she does die, alone in the middle of the floor, and everyone else stays separated.
2016 Rebeka/Demuro/Hampson (mostly for the scenes with Germont)
The second link is a semi-staged production (Marina Rebeka, Francesco Demuro, Thomas Hampson) -- the orchestra is on stage and it's a really minimal staging. So honestly to me Rebeka is fine (I've read reviews that say she acts awfully healthy for someone dying of consumption, and I guess that's true) if not riveting like Netrebko, and Demuro was a little underwhelming to me (maybe just because to me Alfredo is a kind of underwhelming part in general, though Villazon sells it with his frenetic energy) -- but Hampson was totally amazing. His face is so expressive! And he gets to do a lot more with it here than he got to do in the Decker production. Here he gets to be the affectionate, supportive, though mistaken father that the text calls for; here he gets to respond dynamically instead of stiffly, and OH GOSH is it a relief after watching the Decker production.
There are just so many subtle touches he puts into it -- he sits down on a bench, sort of discouraged, after making his plea to Violetta, his head in his hands, and I don't think this is supported by the text but he is totally broadcasting that he's thinking she's not going to go through with it, and then about halfway through "Ah! dite alla giovine" he realizes what she's about to say and slowly looks up at her with this look of shock on his face. And then when she's asking him, later, to let Alfredo know about her sacrifice ("Conosca il sacrifizio") and he answers, "Sì!" both his face and voice -- and even his body language -- are so full of pain that you almost expect him to call it all off right there. And in the deathbed scene, the warmth that he brings in when he comes to embrace her, and the way his face changes as he realizes it really is too late -- AGH. I also think he and Rebeka have good (non-romantic) chemistry in their scenes together; I really buy a mutual filial feeling between them.
Okay, so now that I've dipped my toes into Verdi and shockingly liked it (at least I was shocked!), what other opera should I get obsessed with now? I, uh, might be currently going through any opera that Hampson has footage in, which means Thais and Tosca are on my list (ha, and after saying I liked sympathetic villains!) and maybe Arabella -- but even for Fleming and Hampson, and Strauss, I'm not sure if I can do it, the synopsis looks incredibly boring to me.
no subject
Date: 2018-03-25 03:57 am (UTC)