Samantha Clarke (Violetta Valery) - Andrew Moran (Marquis d'Obigny) -Angela Hogan (Flora Bervoix) - Opera Australia chorus in "La Traviata". |
Composed by
Giuseppe Verdi – Libretto by Francesco
Maria Piave
Directed by
Sarah Giles – Conducted by Jessica Cottis
Set and
Costumes designed by Charles Davis – Lighting designed by Paul Jackson
Revival
Choreography by Allie Graham – Intimacy coordinator –Michelle Miall
Joan
Sutherland Theatre. Sydney Opera House until March 14 2024
Performance
on January 10th 2024 reviewed by BILL STEPHENS.
The first
offering chosen for Opera Australia’s 2024 Summer Season by guest Creative
Director, Lindy Hume is a new production of “La Traviata” directed by Sarah
Giles and shared with Opera Queensland, State Opera South Australia and West
Australian Opera.
While it is
hoped that Opera Australia audiences will still be offered opportunities to
enjoy revivals of its treasured Moshinsky production of this opera, Sarah Giles
new production, provides a refreshingly new perspective on one of the most
popular operas in the canon.
With this
production, Giles explores the role of courtesans in a decadent society, without
placing her production in any specific period. Designer Charles Davis has taken advantage of
this to provide lavish costumes which hint at the fashions of Charles James,
Dior, Vivienne Westwood and Valentino.
During the
overture the audience is privy to a post-coital scene in Violetta Valery’s
bedroom where Violetta (Samantha Clarke) awakens with her lover, Baron Douphol
(Richard Anderson) still asleep beside her. Her guests are already assembling
in the adjacent rooms.
Before taking
his leave, Douphol presents Violetta with a stunning gown. As the audience
watches on, a maid assists Violetta into the gown in which she dazzles her
guests as she enters the adjoining ballroom to greet them.
It is the
first of several captivating stagings devised by Giles which allows the
audience insights into the practicalities of Violetta’s life as a courtesan.
Samantha Clarke as Violetta in Opera Australia's "La Traviata". |
Later, as the party draws to its conclusion, Violetta realises she has fallen in love with the dashing young Alfredo Germont (Kang Wang) but unwell and exhausted, collapses on to her bed in her bedroom as her guests begin to leave.
Her maid
helps her out of the gown, freeing her from the restrictive undergarments. Then
alone in the now-empty ballroom, Violetta reflects on her lifestyle, launching
into the famous aria, “Sempre Libera” in which she declares her decision to
live life to the full.
Samantha Clarke ( Violetta Valery) - Richard Anderson (Baron Douphol) - Angela Hogan (Flora Bervoix) - Andrew Moran (Marquis d'Obigny) in "La traviata" |
All this
takes place in Davis’ ingenious setting which depicts three rooms of Violetta’s
house, allowing the audience to view the action in each of the rooms at the
same time.
Although this allows more focus on Violetta, and is particularly effective for the staging of the scenes between Violetta and Alfredo, the ballroom scenes, where the guests are confined to the back of the stage, look uncomfortable and crowded.
Australian
soprano, Samantha Clarke, makes a particularly impressive Opera Australia debut
as Violetta. Her luscious soprano voice, considerable acting skills, elegant demeanour
and ability to display her glamorous gowns with the flair of a catwalk model,
combine to make her portrayal of the glamorous courtesan transfixing.
Petah Cavallaro (Annina) - Samantha Clarke (Violetta) in "La Traviata" |
Her final
scene however, for which she wipes away her make-up in full view of the
audience, dons a shabby nightdress and waits for death in a room stripped bare
of her possessions, is ruined by an inexplicable directorial decision to have
another actor, also in full view of the audience, replace her on the chaise on
which she has just died, surrounded by the grieving Alfredo, his father, her
doctor and her maid, so that she can rise up and walk off into the sunrise.
The changes of
emphasis in Giles’ staging provides opportunity for New Zealand baritone,
Phillip Rhodes as Alfredo’s father, Giorgio Germont, to nuance his
interpretation towards a more sympathetic depiction of the reasons compelling Germont’s
demands that Violetta give up Alfredo,
even though the inclusion of actors acting out those reasons upstage while
Germont was making, provided an unnecessary distraction.
Throughout, the
supporting roles were superbly interpreted, with Angela Hogan as Violetta’s
confident, Flora Bervoix; Richard
Anderson as her overbearing patron,
Baron Douphol; Shane Lowrencev as Doctor Grenvil; and Petah Cavallaro as
her servant/companion, Annina, being particularly outstanding.
Conductor,
Jessica Cottis, making her first appearances in the Opera Australia orchestra
pit, kept the production moving at a cracking pace, impressed with her
attention to detail, which elicited responsive confident performances not only
from her principal singers but also from the Opera Australia Orchestra and
Opera Australia Chorus.
Although not
without flaws, this attractive production offers fresh insights into a familiar
and favourite opera. It is superbly performed by an outstanding cast, and certainly
deserved the enthusiastic response it received from its audience.
All images unless marked otherwise are by Keith Saunders
This review first published in the digital edition of CITY NEWS on 15.01.24