Verdi’s ‘La Traviata’ @ The Dallas Opera

Photos by Kyle Flubacker and Curtis Brown; art courtesy of The Dallas Opera

—Wayne Lee Gay

For Giuseppe Verdi's La Traviata, it's ultimately all about the singing. And The Dallas Opera's current production presents Verdian singing of the highest order.

Three very meaty, very challenging principal roles adorn this work from the golden years of Verdi's career—and his musical setting of this tragic tale, adapted from a novel and stage play by Alexandre Dumas fils, shows off Verdi at the height of his ability to create musical personification of complex characters. 

Verdi was unequaled at writing singable vocal lines, and he composed his operas in an era that was, based on the amount of operatic activity at the time, blessed with an abundance of fine singers. It also means that he doesn't necessarily take it easy on his singers. In addition to everything else, Traviata tests the stamina of the leading voices, with aria after aria in quick succession. But the rewards are great for singers who can build character, match the multiple moods, and hit all the notes. 

And Dallas Opera has, in Chilean-born soprano Yaritza Véliz, a Violetta who is coming into her own on the international operatic stage, with recent and upcoming engagements at Covent Garden, Glyndebourne, and Santa Fe. Her range is strong and steady from top to bottom, and effortlessly expressive at all dynamic levels. Character-wise, the role of Violetta flies from ecstasy to despair, from disdain to deep empathy, from cold pragmatism to passionate love—often in a matter of seconds. And Véliz can handle it, all the while singing superbly. 

Mexican tenor Javier Camarena matches Véliz perfectly as Alfredo Germont; his voice is likewise sturdy and capable. His dramatic task is somewhat different, however, in that he must portray a young man capable of falling deeply in love but not quite capable of living up to what that means. Needless to say, sparks fly and passions flow in their scenes together.

Into this love nest looms Mexican baritone Alfredo Daza as the elder Germont; Daza's rich baritone and ominous stage presence musically and dramatically match Véliz and Camerena. Tenor Andrew Turner and mezzo-soprano Siphokazi Molteno are wickedly decadent as Gastone and Flora, and dancers Nicholas Sipes and Emily Cardea deliver a steamy, quasi-violent dance in the Party Scene in Act III.  

Mexican conductor Iván López Reynoso makes his Dallas Opera debut with this production. His dramatic delivery of the opening phrase clearly announces an appropriately intense reading of the score, which he delivers in high Verdian style, with a fine combination of precision and passion.  

This new production (co-produced with Santa Fe Opera), with stage direction by Louisa Muller and sets/costumes by Christopher Oram, shifts the setting from Paris in the 1850s to Paris in the 1930s. Traviata can support this shift of time--though there are gains and losses in the process. Director Muller's concept of Violetta as a modern, independent woman is more believable in the twentieth century; soprano Véliz walks confidently in a pair of pants in the garden scene. Muller and Oram clearly—and quite reasonably—view Traviata as something of a parable of the destructive power of the traditional patriarchy, and they hammer that point by placing the elder Germont in a military uniform in the style of Marshal Petain or General DeGaulle. 

Staging the whole opera as a dream flashback for Violetta from her deathbed isn't entirely seamless, and in fact is a little confusing. Muller stages the passing of revelers in the street—traditionally offstage—as an on-stage nightmare for the dying Violetta, potentially confusing to viewers who aren't familiar with the traditional staging. Putting Gastone and Flora in comical cross-gendered costumes at the parti es(as part of the aura of general decadence) is another touch that enhances but potentially confuses at the same time.

In the plus column, Oram's costumes and sets are brilliantly colorful in the party scenes. The opera and the story were designed to entertain, thrill, and evoke a few tears. Combined with the brilliant musical performances, this version of La Traviata does just that.

WHEN: October 18, 20, 23, 26, and 27, 2024
WHERE: Winspear Opera House, Dallas
WEB: dallasopera.org