Every year opera companies stock their calendars with a few of the most popular works in the repertory. But once the curtain goes up, there’s no guarantee surefire titles will produce operatic magic. So many things can go wrong, and many did in Los Angeles Opera’s shared production of Giuseppe Verdi’s La traviata, which opened Saturday at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion and runs through April 27.
Perhaps, like wine, some productions don’t travel well. To this reviewer, the staging, directed by Shawna Lucey and designed by Robert Innes Hopkins, seemed gawdy and cheap. The glittery, joyous party you thought you were invited to was somewhere else.
The quality of the singing from American soprano Rachel Willis-Sørensen (as Violetta), Armenian tenor Liparit Avetisyan (as Alfredo), and South Korean baritone Kihun Yoon (as Germont) under the direction of James Conlon might have made up for the production’s visual shortcomings but for the most part did not.
In 2023, Willis-Sørensen made a strong impression in her LA Opera debut as Desdemona in Verdi’s Otello. She captured the grace and innocence of her character while displaying a vivid soprano voice. The role of Verdi’s consumptive courtesan heroine, Violetta Valéry, is even more challenging — dramatically, psychologically, and vocally. On opening night, Willis-Sørensen was not up to it. Her voice is amber-hued in the lower register and flexible in the midrange, but while she’s capable of coloratura, she tends to waver off pitch as the vocal line rises. The deeper issue was her inability to capture the emotionally conflicted nature of Violetta, the extreme contrasts that drive her to frenetically declare, “Sempre libera” (Ever free).
Having a dashing, dynamic tenor as Alfredo Germont, a man capable of sweeping Violetta off her feet, would have helped. Unfortunately, Avetisyan is all but dwarfed by his co-star. He might have convinced her with the ardent strength of his voice, but his ardent declarations and swooning lacked lady-killer impact.
Musically, after the foreboding Prelude, the first act of La traviata depicts the glittering, starry realm of the Paris demimonde while foreshadowing the tragedy to come. The courtesans and patrons in this production were certainly not Paris A-listers, and the party flopped like a fallen souffle.
It is in the second act that Verdi’s creation becomes a heavyweight battle of wills, spurred by the introduction of the opera’s formidable baritone adversary, Giorgio Germont. Yoon’s performance provided that presence: self-consciously dignified in his demeanor and stentorian in vocal magnitude. It proved to be the spark Willis-Sørensen needed to elevate her performance. Conlon’s conducting also took on added dimensionality, emphasizing the tidal flow of emotions.
Alas, what Lucey’s direction accomplished in Act 2 collapsed in the Act 3 party scene into a tacky display of cross-dressing, foot fetishizing, and fanny spanking. Some contemporary productions strive to soften the most melodramatic aspects of Verdi’s opera. But with real drama at a minimum, Saturday’s performance gave in to excess. Even Conlon’s usually adroit conducting seemed determined to push the bombast meter to the max.
It’s not the show it should have been, and it’s certainly not a Traviata that will stand out in the company’s history.
