VERDI, G.: Traviata (La) [Opera] (Aix-en-Provence Festival, 2011)
La traviata
Composer: Verdi, Giuseppe
Librettist/Text Author: Piave, Francesco Maria
Conductor: Langree, Louis
Orchestra: London Symphony Orchestra
Chorus: Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir
Alfredo Germont: Castronovo, Charles
Annina: Scarabelli, Adelina
Barone Douphol: Smoriginas, Kostas
Dottor Grenvil: Piccolo, Maurizio Lo
Flora: De La Muela, Silvia
Gastone: Nunez Camelino, Manuel
Giorgio Germont: Tezier, Ludovic
Giuseppe: Turi, Mati
Marchese d'Obigny: Mastroni, Andrea
Violetta Valery: Dessay, Natalie
Set Designer: Dardel, Alexandre de
Costume Designer: Gervaise, Virginie
Stage Director: Sivadier, Jean-Francois
Television Director: Kent, Don
Date of Production: 07-2011
Venue: Theatre de l'Archeveche, Aix-en-Provence
Playing Time: 02:18:54
Catalogue Number: P390
Libretto
La traviata
Synopsis
La traviata
From Marie Duplessis to Marguerite Gautier and then Violetta Valery lies the rift that separates the real life from the work of art, the news story from the myth. The rift originates with a pseudonym (Marie Duplessis was in fact named Alphonsine Pessis), grows with a nickname (the famous 'Lady of the Camellias') and produces a noun, a word as melodic as it is cutting: La Traviata. Literally 'the fallen woman', the word denotes the woman who has left the path of social convention and bourgeois hypocrisy, the figure of the courtesan who incited both fear and desire in the Nineteenth Century.
Using the word as the title for an opera based on the novel by Alexander Dumas fils, Verdi and his librettist Piave produced the quintessential melodrama, that of a courtesan who is the victim of true love. The courtesan's tragic destiny is rendered through a score replete with irresistibly vacillating emotions, carefree toasts, heart-rending duos and lyrical elegies.
