Verdi - La Traviata
by Marta Domingo
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Actor: Ania Alkimova, James Conlon, Renato Bruson, Renee Fleming, Rolando VillazonDirector: Marta Domingo
Brand: Uni
DVD: Region Code 0
Audio: English (Unknown); German (Subtitled); English (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); Italian (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); Italian (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0
Format: Digital Sound, DTS Surround Sound, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.78:1
Running Time: 144 minutes
Published: 2011-10-24
DVD Release Date: 2007-10-30
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Decca
DVD Reviews of Verdi - La Traviata
DVD Review: Sontuoso
Summary: 4 Stars
Let us hope that the Alfredo, Rolando Villazon, recovers quickly and in full from the unspecified difficulties that, at this writing, have forced him to cancel approximately half a year of engagements, and may have contributed to performances earlier this year suggesting a vocal crisis. In the 2006 Los Angeles TRAVIATA, he improves on his promising Alfredo opposite Anna Netrebko a year earlier at Vienna (preserved on DG DVD and CD). The phrasing is more mature and pointed, the burnished tone and virile address much as before, and the portrayal marked by less exaggeration and straining for effect, although that last may have something to do with his being liberated from Decker's cretinous production. He is physically and vocally matched to this role in a way that makes me think of di Stefano, and I hope that the similarities do not extend too far -- a di Stefanoesque premature burnout would be a great loss for us all. He cements his status as one of the front-rank documented Alfredos by making even the cabaletta "O mio rimorsa" (no more than pro forma early Verdi on the page) sound very nearly like great music.
Renato Bruson, as Germont pere, has appeared in lead roles all over the world since his professional debut as Count di Luna in 1961, and had reached the great age of 70 by the date of this performance. Germont has long been a Bruson specialty, and he recorded it commercially opposite Renata Scotto and Alfredo Kraus (Muti/EMI) almost 30 years ago, when he was the youngest singer of the principals, playing the oldest character. We all of us are at the mercy of time, and one struggles to write about the new performance without recourse to the patronizing. My first impulse, for example, was to call his work here "courageous," but that would not do justice to the full effect. I suppose the best way of putting it across the plate is to say that you will look long and hard to find a 70-year-old baritone who can perform Germont on this level, and who commits so little for which any apology is necessary. The learned Mr. Davis's editorial review accuses Bruson of mistaking stiffness for authority; I respectfully dissent. This is a Germont who is stubbornly of his time and his milieu, intelligent and capable of feeling but not easily swayed by sentiment, nor dissuaded from a considered course of action. Watch him carefully in the long encounter with Violetta in Act II, consider who Germont is and what he believes, and ask yourself if the veteran Bruson does not get more of it right than at least three-fourths of the Germonts you have seen (if you have such a frame of reference). In the beginning, he is brusque but never menacing or heavy-handed. He has the determination and conviction we want and expect from a Germont, and an appropriate quality of encroaching frailty and mortality that we very rarely get; this colors all of his appearance and interactions. Look at him and listen to him when Violetta repeats back in questioning form, with surprise, the information that Germont has *two* children -- in his short response there is a mingling of paternal love and pride and a distracted quality (as if this has come out absentmindedly), a desire to move the conversation along and continue to drive the agenda. When Violetta asks him to embrace her as a daughter, he seems both touched and slightly embarrassed. In his appearance and manner, Bruson is Giorgio Germont to the life, and for the greater duration of the time he was on stage, I was struck more by how much of that burgundy velvet voice he has left than by what the passage of the years has rubbed away. The fortes are not always ideally controlled, and the climax of the entreaty to Alfredo, the chestnut "Di provenza," does not come easily, but it would be a harder heart than mine that could remain unmoved by this "Di provenza." For me, it was the most affecting part of the evening: an opportunity to watch and listen to one of the last living, working links to an idiomatic performance tradition in Italian opera that, if not dying, is certainly not in the thriving estate that it was 40 years ago. While this L.A. audience carries on a bit too much for my taste, stopping the show with applause after essentially every discrete number, occasionally to the detriment of musical continuity, Bruson richly deserves the loud "bravo" that some male spectator shouts after that aria concludes, and the ovation that follows. Had I been there, I certainly would have added to its volume.
To Renée Fleming's Violetta, the reaction is more ambivalent. Fleming's basic persona is a warm and inviting one. She looks smashing in Giovanni Agostinucci's period costumes, and she excels as the gracious hostess of Act I. We know precisely what Alfredo means in Act II when he sings blissfully of her "gentle smile of love," for we have already seen abundant evidence of it. The shaping and deployment of the great Act III aria "Addio del passato" are clearly the work of a major singer. Too, Fleming has worked hard at the fioritura. In Act I it still *sounds* like work, but it is a dutiful and conscientious effort. The trill at "Ora son forte" in Act III is, wonder of wonders, excellent (I even checked it against that of an esteemed recorded Violetta whom one would expect to be better at this sort of thing, and the impression held). Her ripe-sounding tone is not ideal for this part, to my ears, and there are long stretches of the role requiring that she take up residence in high altitudes where she would be more comfortable making only brief visits. She wisely avoids the unwritten high E-flat at the end of "Sempre libera," but does anyone really care anymore? (One breed of Italian opera buff used to claim that any Violetta who failed to sing that note was a failed Violetta, no matter what went on for the remaining two-plus hours. One hopes that this breed has become extinct.) My reservations about the performance are more about questionable stylistic and dramatic choices on the soprano's part than the purely vocal matters. Although this is not as mannered a performance as her most divisive ones of recent years have been, there are oddities. What effect, for example, is achieved -- other than a precious kind of distinction for the sake of it -- when the musically important word "misterioso" (in "Ah fors é lui") is minced out in five truncated, detached notes, rather than ones bound together in a legato phrase? Violetta's great plea "Amami, Alfredo" near the end of Act II is similarly sectioned out rather than unfurled, although there it seems less a mannerism than an unwisely slow tempo choice; she has to attack it in pieces because she otherwise could not breathe through it. Perhaps the most moving music in the opera, Violetta's "Alfredo, Alfredo, di questo core" (sung upon her awakening from her faint at Flora's Act II party), is also too slow -- not only in and of itself but in relation to the ebb and flow of the majestic ensemble of which it is the cornerstone -- and the vocalism is weighted with needless lily-gilding affectations to boot. Often I had the sense that conductor James Conlon was not so much *complicit* as he was *compliant*. Every one of the points of the score where I felt the music was being pulled out of shape so that the singer could overmilk a phrase or exaggerate some dramatic point, was a Violetta passage (Act II's "Ah, dite alla giovine" is one more in the pile of exhibits).
A final word on the topic of exaggeration: Fleming's histrionics in the crucial Violetta/Germont confrontation are not well calibrated, and I am not sure whether the blame for this should be laid on her, director Marta Domingo, or both (from prior experience with Fleming and Domingo separately, I tend to suspect the soprano). More subtlety and a gradual build to despair are needed here. Fleming does so much audible sobbing, gasping, and vocal thickening to suggest singing through tears that at moments when the anguish is supposed to ratchet up, she has left herself nowhere to go -- she can only still more heavily underline what she already has been doing. Violetta Valery is a sensitive woman of deep feeling and tragic predicaments, yes, but there are other sides to her: stoicism, a core of iron, and an innate nobility that Giorgio Germont picks up on almost immediately. The Violettas of Albanese and Callas, de los Angeles and Scotto, Caballé and Cotrubas, Stratas and (though her complete performance is beset with other problems) Netrebko evidenced this. They were very different singers and very different women, but they knew where the dramatic keys were in the scene, and they knew how to make sure we did as well. This is the greatest shortcoming of Fleming's Violetta and of this entire production -- in such an important scene, this remarkable character is little more than a teary matron hanging over the arm of a couch, all but drowning out the baritone with Lucy Ricardoesque sobs.
The Los Angeles Opera Orchestra and Chorus perform laudably for Conlon, whose work is sensible and proportionate when he is not overindulging the soprano. Marta Domingo's production eschews eccentricity without eschewing initiative -- most of the central action is sympathetically and intelligently worked out, and there are interesting things going on around the margins. I particularly liked the treatment of Annina, whose love for her mistress and grief at her impending loss come through more strongly here than is usually the case (the comprimario singers, this is a good time to say, are uniformly excellent). This surely would be a candidate for inclusion on any list of the most visually beautiful opera DVDs available at present. Decor is sumptuous and colorful (director Domingo herself has a background in design, and her credentials presumably influenced the shape of Agostinucci's costumes and sets). The picture quality has a true cinematic sheen. The ubiquitous video director Brian Large continues to demonstrate that he is ubiquitous with reason; what he chooses to emphasize is always pertinent, often telling. He even gets good reaction shots from the choristers playing guests in Violetta's Act I party, which Domingo has imaginatively staged al fresco.
And so, for a traditional TRAVIATA with state-of-the-art audio/visual credits, a formidable contender. The most ardent fans of Fleming, or those who feel they will be untroubled by what I describe as musical and histrionic infelicities marring an intermittently impressive Violetta, should feel free to add a star.
Description of Verdi - La Traviata
Opera superstars Renée Fleming and Rolando Villazón star in the sumptuous 2006 Los Angeles production of Verdi's tragic masterpiece, La Traviata. This performance was the highlight of James Conlon's much-anticipated inaugural season as the music director of Los Angeles Opera, a post that followed his impressive tenure at the Paris National Opera. The lavish production was filmed in Hi-Definition Widescreen to capture all of the excitement and drama on stage. Veteran Verdi baritone Renato Bruson rounds out this dynamic ensemble. Renée Fleming's heart-breaking portrayal of Violetta, as captured on this extraordinary DVD, has earned her rave reviews from press and Rolando Villazón returns to the role that made him an international powerhouse after his critically-acclaimed, soldout performances at the 2005 Salzburg Festival.This superb 2006 production of the Los Angeles Opera's La Traviata stars Renée Fleming, who joins the ranks of the elite handful of sopranos whose vocal and acting talents make their portrayals memorable. Her Violetta Valéry is a vulnerable figure torn between self-indulgence and love, sacrificing personal happiness to become a victim of the social mores of mid-19th-century bourgeois France. Fleming's acting captures the complexity of the character and her vocalism is flawless. She negotiates the wild coloratura of Act One with aplomb, and is stunning in the lyric passages that pervade the opera, and touching in her scenes with her lover, Alfredo, and his father. Her singing is free of the mannerisms that have sometimes crept into her work and at the same time she brings countless personal touches to the role, phrasing and verbal emphases that shed fresh light on the character. Fleming is a great Violetta, and this DVD proves it.
She's blessed with Rolando Villazón as Alfredo. He brings fiery passion to the role of the impetuous lover, convincing in his anger at what he thinks is her betrayal, and in his regrets in their last-act deathbed reconciliation. His singing is on par with his acting, the voice ringing in climaxes, scaled down to sweet lyricism in the love scenes, husky, almost baritone-like in the more overtly dramatic scenes. As his father, Giorgio Germont, the veteran baritone Renato Bruson tends to mistake stiffness for authority and he's on the dry side vocally, lacking the colors that can make Germont's four-square arias interesting. The smaller parts are capably done and conductor James Conlon leads a thrilling, performance, shaping phrases idiomatically.
Stage director Marta Domingo's direction is firmly traditional, with sets and costumes by Giovanni Agostinucci that reflect the period. The first-act party scene in which we are introduced to the characters is imaginatively moved to the terrace of Violetta's house where the greenery, tables, and openness lend a fresh perspective to an opera that grows increasingly darker. By contrast, Flora's party, where Alfredo denounces the hapless Violetta, is draped in the red of demi-monde Paris. The big stage, so useful in the rest of the opera, tends to be too big for the intimate last act. Surely Violetta, down to her last 10 sous, should be in a more humble abode. The opening of this act also finds the only trace of directorial heavy-handedness. We all know the consumptive Violetta dies at the end, but Domingo places Fleming on a bier-like bed during the prelude and introduces a black-clad figure of Death who swoops into the scene. Fortunately, the rest of the act is free of such meaningless indulgences. Bryan Large's video direction is excellent too, always focused where it should be and without the excessive tight close-ups that distract from the singers by showing their tonsils. --Dan Davis
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