David McVicar’s staging of La Traviata has proved to be the kind of enduring production that opera companies want to have in their repertoire. Having been much performed in recent years, it is now being revived by Scottish Opera, the company that gave the premiere in 2008.
This is a firmly traditional production, albeit with psychological overtones. There is a suggestion that the opera is Alfredo’s remembrance of his love affair: the prelude plays out as Violetta’s empty apartment is closed up by retainers and a solitary Alfredo traverses the stage. The ensuing action is literally played out across her grave. Tanya McCallin’s sets are pure fin-de-siècle elegance (the action has been moved forward several decades from the date of the opera’s composition) but it is a sombre, funereal opulence with a striking monochrome colour scheme. Violetta’s sequence of dark, white and red frocks perhaps represents the different aspects of her personality as seen by Alfredo: the damned courtesan, the selfless angel and the seductive temptress. The garish flourishes of which McVicar is often so fond are kept to a minimum, with only a single cross-dressing gag in the act two party scene.
It still looks undeniably gorgeous. However, on other levels this revival isn’t an unqualified success. The opening scene is a visual treat but the action feels rather stilted. That the same was true of the original 2008 production makes me wonder if this is down to the staging as much as the input of the revival’s director Marie Lambert. The act two party fares rather better, but all the same this production is best in the intimate moments, particularly the final act, rather than the big set pieces. The same can be said of the cast led by young Russian soprano Gulnara Shafigullina and Dutch tenor Peter Gijsbertsen.
The singing is decent but the drama is often underwhelming. Shafigullina, who will be performing Tchaikovsky’s Iolanta with Scottish Opera next weekend, lacks the steely power to bring off the devil-may-care Violetta of act one, while Gijsbertsen portrays Alfredo as a poetic, sensitive soul whose anguish is rather more convincing than his initial ardour. In the secondary roles, young Scottish mezzo Catherine Backhouse stands out as a noble, rich-voiced Annina. Stephan Gadd as Germont senior lacks the necessary zeal in his confrontation with Violetta. Gadd comes across as altogether too reasonable to be persuasive, Shafigullina too ready to give up the man she loves.
In the pit, conductor David Parry and the Orchestra of Scottish Opera keep the momentum going, although a little more passion and sweep would be welcome at times.
- At Theatre Royal, Glasgow, until 2 December and touring in November. Details here.
