Easter 2 Monday - Young People and Opera: La Traviata at The Met

The Metropolitan Opera
Seating Chart

I was very fortunate when I was a kid living in New York City. My parents were subscribers to the Saturday matinees at the Metropolitan Opera at Lincoln Center. Our seats were located about a third of the way up in The Family Circle. I came to learn after many years in the house, those are still the best seats in the auditorium for the fusion of sound - the very essence of opera. It was those afternoons, way back in the late sixties and early seventies that solidified my life-long love affair with the opera. Thanks, mom and dad.


Yesterday, while I was waiting for the Live HD broadcast to begin, the cameras were panning the audience and I saw many young people attending the opera with their parents. I was filled with a profound sense of thanksgiving that these adults were continuing a tradition of sharing their passion for the opera and opening this amazing world to these young minds. I hope that fifty years from now, the opera is still opening new worlds to young generations of fans.


But why La Traviata? Why a very adult story about the love affair of a young man and his Parisian courtesan that ends in the heroine's death by tuberculosis? This certainly is not a "kid-friendly" tale?

Giuseppe Verdi
1813-1901

 Depending on which tradition you believe, La Traviata was either a disaster of monumental proportion or a Venetian triumph. I tend to lean towards the former based on the writings of the composer two days after the premiere in Venice, March 1853. To his secretary-pupil Emanuele Muzio, Verdi wrote: "La Traviata last night, fiasco. Is it my fault or the fault of the singers? Time will tell." To Ricordi, his publisher: "I am sorry to give you the sad news, but I cannot hide the truth. La Traviata was a fiasco. Let us look for the causes. This is the story. Addio, addio." To Luccardi, the sculptor, in Rome: "It was a fiasco! A solid fiasco! I don't know whose fault it was: it is better not to talk about it. I won't say anything about the music; and allow me to say nothing about the singers. Give this news to Jacovacci [the impresario of the Teatro Apollo in Rome] and say this is my answer to his last letter, in which he asks me about one of the cast." 

Natalie Dessay as Violetta
Act Two

On Saturday, none of that mattered, for the audience was treated to waves of melody and poignant music written by the great Italian composer that could not fail to inspire and touch the very heart. The cast featured Natalie Dessay, in her first Violetta at the Met. It was clear from her opening vocal entrance that Dessay was suffering from a cold. While the top of her voice was splendid, the middle and lower range were in and out all afternoon.

In her defense, the role of Violetta is one of the most difficult in the repertory. Act One calls for a coloratura soprano. In Act Two, the soprano has two big duets with Alfredo and Germont which calls for a more dramatic weight to the voice. In Act Three, the color of the voice is completely different as the composer calls for a more lyric quality.



Beverly Sills

I remember a story of a performance at New York's City Opera of La Traviata. The soprano that day finished Act One and called it a day; unable to continue. Beverly Sills, the General Manager of the company at that time was in a pickle. Somebody in the house, informed her that the soprano Ashley Putnam was attending the performance. Sills came to her at the first intermission and asked if she would sing the rest of the afternoon's performance. Not missing a beat, Putnam replied, "Happy to, now that the difficult part of the opera is over!" Apparently, Putnam brought down the house that afternoon with her willingness to step in and her performance. There is nothing like the opera!

I was impressed that Natalie Dessay decided to "go the distance" on Saturday. She deserves much credit. It was not her best performance but she still had the courage to sing. Here is the end of the first act.

Matthew Polenzani sang the role of Violetta's lover Alfredo. He has a nice voice and looks the part. Unfortunately, he was asked by the director, Willy Decker to do some bizarre things while singing. One example will suffice. In his cabaletta at the beginning of Act Two, Polenzani, singing in his underwear had to dress himself in order to run off  and deal with the couples growing debt. He barely got his pants on - forget about the tie and jacket. Really? How does a director get away with such nonsense at the expense of the music.

Giuseppe Verdi's La Traviata - Act One

Dmitri Hvorostovsky playing the role of Alfredo’s father, Germont, sang with great passion, lyricism, and style. His duet with Dessay in Act Two is why the opera still moves the hearts to this day. M. Owen Lee, a Roman Catholic priest and musicologist writes: "The love in that music ['Amami, Alfredo'], which surely owes something to the love Verdi found in Giuseppina Strepponi, is so strong, so clear, so true (even if not blessed by the Church) that it touches the heart of that strictest of conventional moralists, Alfredo's father. He becomes more of a father to the courtesan he comes to challenge than to the son for whose sake he intervenes. An honest man, he becomes for a fallen woman the true father she never had. 'Embrace me like a daughter,' she says when she rises to the sacrifice he asks. 'Then I shall be strong'" (Metropolitan Education Guide).

But the real champion of the afternoon was the incomparable music of Giuseppe Verdi. This was what touched my soul decades ago in the Family Circle on a Saturday afternoon. I did not understand the complex relationships happening on stage or the effects of tuberculosis on the human body. None of that really mattered.

What mattered was how the music could describe emotions and feelings that were too deep for words. This music spoke eternal truth to my soul that forever changed my life in a most positive direction. For that I will always be grateful.

Love One Another - Brian