Lyric Opera 2018-2019 Issue 9 La Traviata

O P E R A N O T E S | L Y R I C O P E R A O F C H I C A G O 32 | February 16 - March 22, 2019 Woman.” is etymology has significance for the opera, since it can be read that the title character, Violetta, is the one to do the misleading; after all, she’s a courtesan, and when Germont confronts her in Act Two, he certainly feels that his son has been led astray. However, in the opera’s second half, we see a different side of the story, as Violetta herself seems more the victim of having been betrayed as she suffers and slowly expires, nearly alone and feeling abandoned in Paris. Verdi wrote La traviata for the Teatro La Fenice in Venice, a critical place for developing his operatic style; it was the house during the 1840s-1850s for which he wrote most frequently. La traviata was one of five operas he created for La Fenice (the others were Ernani , 1844; Attila , 1846; Rigoletto , 1851; and Simon Boccanegra , 1857). Named for the mythological Phoenix who rose out of the ashes, the house has been destroyed by fire three times (in 1792, 1836, and 1996) only to be rebuilt and remain a leading international performing venue up through today. e libretto for La traviata , written by Francesco Maria Piave (Verdi’s most frequent librettist), was based on La Dame aux camélias by Alexandre Dumas, fils. Verdi and Giuseppina Strepponi – his life partner who later became his wife – both read the novel (1848) and saw the play (1852) together in Paris. Strepponi, previously his leading soprano at the trium- phant premiere of his first hit, Nabucco (1841), became his trusted advisor from her extensive experience in the opera industry. ough it pushed society’s norms for them to live together unmarried (they didn’t officially become husband and wife until 1859), they remained devoted to each other for the rest of their lives. eir life together provides one of the background contexts for Verdi as he was writing La traviata . Although one of Verdi’s most beloved and often-performed operas, La traviata had a much bumpier beginning than one might anticipate. e word “fiasco” came up several times in Verdi’s own words about the work, and the initial reception was generally cool. After only nine performances, the opera was withdrawn. Once Verdi had revised it, the new version premiered a year later at the smaller Teatro San Benedetto, also in Venice. From the singers cast in the two productions and specific elements in the music (though Verdi downplayed the revisions, scholars suggest that some were quite substantial), in 1854 the opera fulfilled the potential Verdi always believed it had. is time, the reception was much stronger and Verdi now referred to it as a “furore” and an unmitigated success. e topic of women’s positions in society that weren’t rooted in the domestic sphere was bold in the 1850s and remains relevant today. We live in an era where gender dynamics are even more complicated; the growing identities around trans people and the #MeToo movement have uncovered much inequity between the ways all kinds of women are treated in a social system architecturally designed by and for men. Yet in this biased atmosphere of La traviata , the audience also witnesses how Giorgio Germont is affected by Violetta. He sees and acknowledges her dignity. While ultimately he still holds the upper hand regarding societal power in their duet, Violetta emerges as the more sympathetic, human, and fully developed character. Many recent interpretatios have focused on Violetta as a surrogate for Giuseppina Strepponi living with Verdi as an unmarried woman, a victim for pity and shame. A different emphasis reveals how much independence and self-assurance Violetta asserts as she stands up to the elder Germont in Act Two, only to be maligned and not taken seriously. She emerges as the truly decent and upright character as she forgives both father and son at the end. In the audience, we understand that onstage this opera’s heroine can’t get what she deserves at the end – fair treatment and a sanguine, respectable life with Alfredo. Yet the larger picture, offstage with the complementing story of Verdi in real life choosing to be with Strepponi, a strong, honorable woman, feels especially powerful today as it approaches more equitable goals within a long-term committed relationship. Naomi André is Associate Professor in Women’s Studies, the Department of Afro-American and African Studies, and the Associate Director for Faculty at the Residential College at the University of Michigan. TODD ROSENBERG From left, J’Nai Bridges as Flora and Adam Bonanni as Gastone with members of the Lyric Opera Chorus in La traviata (2013/14 season). “Une soirée chez La Païva,” painted by Aldophe Joseph omas Monticelli, shows that Paris’s famous courtesan clearly gave parties worthy of Verdi’s Violetta.