photo by Marty Sohl/Metropolitan Opera
Dmitri Hvorostovsky & Natalie Dessay
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Giuseppe Verdi’s “La Traviata” returned to the Metropolitan Opera repertory this spring in the production, introduced last season, directed by Willy Decker and designed by Wolfgang Gussman—quirky, often off-putting, sometimes compelling as a train wreck you can’t look away from—in which ubiquitous symbolic elements are Violetta’s red dress, with couch to match; the ominous clock, ticking away the moments of her ebbing life, and Dr. Grenvil as Dr. Death; and the rough crowd she runs with, demanding entertainment and champagne, and taunting her and Alfredo by donning garish Violetta and Alfredo masks, and a bull mask for the last scenes, and even fielding doppelgängers, male and female, wearing the iconic scarlet dress. The performance considered here was the season’s second of eight, on April 10.
A raison d’être for this revival was not only Natalie Dessay’s first Met Violetta, but also her initial assumption of a role here that is not, essentially, a high coloratura one. Although she started tentatively—a vestige of the illness that kept her from the dress rehearsal and April 6 season premiere? or was she saving herself for the scena that concludes Act One?—she was on track by the end of the act, with a touching, contemplative “Ah, fors’è lui” and bravura “Sempre libera,” capped with a bright high E-flat. Aided by the sensitive conducting of Fabio Luisi, newly taking on the opera here, Dessay made the part of Violetta her own, singing lyrically and movingly in the emotional second act, and lending a delicate fil de voix, a thread of voice, to the first verse of “Addio. del passato,” singing the second more vehemently, and to her haunting swan song, “Prendi, quest’è l’immagine.”
Tenor Matthew Polenzani, resuming his assignment as Alfredo, offered a bel canto “De’ miei bollenti spiriti … Oh mio rimorso! Oh, infamia!” (one verse), through strangely obliged not just to air these confidences in Violetta’s presence, but to sing them directly to her as well. Dmitri Hvorostovsky, as père Giorgio Germont, demanded, in a honeyed “Pura siccome un angelo,” that Violetta make the unthinkable sacrifice of leaving Alfredo, and guilt-tripped his son, in “Di Provenza” and, after slugging him, sang a solicitous “No, non udrai rimproveri” (two verses), all in rich, chocolaty baritone tone.
Patricia Risley, the new Flora, donned tuxedo and mask to blend with the others, who included Jason Stearns, Kyle Pfortmiller, and Scott Scully, with Maria Zifchak, as the dour Annina, and Luigi Roni as the lugubrious doctor.
“La Traviata” will be transmitted live as part of the Met: Live in HD series and broadcast over the Toll Brothers-Metropolitan Opera International Radio Network on April 14 at 1 p.m. Further performances are on April 18 and 25 and May 2 at 7:30 p.m. and, with Steven White at the helm, on April 21 and 28 at 8:30 p.m. Visit www.metopera.org, telephone 212/362-6000, or come to the Met box office in Lincoln Center to purchase remaining tickets.