La Traviata, Royal Opera House 2008 — Diana Damrau as Violetta in the 2014 revival of Verdi’s La Traviata. Photograph: Catherine Ashmore/Royal Opera House

The Royal Opera's La Traviata celebrates 150 performances – watch two clips with a classic cast

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Richard Eyre’s Royal Opera production of Verdi’s opera marked its 150th performance and its 12th revival on the 18 May opening night. Here are two clips from a 2009 production, with Antonio Pappano conducting and Renée Fleming, Joseph Calleja and Thomas Hampson in the title roles

Richard Eyre’s 1994 production of La Traviata for the Royal Opera House locates the action in the year of its 1853 premiere, and follows Verdi’s stage directions exactly – every item referred to in the libretto is physically present on stage.

In his review of the opening night in November 1994, Andrew Clements wrote

Eyre’s vision is uncontroversial [and] affectionately traditional … The Royal Opera needs a Traviata that can withstand regular revival, and this certainly has the feeling of being built to last … Eyre has gone about his work carefully and intelligently. There is common sense about everything he does with the chorus and with the ways in which he plays the protagonists against each other. The whole handling of Alfredo and Violetta’s relationship, in the first act, projects all its crosscurrents – its will-she, won’t-she havering – simply and unfalteringly: real people behave like this, and Eyre’s Traviata, above all, is about real people and their personal tragedies.

Watch Renée Fleming sing Sempre libera – video

George Hall wrote of the 2009 production, which was also filmed for DVD:

Rarely has this staging been presented as strongly as it is by its current cast. Renée Fleming is in complete command as Verdi’s courtesan, facing down the awesome difficulties of her big first act solo scene with assurance and maintaining a strong tone inflected with appropriate colours. Dramatically, she is never short of initiative, occasionally of a stagey kind but more often delivered with a sense of conviction that goes to the heart of Violetta’s emotional truth.

Calleja’s Alfredo presents an ideal combination of the vulnerable and the headstrong when he hurls his winnings at Violetta in the gambling scene, his violence is genuinely shocking.

Watch Renée Fleming and Joseph Calleja perform Parigi, o Cara – video

The original Covent Garden production was conducted by the 82-year-old Georg Solti. Angela Gheorghiu was Eyre’s first Violetta; other singers who’ve taken on the lead roles include Anna Netrebko, Jonas Kaufmann, Dmitri Hvorostovsky (a trio hailed as “giving three of the finest performances you will ever see”), Charles Castronovoa, Vittorio Grigolo, Diana Damrau and Simon Keenlyside.