Opera reviews: La Traviata, Bellini's Norma and Der Rosenkavalier at the Proms

4 / 5 stars
La Traviata

A THRILLINGLY-sung La Traviata brings Verdi's tragedy back to Glyndebourne with a bang; Bellini's Norma finds a star with an enthralling voice worthy of the demanding role; magnificent performances in Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier as part of the Proms at the Royal Albert Hall

Verdi, La Traviata, Glyndebourne, Bellini, Norma, Holland Park, Clare ColvinA thrillingly-sung La Traviata brings Verdi's tragedy back to Glyndebourne with a bang[PH]

Verdi has been neglected at Glyndebourne over the years but in Tom Cairns’s new production of La Traviata, amends are made to Italy’s greatest composer. Cairns has given the opera an intelligent update, creating an era that could be almost any time in the 20th century or even today. Hildegard Bechtler’s sets are abstract, with sparse furniture and misty backgrounds that suggest a Paris salon or garden of a country retreat.   

The focus is on the agonised triangle of Violetta, her lover Alfredo and his repressive father Giorgio Germont. Each scene begins with Violetta lying on a bed by the side of the stage, an image both of the illness that is destroying her and the moral frailty of her existence as a courtesan, condemned by respectable society.

Russian soprano Venera Gimadieva of the Bolshoi Opera is memorable in the title role. Her voice is thrilling, wonderfully controlled and expressive. She is also physically ideal, having a dark fragile beauty that recalls the real Lady of the Camellias, Marie Duplessis, immortalised by the Alexandre Dumas novel on which Verdi based his opera.

Michael Fabiano has a fine tenor voice, though there’s a touch of brash American College boy about his Alfredo. Tassis Christoyannis, unlike Dmitri Hvorostovsky at Covent Garden, shows that the father has sympathy for the plight of the woman from whom he demands the sacrifice of Alfredo’s love for the sake of Germont family honour.  

With Mark Elder as conductor, the London Philharmonic Orchestra’s playing is flawless, dramatically shaped and strong on detail. La Traviata’s absence since 1988 from Glyndebourne is now redeemed. 

Verdi, La Traviata, Glyndebourne, Bellini, Norma, Holland Park, Clare ColvinBellini's Norma finds a star with an enthralling voice worthy of the demanding role [PH]

Bellini’s Norma is a rarely performed Italian “bel canto” opera, mainly because few sopranos can meet the demands of the title role. With Yvonne Howard, Opera Holland Park has found a Norma who has the voice and presence to hold us enthralled in Bellini’s showpiece aria “Casta Diva”. 

Norma is a Druid priestess, secretly in love with the enemy Roman commander Pollione, though as she has two children by him, it’s surprising the affair is undiscovered. Young priestess Adalgisa unwittingly confesses her own affair, the lover being revealed as two-timing Pollione (Joseph Wolverton). There follows one of opera’s renowned soprano duets, between Howard’s Norma and mezzo Heather Shipp’s Adalgisa. 

Sadly, Olivia Fuchs’s staging is at odds with the music in setting Bellini’s tale of the Druids’ uprising against Roman forces in a contemporary trouble spot. There is the obligatory rape scene during the overture when militia men in combat fatigues abuse women followers of the Druids, filming the atrocities on mobile phones.

Time we returned to the composer’s original intentions and listened to the overture (City of London Sinfonia under Peter Robinson) undistracted by on-stage business. 

After the fuss about the physique of Tara Erraught’s Octavian in Richard Jones’s Glyndebourne staging of Der Rosenkavalier, it was good to confirm her casting fully justified - and her costume modified - in the semi-staged version that kicked off the Proms 150th Strauss anniversary celebrations.  

Erraught has a gorgeous mezzo voice and a fine sense of comedy when cross-dressed as maid Mariandel. Kate Royal was magnificent as the Marschallin and last-minute replacement Louise Alder a feisty Sophie, primed for fisticuffs with her unwanted husband-to-be Baron Ochs (Franz Hawlata). Lovingly conducted by Robin Ticciati, it was a performance to treasure.

Verdi’s La Traviata, Glyndebourne Festival Opera, Nr Lewes, East Sussex (Tickets: 01273 81500; £50-£250, glyndebourne.com); Bellini’s Norma, Opera Holland Park, London W8 (Tickets: 0300 999 1000; £15-£75, rbkc.gov.uk/subsites/investecoperahollandpark); Richard Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier, BBC Proms 6, Royal Albert Hall, London SW7 (bbc.co.uk/proms/ 0845 401 5040)

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