{"id":4404,"date":"2018-06-07T09:38:25","date_gmt":"2018-06-07T08:38:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.larkreviews.co.uk\/?p=4404"},"modified":"2018-06-07T09:38:25","modified_gmt":"2018-06-07T08:38:25","slug":"investec-opera-holland-park-la-traviata","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/?p=4404","title":{"rendered":"Investec Opera Holland Park: La Traviata"},"content":{"rendered":"

I first encountered La Traviata<\/em> when I was about nine. My father, who wasn\u2019t actually a great classical music man, saw it at Royal Opera House with my mother and fell in love with all those fabulous Verdi melodies. So he bought \u201cnew fangled\u201d LPs of La Traviata to play on his recently acquired three speed record player. For a long time the house resounded to Verdi\u2019s rich and lovely tunes \u2013 many of them in lilting triple time \u2013 and I soaked them up like blotting paper. A lifetime later, of course, I\u2019ve learned to appreciate this take on Dumas\u2019s La Dame aux Camelias<\/em>, in turn based on a true story about hedonism, passion and illness, rather more thoughtfully.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

In Opera Holland Park\u2019s new production Lauren Fagan gives a sensitive, intelligent account of Violetta. She took a little while to warm up on press night (nerves?) but once she got there it was a magnificent performance: passionate, convincing and thrilling with some stupendous top notes. Her Alfredo, Matteo Desole, an impressive tenor likewise rapidly got better after a lacklustre start. By the time they reach the deathbed scene in Act 4 their rendering of that supremely simple duet over pizzicato strings was beautiful.<\/p>\n

There is strong support from bass Stephen Gadd and from \u00a0Laura Woods as Flora. The latter has a glorious wine dark voice, effectively an old fashioned contralto, which is a striking contrast to Fagan\u2019s soaring soprano.<\/p>\n

Sterling work from the orchestra under Matthew Kofi Waldren\u2019s baton underpins the whole. This music is full of colour and Waldren allows us to see and hear it all \u2013 assisted by the clear acoustic in this venue which places the orchestra on the level in front of the stage. The work from the brass during the deathbed scene is especially noteworthy. It\u2019s surprising how well the sound works here when you consider that the auditorium is open to the elements at the sides and you can hear the odd peacock, goose, aircraft or park reveller.<\/p>\n

Director Rodula Gaitanou makes interesting dramatic use of a large chorus and ensures that the story telling is clear. I like Cordelia Chisholm\u2019s ingenious set too. Built on a huge saucepan shaped quasi joist angled across the stage it offers an adaptable intimate space beneath the \u201cpan\u201d and more public area for parties and so on along the length of the \u201chandle.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is altogether an enjoyable production which does the piece real justice. My father died in 1997. He would have been 96 this month. I think he would have approved.<\/p>\n

Susan Elkin<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I first encountered La Traviata when I was about nine. My father, who wasn\u2019t actually a great classical music man, saw it at Royal Opera House with my mother and fell in love with all those fabulous Verdi melodies. So … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4404"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4404"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4404\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4406,"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4404\/revisions\/4406"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}