Fin de cycle

La Traviata
G.Verdi
Opéra de Lyon

Photo Opéra de Lyon

July 7 review (last performance of the run).
For further details about the cast and the production, see here.

Amazing how 15 days of performances can make a difference on an orchestra.
Although I am still very much doubtful about the level of the flute and French horns, I must say the orchestra as a whole sounded decent this time around.
Even the conduction of Gérard Korsten was more inspired and focused - but I still think he has a consensual and panache-less reading of the score.
The chorus was also better last night, which cannot be said of the cast as a whole.

The three main roles, Alfredo, Giorgio and Violetta sounded tired and both Alfredo and Violetta had lost some clarity in the voice (the problem was obvious for Edgaras Montvidas as Alfredo).

Ermonela Jaho as Violetta also looked pretty tired, which obviously brought her closer to her never-dying character (by the way, in this production, she doesn't actually die on stage, but ends up as a static zombie while the curtain is closing - talk about originality).

Once again, I couldn't really relate to the emotions she showcased, as I found myself deaf to her vocal expressivity. Her stage presence improved on the other hand, especially at the end (from "Addio del passato" to the end).

This performance was the official end of the 2008-09 season in Lyon. It's very doubtful I will attend any performance here next season. I'm done with Serge Dorny's choices.

Little Red Riding Violetta

Natalie Dessay at the Santa Fe Opera for her first Traviata.

From PlaybillArts.

Traviata in Lyon with Jaho

 

La Traviata

Giuseppe Verdi

Opéra en quatre parties, 1853

Livret de Francesco Maria Piave d'après La Dame aux camélias d'Alexandre Dumas fils

Ermonela Jaho, Violetta Valéry

Edgaras Montvidas, Alfredo Germont

Lionel Lhote, Giorgio Germont

Orchestre et Chœurs de l'Opéra de Lyon

Alan Woodbridge, Chef des Chœurs

Gérard Korsten, Direction musicale

Klaus Michael Grüber, Mise en scène

Ellen Hammer, Collaboration artistique et réalisation de la mise en scène

Recréation - Coproduction initiale Théâtre du Châtelet, Opéra de Lyon

June 23 performance

 



First of all, I know it's not very elegant to criticize dead people, but the late Klaus Michael Grüber who directed the original run of this production in 1993, really was uninspired.

Think about a stage where all the characters are static, with for whatever reason a naked woman appearing in the first part, a ridiculous use of the stage (or non-use I should say), this would have be comical if I had been in the mood to close my eyes. Unfortunately I was not, but I came to the notion as the music was unfolding.
Neither of the singers were really able to act convincingly in this ghost of a production (bad joke intended). Jaho didn't really have the stamina to portray the dying Violetta and her performance lacked intensity and ardor. The others were even worse.

The conduction of Gérard Korsten was unoriginal at best - but you can't except much from someone who doesn't hear how vivid and vibrant Verdi's music is (or rather only sees one dimension to it). The real disaster though came from the pit: all sections of the orchestra were horrendous, at one time or another (another being a number between 5 and 6), and all the time altogether. I have never heard it sound so badly in the years I've regularly attended performances at the Opéra de Lyon. This was an embarrassing nightmare really, but the audience loudly cheering the orchestra at the end must have been even worse. How bad are your ears people, seriously?
 
Lionel Lhote as Giorgio Germont was decent, but his voice quietly worsened during the performance.  

Edgaras Montvidas as Alfredo has still a lot of work to do to polish his sound and clear his timbre. But he displayed interesting and lifeful colours and emotions.

Ermonela Jaho was kind of a disappointment. Her voice started to emerge for the Sempre Libera aria, but she wasn't really a factor before that. Her notes were beautiful, her singing passionate, but somehow I didn't feel the emotions coming out of her voice. Kind of when you attend a play and aren't really touched by an actor you normally like. Hopefully I won't have the same impression when I come back for the last performance of the run (July 7).

Overall, once again, it's very unforgiving to come back to the Opéra de Lyon after a Muti experience...

All photos Opéra de Lyon except those below.


 
Further readings:

• "Ermanela Jaho, magnétique Violetta dans La Traviata", M.A.Roux, Le Monde, June 26 :

"La soprano albanaise Ermonela Jaho n'est pas encore très connue du grand public. (...) Présence magnétique et voix d'airain, la jeune femme incarne une Violetta sur le fil, alternant un chant très retenu, avec de brusques montées de fièvre - mimétique des symptômes phtisiques qui la rongent. A ses côtés, le solide Alfredo du ténor lituanien Edgaras Montvidas semble un tantinet froid, le Germont de Lionel Lhote un rien plébéien. Le seul bémol (de taille) vient de la très prosaïque direction du chef d'orchestre sud-africain Gerard Korsten."

• "La Traviata s'offre gratuitement en Rhône-Alpes", Luc Hernandez, Libération Lyon, July 3

Traviata broadcast from Lyon

Complete list of outdoor broadcasts here.
The performance will also be broadcast live on France Musique and Mezzo, on the Opéra de Lyon website and on evene.fr.

Dorny's version of a HD broadcast

So this is what Serge Dorny, the GM of the Opera de Lyon had in mind a few months ago about La Traviata: an outdoor broadcast in the esplanade of Fourvière (part of the Summer Festival "Les Nuits de Fourvière").

It will be free so I can't really criticize the effort, but a live broadcast would have added somehow a thrill to it. And I'm not sure a lot of people will attend a broadcast that starts at midnight...

La Traviata en différé de l'Opéra de Lyon July 3 2009, midnight

Sempre libera

Paris, Oct.9, 2007 Rénovation de la station de métro Opéra

Hiatus

One thing I love about opera is that nobody ever agrees on anything. Take the recent performance of Angela Gheorghiu in Verdi's Traviata at the MET. Yesterday, I was reading this enthusiastic post. Today, the opposite;
" Gheorghiu's Violetta was, in its low key, medium voiced way, effective, but I felt there was something "patented" about it - emotions taken "out of the box" intact for this performance and then put back in, likewise intact, for the next outing.
The curtain calls were ridiculous and showed what might have been really going on in our Leading Lady's mind - all sorts of superannuated "little girl" scamperings, skippings, wavings etc.the public's Indulged Darling "in excelcis."
By the ovations she got you would have thought this woman combined the technical prowess of Sutherland (NOT!) with the interpretative genius of Callas (most definitely NOT!).
Maybe I've seen too much that has moved me as being genuine (as recently as Die Agyptische Helena on Friday and Banks, Vlasak-Nolen in La Donna del Lago on Saturday) to have responded to this kind of ersatz art. "

Stephen Charitan