Arts:Blog

Opera Review: La Traviata ****

Anna Burnside reviews 'a gorgeous, moving performance' of the famed opera.

Women spilling out of corsets. Men in top hats and capes. Legendary courtesan Violetta Valery knows how to throw a party.

But the divine decadence foreshadows the tragedy to come, and even while the demi-monde celebrates Violetta’s recovery from an illness, she is sowing the seeds of her downfall.

Scottish Opera’s revival of Sir David McVicar’s 2008 production frames Verdi’s heart-wrenching love story as a memory. Before the wild revels begin, we see Alfredo walking past Violetta’s boarded-up home, kicking up camellia petals as he goes.

The story, based on Alexandre Dumas’s La Dame aux Camelias, is straightforward by opera standards. Young man falls in love with sickly woman from wrong side of the tracks. Stern father warns woman off. She leaves and falls into a terminal decline. By the time young man finds her and stern father softens, it is too late.

This gives McVicar plenty of room to have fun with the wild revels, which contrast with the tender, intimate moments between the lovers.

South Korean soprano Hye-Youn Lee is a sparky Violetta, failing to crumple even in the depths of consumption and anguish. Fellow South Korean Ji-Min Park is an adorable Alfredo, unabashedly romantic and devoted.

This is a visually delicious performance, with luscious Belle Epoque costumes and dancers who almost perform the can-can at every opportunity. 

The staging is particularly clever, with giant curtains dividing the stage, changing the scale of the staging then pulling back at crucial moments.

This Traviata has been touring the world since it was first produced 16 years ago. It’s a banker for a reason: it’s a gorgeous, moving performance of a relatively accessible opera that anyone from an ‘aria’holic to an absolute beginner can—and will—enjoy.

La Traviata performs at the Theatre Royal in Glasgow until May 18, 2024. It then tours to Aberdeen, Inverness and Edinburgh.

Photo by James Glossop.