These might have been ghosts or just symbols of disintegration.įor Violetta is headed down a one-way street and this is a society in moral turmoil. Niall McKeever's set had atmospheric figures or shapes around the ceiling. The direction was positively filmic at times.

This was clear in De provenza, Georgio's diktat to his son about the unwisdom of his romantic course. This underlined the universality of Verdi's work and mitigates against the idea that opera, a genre full of artifice, can't speak to people today.Īs the great Ukrainian baritone Yuri Yurchuk, who played Giorgio Germont, Alfredo's father, told me, this production majors in psychological truthfulness: 'Cameron wanted us to know why were doing things'. What was particularly clever was Menzies's staging and in the party scene, we got a range of stylish characters, dressed as if from a contemporary period, maybe last week, maybe a few decades ago. Stagg was tremulous, full of delicate enjoyment and overcome when her beau to be, Alfredo (handsome and vocally assured star American tenor Noah Stewart), joins her and creates a duet. My favourite interpretation might be Renée Fleming's, while Maria Callas on YouTube remains tragic and passionate. It's got a rollicking tune which was delivered with spirit by the NI Opera chorus.Ī close second is Violetta's delicious Sempre libera (Always free), a party girl's credo. Perhaps the most famous song in La Traviata is the drinking number, aka Brindisi. You know you're in good hands when the best known music seems reinvented. And Siobhan Stagg, whose beautiful voice gave us terrific accounts of the super-emotional arias, rose to the challenge.Īrtistic director Cameron Menzies has done a stellar job.

Verdi's Violetta expires in an ecstasy of emotion, more dramatically than, say Mimi in La Bohème. It was truthful, inventive, with dazzling set and costume designs and a very moving final death scene. We returned home after seeing Northern Ireland Opera's superb new La Traviata with the energy you get from a great production. La Traviata at the Grand Opera House, Belfast

La traviata la opera