La Traviata
- Robert Beale
- 1 day ago
- 2 min read
Piave (after Dumas) and Verdi
Buxton International Festival and Norwich Theatre
Buxton Opera House
July 11,15,18,22,25, 2026: 2 hrs 40 mins
The big new production of the Buxton International Festival is the well-known La Traviata, one of the most popular of Verdi’s evergreen oeuvre. Some significant resources have been devoted to it, and the result is excellent with, for example, costumes and frocks (Zahra Mansouri) in late 19th Century mode, and very glamorous.
Director James Hurley brings his flair for detailed exposition of the score and story to bear on it, with an ingenious staging. This is based on a giant representation of the actual jewel box of Marie Duplessis, the Parisian courtesan on whose life Alexandre Dumas’ novel The Lady of the Camellias was based; itself the model for the opera.
This serves as a symbol of the contrast between public and private life of the protagonists – Violetta, a “fallen woman”; Alfredo, an idealistic young man who is in love with her and whom she realises she loves – truly – for the first time; his father, anxious to save him from wrecking his life, horrified by the threat to family respectability, and the high-living world of the aristocratic and wealthy fun-lovers around them.
The set opens up to create the locations of the story: Violetta’s apartment; the country retreat she flees to with Alfredo, where his father arrives to break up their love-nest; the salon back in Paris where both re-appear after a anguished break-up, and the bedroom in which Violetta finally dies of consumption (tuberculosis).
There’s a fine line-up of leading singers: Alexandra Nowakowski, in the title role, has a richly-coloured soprano voice and acts the part with intelligence and youthful alertness to the story’s many implications; Tigran Melkonyan makes a very suitable Alfredo, as much from exhibiting slight stiffness and reserve as from his thrilling tenor timbre; Andre Heyboer, a mostly unbendingly powerful baritone, fits the role of his puritanical father well.
They’re supported by a strong team: Frances Gregory is delightful as Flora; five singers in other roles also appear in The Merry Widow, running concurrently in the festival programme, and of course the stalwart Buxton International Festival Chorus and its orchestra are common to both. There are two dancers in the cast as well: they lead the chorus in some lively footwork and bring a flourish of their own to the party scenes: Corina Wursch is assistant director and in charge of movement.
BIF artistic director Adrian Kelly conducts the opera with real Verdian panache and a keen ear for colour, atmosphere and detail.
More info and tickets here
