Seeing Dessay live was well worth the wait, her commitment and focus riveting throughout.
A man taunts Violetta by donning her dress, a mockery which is heightened in the final act when carnival goers break into Violetta’s deathbed and put a beautiful young girl in the dress, a particularly cruel reminder of her loss of beauty and youth. The giant clock becomes a roulette table, with the minute hand spun by the gamblers. The gender-bending of the chorus continues when they all don gypsy masks for Flora’s party.
As Alfredo’s father Giorgio Germont grinds down Violetta’s will, the colour drains from the backcloth leaving it in stark black and white. The country house is illustrated by incredibly lush floral fabric, which is not only seen draped over the furniture and as robes for the lovers but also hung as a massive backdrop. More stodgy than dashing, he is nonetheless playful in the opening of act two, where his two arias are set to a frisky game of hide and seek with Violetta. From the massive crowd of males comes the sound of female chorus singing, and it is soon realised that the women, for effect, are all dressed as men.Īlfredo’s difference from the society rakes is highlighted by his exclusion, and bullying, by the men. Where the current Sydney season has the giant chandelier, this staging features a giant clock, inexorably ticking towards Violetta’s final moments of life. Set against a steeply curved, corrugated white wall, Violetta is pursued by a teeming throng of tuxedo-clad men, then lifted and paraded on a bright red sofa. Natalie Dessay dons the infamous red cocktail dress in Willy Decker’s controversial 2005 Salzburg Festival staging of La Traviata, now playing at the Met.Īudiences were relieved to see Natalie Dessay, who had missed opening night, with this reviewer doubly relieved given that Dessay had stood him up in Paris Opera’s Manon in February.Įven having seen the Salzburg production on DVD, the images on stage are still startling.
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