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Music Review

In Verdi’s Parisian Social Whirl, a Star Shines, Then Plummets in Flames

In the opening moments of Willy Decker’s striking modern production of Verdi’s “Traviata,” the dying courtesan Violetta moves slowly across the stage toward a huge ticking clock that symbolizes her mortality, her bright red dress a solitary splash of color against a barren white wall. Her loneliness amid the bourgeois claustrophobia of the Parisian beau monde is evocatively realized in this alluring staging, which returned to the Metropolitan Opera on Friday evening.

It returned without its intended Violetta, however, after the soprano Natalie Dessay withdrew because of illness. (According to a Met spokesman Ms. Dessay is still scheduled to sing the remaining performances.) The soprano Hei-Kyung Hong, a house mainstay when starrier names drop out, was her admirable replacement.

As the partygoers, the male and female chorus members in this production, which originated at the Salzburg Festival in 2005 and had its debut at the Met last season, wear identical black suits and are aggressive from the start. An unsympathetic, androgynous menace, they claw at Violetta in the opening scene as she vamps on a red sofa and later leer at her over the vast, curving wall. The eerie, black-clad figure of Doctor Grenvil often hovers alone and grim-reaper-like in the background.

Ms. Hong, who made her debut at the Met in 1984, still sings beautifully, and performed “Ah, fors’è lui” lying on the sofa, with expressive commitment. But despite a mostly secure technique, her “Sempre libera” sounded cautious, and generally in Act I her voice seemed underpowered and was sometimes hard to hear. But she bloomed in Acts II and III, offering a poignant and elegantly phrased “Addio del passato.”

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La Traviata Hei-Kyung Hong filled in for Natalie Dessay as Violetta at the Metropolitan Opera. In Willy Decker’s modern production, party guests are androgynous and menacing.Credit...Joshua Bright for The New York Times

Slender and agile, Ms. Hong was an unaffected actress, whether lasciviously flirting with her admirers or mourning her love for Alfredo by ripping away the homey fabrics that signified her fleeting domestic bliss. Her understated acting seemed particularly natural in light of the more overwrought dramatics by recent heroines at the Met.

Matthew Polenzani had a stellar night as an emotional Alfredo, his lovely voice strong and supple and his graceful phrasing laudable in his passionate rendition of “De’ miei bollenti spiriti.” One of the most compelling moments came during his hotheaded tussle with Giorgio Germont, his father, a role performed with aristocratic flair by Dmitri Hvorostovsky.

Mr. Hvorostovsky wielded his smooth, velvety baritone to gorgeous effect in “Di Provenza il mar,” spinning out long lines with emotive conviction; the aria earned the most enthusiastic applause of the night.

The smaller roles, including Annina, Violetta’s maid, played by Maria Zifchak, were also well sung. Fabio Luisi conducted a brisk, solid reading of the score.

One of the many vivid touches in this staging comes in the final act. As Violetta is dying, the crowd parades in a young woman wearing a red party dress identical to the courtesan’s, a callous taunt that she will soon be forgotten and replaced.

“La Traviata” continues through May 2 at the Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center; (212) 362-6000, metopera.org.

A version of this article appears in print on  , Section C, Page 5 of the New York edition with the headline: In Verdi’s Parisian Social Whirl, a Star Shines, Then Plummets in Flames. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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