By Reviewed by Michael Shmith
Opera Melbourne Opera
Athenaeum
Until September 20
It's Verdi's 200th birthday and Melbourne Opera's 10th. This new production of La Traviata was, alas, not really celebratory of either event. Certainly, the composer deserved better than this sluggish opening-night performance, which (with most traditional cuts restored) seemed to stretch the opera to Parsifal proportions. Violetta took an awfully long time to die.
Part of this was due to sluggish tempos set by conductor Greg Hocking; the Melbourne Opera Orchestra sounded unbalanced and often ragged, making Verdi's great cantabile lines forced and choppy.
Suzanne Chaundy's traditional production was more or less the stand-and-deliver brand of stagecraft, with awkward entrances and exits, much posturing and standing about, little dramatic cohesion in the crowd scenes and the principals left to bear the momentum along. Andrew Bellchambers' tilted-picture-frame sets, originating from the company's 2009 Traviata, were cluttered with decorative styles, as were his costumes.
Antoinette Halloran, making her Violetta debut, did not get into her vocal stride until her encounter with Germont pere (Manfred Pohlenz) in act II. Thereafter, Halloran was affecting and strong - but disturbingly fragile at the top of her range. Roy Best's Alfredo was confident, accurate, but lacked passion.
Melbourne Opera has done some fine things in its first decade. I just wish this Traviata had been among them.