Opera reviews: La Traviata and Russian Evening - Stravinski, Rachmaninov and Tchaikovsky

3 / 5 stars
La Traviata

OPERAUPCLOSE is adept at taking iconic operas, reducing them like a fine sauce and serving them up with a twist.

 Elinor Jane Moran plays Violetta in La Traviata [SOHO THEATRE]

With the straightforward La Boheme, which was set in present day Soho, it worked a treat. However, La Traviata is altogether a different dish.

Director Robin Norton-Hale's rewritten English libretto places the 19th-century Paris courtesan Violetta in 1920s America, at the time of prohibition.

Violetta's parties are awash with bootleg whisky and champagne. Surprisingly, the most drunken guest romping with the party girls turns out to be Alfredo's father, who according to Verdi's plot is such a soul of moral rectitude that he forbids the love affair between Alfredo and Violetta.

This takes some getting around but apparently Germont Senior is running for election as a senator and fears his private life of tarts and booze will be exposed when his son's relationship with a prostitute is made public.

It is just believable but it gives an odd slant to the relationship of Germont father and son.

In the end you sympathise with Violetta for having the misfortune to be involved with the toxic pair.

The characters are played by three different casts, so the emphasis may vary from night to night.

Elinor Jane Moran imbues the part of Violetta with a sweet sadness. Tenor Philip Lee plays Alfredo as a maladroit verging on Aspergers, who at the end seems to disengage from his dying lover.

David Durham as Germont is like a younger Lord Sugar and one expects him to snap "You're fired!" With Flora McIntosh as a feisty Flora and Dario Dugandzic as the jealous Baron, the cast work well together.

Harry Blake's orchestration adapted to piano, clarinet and cello captures the essence of the score; though, as with previous productions, the singers need to modulate the volume of their voices in consequence.

Katie Bellman's innovative set makes effective use of the confined space

Katie Bellman's innovative set makes effective use of the confined space.

No modulation is needed in the rendering of Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture by the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Edward Gardner, which is how it should be.

In an evening devoted to Russian music, the choral version of the "1812" was performed for the first time at the Proms, the massed choirs of the Crouch End Festival Chorus and BBC Symphony Chorus delivering the rarely heard hymn to the Tsar.

The orchestra was exhilarating to watch, as well as listen to, for the intense activity of musicians in striking the tubular bells and beating the drums.

Organ, celesta, piano and harps played their part as did an array of woodwind, brass and strings.

There was a separate military band that joined the fray and through it all sounded the burst of cannon fire.

Earlier in the evening we heard Rachmaninov's choral symphony The Bells, where the composer set a translation of Edgar Allan Poe's poem to a marvellously evocative score.

Tenor Stuart Skelton caught the light spring mood of Silver Sleigh Bells, soprano Albina Shagimuratova the warmth of Mellow Wedding Bells and the chorus the turbulence of Loud Alarum Bells. Finally bass Mikhail Petrenko brought a sombre chill to Mournful Iron Bells.

Together with Stravinsky's skittish Scherzo Fantastique and a virtuoso performance by young Latvian violinist Baiba Skride of Stravinsky's Violin Concerto in D major, it was a remarkably full evening.

Verdi's LA TRAVIATA
OperaUpClose
Soho Theatre, London W1
(Tickets: 020 7478 0100; £22.50-£29.50)

RUSSIAN EVENING - STRAVINSKY, RACHMANINOV, TCHAIKOVSKY
BBC Prom 43
Royal Albert Hall, London SW7

(bbc.co.uk/Proms; 0845 401 5040)

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