Natalie Dessay Out of Traviata Premiere

Hei-Kyung Hong gets the nod as Violetta.
by Paul Pelkonen

A trip to IKEA, on gossamer wings: Act I of La Traviata at the Met.
Photo by Marty Sohl © 2012 The Metropolitan Opera.

The saga of the Little Red Dress continues. 

Last night the Metropolitan Opera press office quietly announced that tonight's performance of La Traviata will be sung by soprano Hei-Kyung Hong. Ms. Hong will replace Natalie Dessay, who is ill.

It is not known at press time whether Ms. Dessay will be available to sing the remaining seven performances in the run, starting with next Tuesday night and leading up to the Met Live in HD broadcast on April 14. 

Willy Decker's production of La Traviata, which bowed at the Met on December 31, 2010, is more physical than most productions of this Verdi opera. Violetta is required to careen across a slanted, curved acting surface, to be hoisted on a red couch by the choristers, and to meet the physical challenges of the characters medical condition (she is dying of tubeculosis) head-on. 

The production, which was originally mounted at Salzburg with Anna Netrebko (currently singing Manon at the Met) premiered with Marina Poplavskaya making a splash in the title role. Ms. Hong was the "cover" for those performances, and also sang the dress rehearsal earlier this week when Ms. Dessay announced that she was ill.

Regulars at the Metropolitan Opera are familiar with this talented Korean soprano, who has been something of a fixture at the house over a long career. She has sung over 300 performances at the theater, starting in 1984. Her wide repertory includes Butterfly, Gilda, the Countess (in the Marriage of Figaro), Liu, and of course, Violetta.

Last season, Ms. Hong was thrust into the limelight as Juliette in Gounod's Roméo et Juliette  after soprano Angela Gheorghiu abruptly cancelled her entire run, claiming illness. 

This year's cast also features Matthew Polenzani as Alfredo Germont, and baritone Dmitri Hvorostovsky as Giorgio Germont.

Violetta Succumbs to Illness

Red dress drama as Natalie Dessay cancels rehearsal.

While the Clock Ticked: a scene from La Traviata.

The Metropolitan Opera's revival of La Traviata (scheduled to take the stage on Friday night) just got a little more interesting. French soprano Natalie Dessay pulled out of today's dress rehearsal, claiming that she was ill.

According to the singer's Paris management, the singer is suffering from a cold.

Another source confirmed, saying that the singer was not feeling well and "didn't want to push it."

Soprano Hei-Kyung Hong, who is currently the contracted cover for the run of performances, sang the dress rehearsal, which was not open to the general public.

 The Met's production of La Traviata opened on Dec. 31, 2010, to a mixture of acclaim from critics and bafflement from traditionalists. The show is mounted in a claustrophobic, curved room, and places great emphasis on Violetta's rapid deterioration, with a large clock at one end of the room symbolizing time running out for the Verdi heroine.

Originally directed by Willy Decker, this show is noted for its heavy physical requirements for singers, including a tough confrontation with Giorgio Germont in the second act and the "couch surfing" scene, where Violetta is hoisted into the air by the chorus, balanced on what appears to be a red IKEA® "Klippan" sofa.

The singer's management added that Ms. Dessay "intends to sing all of her performances."

La Traviata opens Friday. To read more about the production, check out out the Superconductor preview.

Metropolitan Opera Preview: La Traviata

Natalie Dessay slips into the little red dress.
by Paul Pelkonen.

Lover boy: Matthew Polenzani returns as Alfredo Germont in the Met's revival La Traviata.
Photo by Ken Howard © 2011 The Metropolitan Opera

Willy Decker's stripped-down La Traviata was the most controversial production at the Met last year. For its first revival, French soprano Natalie Dessay takes on the role of Violetta, a courtesan who finds love just as her time is running out. Matthew Polenzani returns as Alfredo, and Dmitri Hvorostovsky is Giorgio Germont. Fabio Luisi conducts.

The feeling of dread is heightened by Mr. Decker's staging, originally presented at the Salzburg Festival. The opera is presented on a unit set with one exit: a steep, bare stage with curved white walls that might be in a hospital or asylum. The room is dominated by an enormous clock, and haunted by Dr. Grenville, a silent, death-like figure who is onstage for most of the opera. The party-goers of Paris (male and female) are in tuxedos, faceless figures in Violetta's empty life.

La Traviata is Verdi's most intimate tragedy. A setting of Alexandre Dumas fils La dame aux camilles, this is an opera about suffering, illness and time running out. Verdi was inspired to set the younger Dumas' play by his longtime relationship with Giuseppina Strepponi, a former opera singer. For this work, Verdi wrote some his most memorable music. Highlights include the brindisi in Act I, the soprano showpiece Sempre libera, and Di provenza il mar, Germont's appeal to his wayward son.

Recording Recommendations
Verdi's most heart-rending opera has been lucky on disc. So we're giving four recommendations.

Coro e Orchestra de La Scala, cond. Antonio Votto (DG, 1963)
Violetta: Renata Scotto
Alfredo: Gianni Raimondi
Germont: Ettore Bastianini
The glories of this 1963 recording are the young Renata Scotto (in prima voce as Violetta) and the rock-solid presence of baritone Ettore Bastianini as the elder Germont. I still recommend it, especially at bargain price.

Bavarian State Opera Orchestra cond. Carlos Kleiber (DG, 1977)
Violetta: Ileana Cotrubas
Alfredo: Plácido Domingo
Germont: Sherrill Milnes
Carlos Kleiber was an extraordinary conducting talent who made very few recordings. This was one of his best, a studio-made, note-complete Traviata with a sensitive heroine in Ileana Cotrubas. The redoubtable team of Sherrill Milnes and Placído Domingo recorded a lot of operas together in the 1970s, but they manage to convince the listener as father and son.

Coro e Orchestra de La Scala cond. Riccardo Muti (Sony, 1992)
Violetta: Tiziana Fabbricini
Alfredo: Roberto Alagna
Germont: Paolo Coni
Expert Verdi conducting and a compelling performance by Roberto Alagna as Alfredo. Tiziana Fabbricini is a very good, involving Violetta who is helped by the live, theatrical recording made in Italy's most famous opera house. Reissued last year.

Vienna Philharmonic cond. Carlo Rizzi (DG, 2005)
Violetta: Anna Netrebko
Alfredo: Rolando Villazón
Germont: Thomas Hampson
I will also put a word in for this entertaining live recording from the Salzburg Festival. Anna Netrebko, captured in great form as Verdi's bird in a gilded cage. Rolando Villazon before he lost his voice. And like the Muti set, this has the immediacy of a live recording.
Return to the Metropolitan Opera Season Preview!

Contact the author: E-mail Superconductor editor Paul Pelkonen.

Opera Review: Guilt Without Gilt

The New La Traviata at the Met.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Couch surfing: Marina Poplavskaya in La Traviata
Photo by Ken Howard © 2010 Metropolitan Opera

The Metropolitan Opera's new Willy Decker production of La Traviata was a complete success on Tuesday night, from the stark, simple staging to the bravura performance of Marina Poplavskaya as Violetta. Gianandrea Noseda conducted, leading the performance with a specific vision for the work that matched the production and showed a thorough understanding of this subtle, complex score.

Verdi's most intimate opera benefits from the Decker approach: a bare, curved, white room set on a steep rake. Its only adornments: a long white bench, the occasional couch, and a gigantic clock, solemnly reminding the viewer that this is an opera about a woman whose time is running out. It is a vast improvement over the pouffes, gilt, and frou-frous that adorned the Met's past two Traviatas. Both were by Franco Zeffirelli. Each recalled the worst excesses of Busby Berkeley and Martha Stewart.

Despite some early problems adjusting her big voice to match the dynamic level of the orchestra, Ms. Poplavskaya settled in and delivered a nuanced portrayal of Violetta. Whirling about the stage in high scarlet pumps and a red dress, she went from being every man's fantasy to every man's victim--a potent interpretation that will resonate in the minds of opera lovers for years to come.

But there is more to this performance than singing coloratura while balancing atop a couch. Ms. Poplavskaya plays Violetta as Verdi intended, capturing every facet of this jewel of a part. She tossed off the fearless fioritura of "Sempre libera" in the first act, moving her big voice with an impressive agility above the stave. As the evening progressed, (and her world collapsed) she seemed to wither away both vocally and physically. Yet her singing did not suffer: she broke hearts with the equally challenging "Addio, del passato" in the final act.

The breaking heart in question, Matthew Polenziani, was an ardent Alfredo, singing with a flood of warm tone. He coped admirably with Mr. Noseda's urgent, spitfire conducting. Alfredo is another victim in this production, of his father's bullying and the mob mentality of the Parisian party scene. The Act III re-staging of the ballet--which featured a male dancer (choreographer Athol Farmer) in Violetta's red dress and the crowd of black-tie revellers charging like a giant bull became a terrifying sequence.

As Germont père, Andrzej Dobber was a brutal figure, most notably when he struck his wayward son across the face in their Act Two confrontation. This Polish baritone took a stark, stern approach to the role that suited Mr. Decker's conception perfectly. Even the old favorite, "Di provenza il mar" sounded vaguely threatening when delivered in his growling voice. Bass Luigi Roni was onstage for most of the opera as Dr. Grenvil, playing Violetta's physician as a specter of impending Death. This, along with the giant, omni-present clock, underlined the mortal nature of La Traviata, elevating the opera to the status of Verdi's greatest tragedy.