Verdi: La traviata ***
Welsh National Opera, Southampton, 23rd November 2018
“I loathe Traviata!” declared David McVicar back in 2003, ahead of his stage production of Camille at the Lyric, Hammersmith. “I could never do such a coarse, clumsy reduction of this woman.” Perhaps this is what makes McVicar’s Traviata so great, for when he finally relented, directing it for Scottish Opera in 2008, rather than setting Verdi’s opera, McVicar returned to its source material: La Dame aux camélias, the novel by Alexandre Dumas fils which was based on his real-life affair with Marie Duplessis. Revived once again by co-producers Welsh National Opera this autumn, it’s still darkly impressive.
Dancers and WNO Chorus
© Betina Skovbro
Read the full review on Bachtrack.