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Verdi, La traviata:  Portland Opera, soloists, cond. Stephen Lord, original production by James Robinson, stage direction by Jennifer Nicoll, sets and costumes by Bruno Schwengl, lighting designer Mimi Jordan Sherin, choreographer Sean Curran, Keller Auditorium, Portland, Oregon, 4.10.2008 (BJ)


Portland Opera’s La traviata, my first experience of the company’s work, was a delight almost from beginning to end. I say “almost” only because several characters stood on couches in Act I, a silly quirk of contemporary staging. But from that point on, James Robinson’s production, mounted originally for Opera Colorado and brought to the stage on this occasion by his former assistant Jennifer Nicoll, offered nothing but pleasure.

For one thing, Bruno Schwengl’s sets and costumes provided the most ravishing stage picture I can recall seeing in this opera. Violetta’s salon in the first act, a study in red and black, was adorned with several suitably erotic paintings, including one surely modeled on a Caravaggio. (In Act III, with the heroine on her deathbed, the empty frames propped against her bedroom wall were to tell an eloquent story of the decline in her fortunes.) In Act II, after a country-house scene at the start of Act II set against an atmospherically monochrome backcloth in the manner of Andrew Wyeth, the guests at Flora’s soirée were at first outfitted in black, but then the cloaks reversed in the blink of an eye to red–a genuinely magical coup de théâtre.

Musically, too, everything went splendidly under the baton of Stephen Lord. His quality was evident from the start, as even Verdi’s more motoric rhythms never degenerated into mere chugging, and orchestra and chorus responded with playing of high eloquence and tonal refinement.

The principals were no less admirable. Maria Kanyova’s petite Violetta was gorgeous to look at, and she sang and played the role with searing conviction. The voice is beautiful, and well produced, and she needs only to eradicate the very occasional moment of slack intonation to achieve a truly exceptional portrayal. Her Alfredo, Richard Troxell also looked his part. Sounding a shade underpowered in the first act, his voice opened up thereafter, and he managed to keep his spirits bollenti even facing the stupidity of a woman who came in late for Act II and walked the width of the house just in front of the orchestra pit with total disregard for the distraction she caused. The two made a fetching pair of lovers, and a deeply touching one at the opera’s desolate end.

As Germont père, Richard Zeller sang sonorously and played the infuriating yet ultimately sympathetic character to perfection. Nor was there a weak link anywhere in the rest of the cast, which included Hannah S. Penn’s graceful Flora, Jonathan Kimple’s Marquis d’Obigny, José Rubio’s Baron Douphol, Ron Brallier’s Doctor Grenville, Sharin Apostolou’s compassionate Annina, and Brendan Tuohy’s endearingly Stephen-Fry-ish teddy-bear of a Gastone.

Altogether this was a Traviata to treasure. It sets a high bar for the productions still to come in this strongly programmed season, which goes on to Fidelio, The Turn of the Screw, La Calisto, and Rigoletto.

Bernard Jacobson


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