La Traviata

by Giuseppe Verdi, libretto by Piave after Dumas fils

seen at the Coliseum on 5 April 2018

Daniel Kramer's new production for ENO (his first as their new artistic director, though not his first for the company), is conducted byLeo McFall and features Claudia Boyle as Violetta, Lukhanyo Moyake as Alfredo Germont and Alan Opie as Alfredo's father Giorgio Germont, with sets designed by Lizzie Clachan.

The opera is redolent of a society and a view of relationships which are increasingly out of step with modern sensibilities (at least as they are fashionably proclaimed). Violetta is a courtesan supported by a rich nobleman. The idealistic Alfredo declares his love for her, and she agrees to set up house with him, though she has some reservations about her worthiness. But the opportunity to exchange mere hedonism for something more stable is extremely tempting, especially as she is unwell.

It turns out that she is paying for everything, as Alfredo is apparently too naive to realise what an idyllic but still necessarily comfortable country retreat costs in 19th century France. Then his father arrives to ask Violetta to renounce Alfredo so that his sister's impending marriage to a respectable man will not be imperilled by her brother's unsavoury domestic arrangements. The moral blackmail works, and Violetta  goes back to Paris and convinces Alfredo that she is not in love with him. Then, as she lies dying of TB, both Alfredo and Giorgio arrive full of remorse.

Put baldly, this story seems grossly to sentimentalise the idea of the virtuous but fallen woman, and to romanticise the ghastliness of a consumptive's death. The music, however, is powerful and affecting, following the mercurial changes in Violetta's emotions, and even rendering her physical decline with surprising finesse. Everything depends on our sympathising with her dilemma, even if we cannot countenance the social hypocrisy which causes it.

One way of presenting the opera is to go for historical accuracy and revel in mid-nineteenth century opulence, contrasted with domestic simplicity and final poverty. After all, the opening act and the second scene of the second act are a showcase for the decadent extravagance of city life. In sharp contrast, the first scene of the second act is set in a quiet country house, while the final act is really a prolonged deathbed scene. 

This is not the way Daniel Kramer has chosen. Instead, the courtesan's party of Act One is more like a 1920s or 1930s cabaret or nightclub with cross dressing and a sort of wilful vulgarity, only made even more exaggerated at the end of the second act. The rural idyll is emphasised by an expanse of lawn with flowerbeds being attended first by Alfredo (who, as a nineteenth century gentleman, would hardly have known what a trowel was, still less how to use one) and later by Violetta who managed to break the illusion of the lawn by using it as a blanket. Then the final act took place in an uncertain locale containing multiple mattresses, but also a grave which Violetta was digging for herself, thus providing a visual resemblance to the pile of sand in which Winnie is progressively immures in Beckett's Happy Days. It was decidedly odd to have the bacchanalian chorus (pointing up the fact that Violetta dies on the day of Mardi Gras) merrily sung by a chorus who spent the time dressed soberly and laying candles and flowers before all the mattresses as if they were so many graves.

Perhaps the idea was that we were witnessing the inner life of Violetta as she faced her death. Given the extreme naturalism of the story and the music, I am not sure that such an approach is justified. The style of the opera, both musically and dramatically, does not lend itself to this symbolic and abstracted approach. It makes it harder for the characters to interact meaningfully - there was not really a spark between Violetta and Alfredo, while Girogio in his formal suit looked completely out of place. It also meant that what we were watching was too often distracting from what the music - excellently played and on the whole very well sung - was conveying.