Verdi - La Traviata / Richard Eyre, Solti, Gheorghiu, Lopardo, Nucci, ROH Covent Garden

Movie / Show Details

Product description

Verdi’s opera tells the tragic tale of Violetta, who is dying of consumption, leaves her beloved Alfredo at the request of his father, only to be reunited shortly before her death.
Genre: Performing Arts – Opera
Rating: NR
Release Date: 19-JUN-2001
Media Type: DVD

Amazon.com

Angela Gheorghiu is the definitive Violetta of her generation, the standard-setter against whom all other exponents of this role must be judged for the foreseeable future. Her affinity for Verdi’s fragile, gentle-hearted courtesan is rooted in a fine balance of acting and singing skills. She looks right, her body language is eloquent without overstatement, and her voice is limpid, expressive, open to a variety of subtle shadings and used gracefully and intelligently. For this, her first Traviata, Covent Garden put together a production in 1994 that is solid and straightforward but otherwise unspectacular–a fairly subdued background against which her performance stands out all the more clearly. Though lacking the vocal splendor and personal magnetism of Placido Domingo, Frank Lopardo gives a sensitive performance as Alfredo, and Sir Georg Solti paces and accents this performance with a thoughtful subtlety that is relatively rare in his work. The result is deeply satisfying. –Joe McLellan