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Atlanta Opera’s ‘La Traviata’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
OPERA REVIEW
Giuseppe Verdi’s “La Traviata” Atlanta Opera. Thursday at the Boisfeuillet Jones Atlanta Civic Center. Repeat performances Saturday and Sunday. www.atlantaopera.org.
The Atlanta Opera opened its new season Thursday at the Boisfeuillet Jones Atlanta Civic Center, its first under the artistic control of General Director Dennis Hanthorn.
For Verdi’s “La Traviata,” in the first of three performances, everything — everything — was an improvement from what the 26-year-old company delivered in past years.
For opera fans, the most significant achievement of the evening was the company’s new-found emphasis on singing and its paramount place in opera. Everything else, from Arthur Fagen’s taut and supple conducting to Rhoda Levine’s smart, believable stage direction, supported the singers and the music. In a single show, the company has made a leap in quality that, just a couple of years ago, seemed impossible to achieve.
And “La Traviata” was an ideal vehicle to make a new case. The melodrama concerns the beautifully amoral Violetta, a courtesan in the demi-monde of 19th century Paris, who finds mature love with the callow Alfredo — until his father, and then death, intervenes. The plot is linear and tamper-proof; the vocal lines sit center stage.
As Verdi created the role, the heroine needs three voice types, from sparkling at the start to emotionally dark at the end. Atlanta resident Jan Grissom’s girlish soprano — bright, light and flexible — served her well for the act one climax “Sempre libera,” all roulades and fast ascents up to a shattering high E-flat.
Grissom’s Italian diction wasn’t always idiomatic, she gulped air and took rhythmic liberties along the way. But she floated on that high E-flat effortlessly, sensationally. For the rest of the opera, she electrified the air whenever she walked on stage.
She made a likable pair with Mexican tenor Raul Hernandez, as Alfredo, and their voices blended sweetly. His voice is attractive, with a “ping” in his tone, though some of his most demanding lines lacked power and personality.
That left Guido LeBron, a Puerto Rican lyric baritone, as the evening’s most thoroughly satisfying singer. He was stiff in manner — the authoritarian father figure everyone fears — yet sang tenderly, gorgeously for the aria about his homeland, “Di Provenza il mar.”
But a few vocal quibbles aside, the opera’s overall advance in music making was remarkable.
Conductor Fagen, based in Germany and a utility conductor at New York’s Metropolitan Opera, gets much of the credit. His understanding of Verdi’s early style was sensitive, dramatically coherent and exquisitely balanced. He breathed with the singers. He drew from the orchestra — quite properly for an opera premiered in 1853 — sounds that were stylistically closer to Rossini’s lean classicism than to Puccini’s voluptuous romanticism. Not an off-the-rack maestro, Fagen seemed like an undiscovered treasure. I hope he’s invited to conduct again.
Earlier I said that everything, everything here was an improvement and that’s true. Even Walter Huff’s chorus, typically the best thing about the Atlanta Opera, was energized with power, nuance and the clearest diction on stage. Singers in smaller roles — Kitt Reuter-Foss, Susan Nicely, Matthew Lau, Jeff Morrissey — reinforced the impression of an all-around capable cast.
Even the drab and cavernous Civic Center looked a little spiffier than before, with working fountains and an elegant, tent-covered bar on the plaza.
At 4,500 seats, the center is simply too big for the human voice. That’s a given. So along with pushing the opera to make solid artistic gains with each production, General Director Hanthorn’s other priority must be to find (or renovate, or build) a suitable new opera house. With so much to look forward to, for the first time in many years, there is now genuine excitement surrounding the Atlanta Opera.
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By Nylgia
October 14, 2005 2:43 PM | Link to this
I completely agree that everything about the opera was much improved over the last two years. I was overwhelmed by the performances and production. I saw the disappointing Magic Flute two years ago and three more last year. I got a subscription this year. My timing could not have been better!!!
By Carlos
October 17, 2005 5:16 PM | Link to this
I found the Atlanta Opera’s production of Traviata this past weekend a true revelation and hopefully a prelude of great things to come. I agree with Mr. Ruhe about the excellence of conductor F*, and look forward to his future engagements with the Atlanta Opera. Regarding the singing, I was particularly moved by the chorus, plus soprano’s Grissom’s and baritone Lebron’s performances. Cudos to the new company!