La Traviata (La Scala)

 

Milan’s La Scala is the high temple of Italian opera. Many great operas have originated here, Included in this number are Turandot, Falstaff, Madama Butterfly, Norma, Il Turco in Italia. La Scala is also the primary home of Verdi’s opera; He lived just a short distance away. As I sat in that golden shrine with its plush red boxes I couldn’t help but think of all the ghosts of seasons past. The composers, Rossini, Bellini, Donizetti, Puccini, Verdi, and the singers Tabaldi, Pavarotti, Galli-Curci, Sutherland, and the great Callas. Then of course there is Toscanini who became the principal conductor and brought the house back from near extinction after WWII.

In recent years the house has fallen on some hard times. First and foremost was the resignation of Ricardo Muti who ran the company for 17 years. Soon there followed the drastic art subsidies from the government, layoffs, strikes, cancelled performances.
The production I saw was Verdi’s La Traviata. La Traviata did not originate at La Scala but rather at Teatro di Fenice in Venice. Since then of course it has become one of the great warhorses of the repertoire.

This particular production has had its own problems. It dates from 1990 and has been described as boring and uninspired.  Controversy arouse when the management called the highly anticipated Andrea Chenier that was to be directed by Terry Gilliam. All hell broke lose in the press and the replacement La Traviata was heavily panned. Strikes were also treatened and several of the performances cancelled. La Scala has had a hard time attracting world-class singers in recent years due to such upheavals. This fact did not help matters. Luckily American Tourists can still be depended on to fill the seats. New management has been finding ways to expand the audience base by brodcasting their productions. Things are looking up.

I had recently seen a terrible production of La Traviata in Florence so this was an infinite improvement. I grew up on this opera and was lucky enough to see Sutherland, Pavarotti, and my favorite Anna Moffo. At this performance Mareilla  La Devia  assayed the role.  She started a bit weak for my tastes but her last act was moving and sung beautifully. Jose Bros was her Alfredo. Boring as an actor but he had a nice clarion tenor and sang well. The star of the evening was Renato Bruson as Germont.  His was a name the crowd recognized so greeted each aria which applause; otherwise the audience was silent and respectful except for Violetta’s last aria. The conductor was the youngish Carlo Montanaro who generally kept things moving and played with dynamics.  The audience by the end put all the past drama of recent times aside and gave the performance a rousing applause. The production was rather ordinary but very sumptuous and how could you argue with a chorus of 106.There are several more performances June23, 25th, and 27th. Teatro Alla Scala