Word: violettas
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...singers, however, and La Traviata was no exception. All the performers, leads and chorus alike, showed remarkable vocal prowess and passion, and among the minor characters mezzo-soprano Gale Fuller's charming and coquettish Flora Bervoix (a courtesan whose wardrobe is far more scandalous than that of Violetta) was especially memorable and a well-needed break from the heavy tragedy of the rest of the opera...
...Traviata takes the hackneyed idea, "you can't judge a book by its cover," and turns it into something breathtakingly beautiful. The story centers around Violetta Valery, a French "courtesan"--basically an upper-class prostitute who provides parties and other entertainments for the members of the upper middle class--who, despite her shallow and flamboyant lifestyle, is caring and gentle at heart. Although she is very weak due to a severe case of tuberculosis, Violetta persists in throwing boisterous fetes that only make her worse, and the opera opens in the midst of one of these late-night revels...
...Violetta's honest devotion to and many sacrifices for her lover, Alfredo Germont (played by Rafael Rojas), teach the haughty aristocrats (namely Alfredo's father, Giorgio Germont, played by Vasquez) of mid-century Paris how endearing and tender this supposed easy woman can be. The whore with a heart of gold? It's been done, you say. But not to the music of Giuseppe Verdi: the passion and the thrill of his music will make every Mira Sorvino '89/Elisabeth Shue '88/Kim Basinger poseur-hooker seem like a mean-hearted trollop in relation to the radiant and self-sacrificing Violetta...
...makes it hard to project--but acting-wise, Rojas has fallen into the the trap of the magnificent singer who is plauged with an inability to act convincingly. He did seem to open up through the course of the opera, but his slightly grotesque nuzzling of the deathbed-ridden Violetta seemed contrived and ingenuine...
Most of the opera, however, belonged to soprano Labelle, completely entrancing in the title role of Violetta Valery. After making her debut last year in BLO's Lucia de Lammermoor Labelle was named The Boston Globe 1997 Musician of the Year, and with good reason. Her vocal and stylistic range is almost unfathomable: in the course of roughly 10 minutes at the end of the first act, she goes from airy coquettish high notes to the wistful, delicate "Goodbyes" to the passionate lament of the "misterioso" theme that haunts the entire opera. She pulls off coloratura singing--that ornamented style...