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Giuseppe Verdi: La traviata

Staging team

Cast

Verdi’s La traviata has figured on the repertoire of this opera house ever since its foundation, when the new company co-opted the production of Prague’s German Estates Theatre. It then served chiefly as a vehicle for guest-appearances by illustrious international singers, including among others the legendary Australian soprano, Nellie Melby (April 18, 1900). The first authentic new staging was mounted by the New German Theatre (today’s Prague State Opera) on November 9, 1919, under the baton of Georg Széll, followed by a string of further productions, in 1930, 1934, 1945, 1959, 1979, and most recently, on October 7, 1982, which was directed by Ladislav Štros, with sets designed by Vladimír Nývlt and costumes by Josef Jelínek. That production has since ranked alongside the Prague State Opera’s most successful titles, by the end of the 2005/2006 season reaching a total of 487 performances. The new staging will be taken care of by an international creative team headed by the French director, Arnaud Bernard, whose projects in recent years have included productions of, among others, the operas, Roméo et Juliette at Chicago, with Roberto Alagna and Angela Gheorghiu (1999); L’elisir d’amore at the Théâtre du Capitole de Toulouse, with Marcelo Alvarez (2001); Lakmé at the Teatro Massimo in Palermo; and Roméo et Juliette in Tokyo (2003); Luisa Miller at the Nationale Reise Opera in the Netherlands; Roméo et Juliette in Beijing; and Le Roi de Lahore in Venice (2004); and most recently, during the current season, La Bohème at the Arena of Verona. The production’s music direction was commissioned to the Italian conductor, Enrico Dovico, a permanent guest conductor of the Prague State Opera.

In La traviata, to the libretto from the novel by Alexandre Dumas the Younger, La Dame aux camélias, telling the story of Marie Duplessis, a noted courtesan and idol of the 1840s’ Parisian society, Verdi in fact created history’s first major opera dealing with a contemporary social theme. This was only one of the work’s several aspects that proved unpalatable for the audience at its premiere in Venice, in 1853: beyond that, they were similarly shocked by the principal part there being assigned to a courtesan, and that moreover she was portrayed as a heroine. Consequently, the premiere ended by a fiasco. Soon thereafter, nonetheless, Verdi’s La traviata scored its first triumphs, and ever since then has remained a hugely loved repertoire staple.

Premiere: Oct 5, 2006

Running time: 2 hours 45 minutes with 2 intermissions
Performed in Italian with Czech captions.

Response in the press

“A serious attempt at staging La traviata in a way competitive with a major production anywhere in Europe.”

(Helena Havlíková, Lidové noviny, October 11, 2006)

“This production of La traviata has its most auspicious trait in its makers' choice of the black-and-white palette; its advantages over colour are well-known to filmmakers. Here, the virtually void white stage bordered by a rounded horizon, featuring a large divan for the first act and a smaller one for the second, plus the tones of black, white, and grey dominating the costumes, do much more for psychological detail than would enhanced colour patchwork. The Prague State Opera has produced a safe repertoire piece well done, and once the first night tensions are over and everything settles down, the house can start to count successful repeat performances.”

(Vlasta Reiterrerová, Hudební rozhledy, No. 11, 2006)

“The production has a definite asset in its attractive art work...”

(Radmila Hrdinová, Právo, October 17, 2006)

“The story of La Dame aux camélias has been tackled here in a thoroughly realistic way, straightforwardly, intelligibly, and fairly convincingly. Arnaud Bernard opted for what is by-and-large a traditional visual format, without transposing the story into present-day setting, or for that matter, adding any novel connotations. The more sharply was he able, then, to focus on psychology… Notwithstanding his realistic, objective approach to the love story, Bernard did not abandon the realm of operatic stylization, which becomes ever more visible as the opera progresses towards its finale.”

(Petr Veber, Hospodářské noviny, October 13, 2006)

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The Prague State Opera - Theatre History in Pictures and Dates - Book cover
The Prague State Opera – Theatre History in Pictures and Dates
Tomáš Vrbka
The Prague State Opera in cooperation with the Slovart publishing house publishes a representative book tracking the history of this significant cultural institution since its opening in 1888 till the end of the 2002/2003 season. The publication called The Prague State Opera – Theatre History in Pictures and Dates is focusing solely on the opera featured at the scene, even though the theatre under various names also served to presentation of drama plays, operettas and ballet. The Prague State opera plans to publish the volumes concentrating on those genres in the next years.

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