Brenda Harris and Robert Breault star in FWO’s ’La Traviata.’
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A D V E R T I S E M E N T
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A D V E R T I S E M E N T
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Shrinking Violetta
By Leonard Eureka
Based loosely on Alexandre Dumas fils’ The Lady of the Camellias, Verdi’s La Traviata revolves around an expensive French courtesan, Violetta, who falls in love with a young aristocrat, Alfredo, and runs off to live with him in the country. She abruptly drops him when his father pleads that the relationship will ruin his son’s career.
Times were a little different in the 19th century, the period in which the opera is set. Continuing on as a “fashionable impure,” as such women once were called, Violetta eventually dies of tuberculosis in the arms of a returning Alfredo, who learns too late why she left him. Even though all of this sounds impossibly romantic, the story is actually based on real-life characters. Dumas himself was the hapless Alfredo, and Violetta was Alphonsine Plessis, a Parisian beauty he fell in love with who died at 23 after a brief but colorful life.
In the Fort Worth Opera production that kicks off the company’s season, Violetta will be sung by soprano Brenda Harris, who’s making a name for herself across the country in such diverse roles as Norma, Ariadne, and Chrysothemis. Her Alfredo will be tenor Robert Breault, who makes his New York City Opera debut later this season in the same role. The father, Germont, will be sung by baritone Kelly Anderson.
The production will be staged by David Gately, the talent responsible for the bizarre finale of Salome last season in which Herodias — not the soldiers — kills off her daughter. He also did a great job with Little Women.
Fri-Sun at Bass Performance Hall, 555 Commerce St, FW. $19-140. 877-212-4280.
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