The Stage

La Traviata

Published Monday 22 June 2009 at 10:40 by Edward Bhesania

It was Richard Eyre’s staging of Verdi’s popular tear-jerker that catapulted the 29-year-old Angela Gheorghiu into the international arena back in 1994.

It is now getting its eighth revival, but it can never have boasted a central trio so luxuriously cast as here. With Renee Fleming as the fun-loving but consumptive Violetta, Maltese tenor Joseph Calleja singing her lover Alfredo Germont and Thomas Hampson in the role of Alfredo’s domineering father Giorgio, we are treated to three of international opera’s hottest properties.

So it is no surprise that the singing often sets the heart racing. Fleming is utterly vivacious in her Act I party, suitably dramatic in the next act when called upon by Giorgio to renounce her love for Alfredo, and touchingly wasting as she succumbs to her condition in Act III. While some opera stars are happy to rest on their laurels, Fleming works hard to ensure the voice is as much a dramatic tool as a musical one. Calleja perhaps overpowers her in their duets - his ringing Italianate tone exuding an intense power to thrill - although just occasionally one wishes for a more sophisticated control of the colour.

Hampson also fulfils the high expectations of his singing, exuding a rich, burnished and unfailingly elegant sound, but he presents a somewhat melodramatic, whimpering Giorgio, out of line with the character’s demanding nature. Completing this powerhouse revival is Covent Garden’s musical director Antonio Pappano, who takes none of this familiar score for granted, constantly rekindling it with love and fascination.