Production............Willy Decker
Violetta.................Sonya Yoncheva
Alfredo..................Michael Fabiano
Germont................Thomas Hampson
Flora.......................Rebecca Jo Loeb
Gastone..................Scott Scully
Baron Douphol.......Dwayne Croft
Dr. Grenvil.............James Courtney
Annina....................Jane Bunnell
Verdi's La Traviata in the Willy Decker production from the Metropolitan Opera appeared on my television. This is undoubtedly the greatest of all the operas. I think it is the most passionate about the two great themes of love and death. It falls at the end of bel canto and includes one of the greatest of all bel canto arias, "Sempre libera."
This is the final appearance at the Met of this production originally from the Salzburg Festival. I begin to think I will miss it. There were a few cuts. This time around it bothered me that Flora was a man. Why would all those men go to parties where there was only one woman? But rooms full of Victorian dresses hold little charm for me.
This is a perfect role for Michael Fabiano. I like Sonya Yoncheva but do not love her as overwhelmingly as I did Netrebko. The sound of her voice is less to my taste. She carried the final scene to its heart-wrenching conclusion.
I reviewed this same production here with Dessay, here, and here for Netrebko.
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