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by Monica Hayde
In the salons of mid-19th-century Paris, a woman could leave the room and be followed by the end of her dress a good few seconds later. In women's fashion, this was the era of abundance, the age of balloon sleeves, flounced petticoats and crinoline skirts so wide that only three or four fashion-conscious grandes dames could stand in an average-sized room at once. Try to fit a couple of actresses wearing the fashions of this era onto the stage at the Lucie Stern Theatre and one would be hard-pressed to have them even turn downstage without knocking down the sets--or taking out the male lead with one good whack of a hoop skirt.
Hence the problem West Bay Opera's stage director Sandra Bernhard confronted when she approached Giuseppi Verdi's "La Traviata," opening tonight, Feb. 11, at the Lucie Stern Theatre. Set in Paris in the mid-1800s, "La Traviata" tells the story of the sensual Violetta Valery, "the woman who has gone astray," to translate literally the title of one of the world's most popular operas. A woman of high breeding, with a taste for rich men, Violetta would have worn the haute couture of the day--not a problem if one is staging "La Traviata" for the War Memorial Opera House or a similar venue. But for the Lucie Stern, a few adjustments would have to be made.
"So I just put the action in the 1880s instead," Bernhard explains. "The dresses of the late 1800s were a little more manageable."
Conducted by the San Francisco Opera's Ernest Fredric Knell and directed by Bernhard, this fifth production of "La Traviata" in West Bay Opera's 38-year history remains otherwise true to the three-act opera Verdi adapted from the Alexander Dumas novel, "La Dame aux Camelias."
Bernhard, an assistant director with the San Francisco Opera, says working with West Bay Opera offers some opportunities for creative experimentation with a tried-and-true work.
"Often, opera singers come into a production having done a role several times and with a very specific idea of what that role is supposed to be," she says. "With West Bay Opera singers, some of whom are younger and more open to trying new ideas, you're not trapped by notions of how things 'should' be."
One of the great operatic love stories, "La Traviata" is based on a historical figure, Alphonsine Plessis, who was born in 1824 and died Feb. 3, 1847 of tuberculosis. In the opera, the carefree beauty Violetta Valery, played on alternate nights by Dvora Stoller and Marta Johansen, falls in love with the passionate Alfredo Germont (Richard Nickol and Mark Hernandez), only to have Alfredo's father demand that she break off the illicit liaison for the sake of his daughter, whose fiance is threatening to end the engagement as long as Alfredo carries on with Violetta.
Finally, she consents to the sacrifice, and later attends a party with another man, the Baron Douphol, where the heartbroken Alfredo insults Violetta and solicits a duel with the baron. After the duel, in which the baron is wounded and Alfredo is forced to leave the country, Violetta lies on her deathbed lamenting the past and declaring "tutto fini" (all is finished).
Alfredo's meddling father (Leland Morine and Robert Presley) finally admits to his son that it was he who implored Violetta to break off their relationship, and a contrite Alfredo comes rushing back to Violetta's bedside--just in time for a duet of remorse and despair.
La Traviata
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