Publication Date: Friday Oct 6, 2000

Love in an era of turbulence

West Bay Opera's production of Giuseppi Verdi's "La Traviata" opens at Palo Alto's Lucie Stern Theatre on Oct. 13, and runs through Oct. 22, with a version that turns the opera into a social commentary.

The literal translation of the title of this romantic masterpiece is, "The Woman Who Has Gone Astray." In the view of Stage Director Rafal Klopowtowski, this may be too narrow to do justice to this story. It might more properly be, "The Society That Has Gone Astray." He sets the action against a tapestry of social and economic change brought on by the industrial revolution of the mid-19th century.

Klopotowski, a Polish-born product of Warsaw's famed Film School, with a master's degree in theater from UCLA, perceives the work as an old-fashioned love story in which the lovers have "a small window of opportunity" for love in life. That window is slammed shut for them in this turbulent era of decaying aristocracy, striving to preserve its social and financial position in an time when old landed wealth shifted to industrial wealth.

The story may be viewed even more poignantly by pointing out that it is based on fact. Verdi drew his opera from a novel and its dramatization by the son of Alexandre Dumas of "The Three Musketeers" and "The Count of Monte Cristo" fame. When "Junior" fell in love with a notorious and charming courtesan, the father, who had become famous and wealthy, feared for his respectability and fortune and forced the young man to break off the relationship.

When his lover died soon after from tuberculosis, the son avenged himself by writing "Camille"--based on his own tragic experience-- about a woman from the "half-world" of the "kept women" who proved herself to be more loving and generous than his father's "high society." It is a romantic triumph over the hypocritical and conventional bourgeois morality of that era. The message was, true love must conquer over all, even propriety.

Pamela Hicks, who alternates with Barbara Divis as the object of true love, Violetta, considers this as among the greatest roles for sopranos.

"Violetta is a truly tragic figure from the lower social classes, limited in the options of her times to only capitalizing on her beauty, charm and intelligence without daring to hope for permanent love with the wealthy men she cultivates. In their company only is she able to move through the `fast track' lifestyles of pleasures in the 'haute monde' world of society's salons, and by chance one of its sons, the father-dominated Alfredo, falls genuinely in love with her."

But, she is thwarted through the intervention of Alfredo's father, Giorgio, who--at one point--is particularly outraged to discover that a "fallen woman" is supporting his "respectable" young son.

According to Richard Rovin, who alternates with Michael Morris in the role, "Giorgio is not so much evil, as a pragmatic man from the sheltered world of the dying aristocracy who is desperately trying to `cover all bases' in an effort to hold on to the past and his fortune."

By the time Giorgio sees the true nobility of Violetta and is willing to accept her as a daughter, it is too late. She had sacrificed herself to his will, left Alfredo to return to another patron and the deadly atmosphere of Paris, before expiring in the grieving Alfredo's arms.

Back up to the Table of Contents Page