La Traviata

If you had to choose one title that delivered the whole experience of opera - glorious music, high drama, a story to (literally) die for, a thrilling vehicle for great singing - it would have to be Verdi's La Traviata. It is the high-Romantic Italian opera, a worldwide sensation almost from the day of its premiere in 1851 and an essential operatic experience, complete with a lovesick heroine who's dying of consumption while trying to sort out a star-crossed love affair. Opera New Jersey and the New… Show more Jersey Symphony Orchestra collaborate once again in a new production of this timeless masterpiece, and its NJPAC performance will be a must for any fan of opera. Newcomers will be seduced instantly by the story, the music and the high drama, and longtime opera fans will be fascinated by how the production embraces the challenges Verdi's opera has posed for more than a century-and-a-half. The heroine of La Traviata, Violetta Valery, is a Parisian courtesan, and for this role Verdi created an almost impossible steeplechase of singing for the soprano - requiring sparkling coloratura in the excitement of Act I, melting lyricism and expressiveness in the central acts, and tragic intensity in the heartbreaking finale. It is to sopranos what Hamlet is to actors - the ultimate test, the great, sublime challenge. For the audience, the allure of La Traviata never fades. Isn't it amazing that, after 161 years of hearing and seeing it, the power of Verdi's music still makes us hope that, somehow, love can conquer all?

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