The Soho Theatre’s update of Verdi’s classic opera La Traviata by celebrated company OperaUpClose has rightfully been entrancing audiences since it premiered in August.
By Patrick Cash
Swirling the story of Violetta the ‘fallen woman’ (the translation of ‘traviata’) from nineteenth century Venice to the speakeasies of 1920s Prohibition-era America, the Italian text also cascades through a rigorous translation courtesy of renowned director/translator Robin Norton-Hale. The secretive world of illegal cocktails makes for a great introduction to the on-stage action as one of the most famous songs, the irrepressible ‘Drinking Song’ plants the full-house audience right in the action.
A simple set of netted windows and laced curtains is used to conceal and change as needed, with characters flitting about between a couch, an old-fashioned gramophone and a pianist and other musicians seated in the wings. Violetta was a beautifully crafted creation upon the stage, by turns heroic and steadfast, and then vulnerably introspective. If there was a slight criticism of the first half, it was that it did appear to lag or lull at certain times, and perhaps certain over-long scenes could have been cut down further. Hearing the audience around me rustle and stir in their seats within the hot auditorium appeared to confirm my judgement.
However, this criticism dissipated into the ether in the majestic second-half that proved all the passion of opera making the art form so lauded and loved up to the modernday. As the characters ducked and weaved around their intricate paths, singing magnificent arias, and bringing the story to its potent close, the audience was rapt with attention. And as the spiral soared inevitably to its poignancy-laced end (it’s hardly a plot-spoiler to reveal such, I would hope), the real human and emotional truth of Verdi’s classic powered through in Norton-Hale’s cunningly executed update.
Soho Theatre, 21 Dean Street, W1D 3NE
Running until 14th September
