La Traviata
Травиата
Willy Decker’s stunning production of Verdi’s unforgettable drama stars the riveting singing actress Natalie Dessay as Violetta.
Exhausted by her restless life as a courtesan, Violetta knows she will die soon. But then she meets the young and idealistic Alfredo (Matthew Polenzani), who offers her true love—with tragic consequences. Dmitri Hvorostovsky is Giorgio Germont, Alfredo’s stern father, and Met Principal Conductor Fabio Luisi is on the podium.
Actors
Crew
Willy Decker’s strikingly beautiful production, a hit when it premiered at the Salzburg Festival in 2005, arrives at the Met with soprano Marina Poplavskaya starring as opera’s most fascinating heroine. “Violetta is an outlaw,” Decker says. “Society shuts her out and looks down on her as a person without feeling, without love. But the further you look into the piece, you see that it’s the other way around: she is the only person in the opera who truly loves, selflessly. Verdi follows her like an obsessed lover throughout the piece, and by the end, our sympathy too is completely on her side.” Matthew Polenzani plays Alfredo with Andrzej Dobber as his father; Gianandrea Noseda conducts Verdi’s timeless tragedy.
Language
Italian
Runtime
2 hours 40 minutes, with intermission
2012
16+
