Description

La Traviata by Giuseppe Verdi is coming to GNO TV.
The impressive production of the Greek National Opera was presented at the Odeon of Herodes Atticus in the summer of 2024 with great success and positive reviews.

The ill-starred love harboured by the “Lady of the Camellias” for Alfredo Germont –as envisioned and set to music by Verdi using melodies of singular power that blazon themselves indelibly upon our hearts and minds– was brought to life once more conducted by Pier Giorgio Morandi and directed by Konstantinos Rigos.

In line with the spirit of Verdi’s enrapturing music, Rigos marked his stamp on a direction that focuses on the “forced pleasure” which seems to suffocate all the protagonists of the story, as well as the smothering effect of economic transactions that defines everything in the lives of the characters. A psychological profile of Violetta Valéry, from the dawn of love to the darkness of death, set in a “minimal” baroque environment.

The opera describes the love of a courtesan with the son of a prominent Parisian family. The relationship triggers the reaction of the young man’s family, the couple breaks up, and they meet again a while before the girl dies.

In the role of Violetta Valéry, the American opera superstar Nadine Sierra impressed audiences – marking her debut in Greece and at the Greek National Opera.The most sought-after soprano has performed in the world’s most prestigious opera houses, including the New York Metropolitan Opera, Opéra national de Paris, Royal Opera House in London, La Scala in Milan, Teatro Real in Madrid, Teatro di San Carlo in Naples, and other venues. She has left her mark on her interpretations of Gilda (Rigoletto) and Lucia di Lammermoor, while also having a remarkable and extensive repertoire.

Alongside Sierra performed the vocally outstanding British-Italian tenor Freddie De Tommaso in the role of Alfredo Germοnt. He is considered to be a tenor skilled in the tradition of the great Italian tenors, who enjoys wide recognition, performing leading roles in prestigious theatres worldwide.

The leading trio came complete with the internationally acclaimed baritone Dimitri Platanias who performed the role of Giorgio Germont. Dimitri Platanias has carved out a long-standing career, enjoying rave reviews for his performances at the world’s greatest opera houses, including those of San Francisco, Munich, Hamburg, London, Madrid, and others.

Renowned Greek soloists, such as Chrysanthi Spitadi, Eleni Voudouraki, Yannis Kalyvas, Nikolas Douros, Nikos Kotenidis, Georgios Papadimitriou, Nikos Katsigiannis, and Ioannis Kontellis, accompanied them on stage.

The GNO Chorus was conducted by Agathangelos Georgakatos. The production also features the GNO Ballet.

Recorded in Odeon of Herodes Atticus on 27 and 30 July2024. Subtitles are available in Greek, English and French.

The funding body of the project is the Ministry of Culture, within the framework of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan "Greece 2.0" with funding from the European Union - NextGeneration EU.

Creative team – Cast

Conductor: Pier Giorgio Morandi 
Stage direction, sets, choreography: Κonstantinos Rigos 
Costumes: Ioanna Tsami 
Lighting: Christos Tziogkas 
Video projections: Vassilis Kehagias 
Associate architect: Mary Tsagari 
Chorus master: Agathangelos Georgakatos 

Violetta Valéry: Nadine Sierra
Flora Bervoix: Chrysanthi Spitadi
Annina: Eleni Voudouraki 
Alfredo Germοnt: Freddie De Tommaso
Giorgio Germοnt: Dimitri Platanias
Gastone: Yannis Kalyvas 
Baron Douphol: Nikolas Douros
Marquis d’Obigny: Nikos Kotenidis 
Doctor Grenvil: Georgios Papadimitriou 
Giuseppe: Nikos Katsigiannis 
Servant / Commissioner: Ioannis Kontellis 

With the Orchestra, Chorus and Ballet of the Greek National Opera 

Director's note

The director Konstantinos Rigos notes about the work:

“In Giuseppe Verdi’s La traviata one can clearly notice a vein of meaning strongly pulsating to this day: the obligation to seek pleasure. Violetta’s world, swirling to the sounds of waltz, anguishes over the end of the party, the end of pleasure: waltz is the musical metonymy for this agony. Even when she withdraws from society life, even when she is dying, Violetta’s inner world is still tuned into the rhythm of a waltz, during which she draws her last breath. In La traviata pleasure is not morally condemned; it becomes an object of observation. The work’s structure, scenes of a self-indulgent life followed by separation and death, is in itself a reflective remark, an operatic memento mori. And what could be closer to modern-day hedonism, which is now at the heart of a spectacle and consumer society?

Presenting La traviata inside the historic Odeon of Herodes Atticus places the work within a challenging yet interesting context: one must find a balance between the overtly exuberant scenes and the private moments. The walls of this ancient odeon impose a sense of timelessness, and inescapably induct the narrative into deep time. In this intermediary space, between past and future, Violetta seems suspended within an era left in limbo, offering her story up to audiences as yet another product for consumption, as she was herself.

The Herodium stage space is divided into two distinct realms: closed rooms (that represent the heroine’s psyche) and a scenic world of contrived pleasures dominated by a huge table. These two worlds unfold in parallel, with the heroine reflected in her alter ego, thus giving the conflict inside her tangible form – this is arguably the production’s most significant narrative feature. La traviata is Violetta herself, which explains the focus on capturing her emotions and projecting them –enlarged– upon the time-worn walls of the Odeon of Herodes Atticus.

Love, in the asphyxiating context imposed by Violetta’s social stigmatisation, is the only transcendental element in a path that seems to be predetermined (the same way death is predetermined by sickness). The duality Love / Death, with which Wagner was also preoccupied that same time in his Tristan, is founded here not on existential but on social terms. Violetta cannot overcome her stigmatisation. She can only be exalted through offering her forgiveness to a world that condemned her to be a valuable link in the chain of forced pleasure.”

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