April 25–27, 2025
San Diego Civic Theatre
Music by Giuseppe Verdi
Libretto by Francesco Maria Piave
Conducted by Yves Abel
Directed by Kyle Lang
Verdi’s timeless masterpiece transports you to the dazzling world of 19th-century Paris, where Violetta Valéry, a courtesan, falls in love with the young nobleman Alfredo Germont. Despite their passionate affair, societal conventions and family interference threaten their happiness, and Violetta is forced to make a heartbreaking choice. With its emotionally charged music, memorable arias, and thrilling duets, La traviata remains one of the most beloved operas of all time.
Sung in Italian with projected translations in English and Spanish.
Season Sponsors
City of San Diego
Teresa* and Merle* Fischlowitz
Larry Ganzell in memory of John E. Ford
Lead Production Sponsor
Darlene Marcos Shiley
Production Sponsors
Leon Lachman*
Drs. Gloria and Joseph Shurman
Artist Sponsors
Robert Kaplan and Marina Baroff for Yves Abel
Veronica and Miguel Leff for Andriana Chuchman
*In memoriam
At top and on home page: Andriana Chuchman in La traviata. Photos by Thomas Grady courtesy of Opera Omaha.
Andriana Chuchman
Violetta
“Her gorgeous vocals blend to create soaring duets that could make even the iciest heart melt.”
~Omaha Magazine
Andriana Chuchman
Violetta
Company appearances – Micaëla in The Tragedy of Carmen, March 2017
Canadian soprano Andriana Chuchman has earned much acclaim for her performances in a wide range of repertoire including the heroines of Mozart and Handel, 20th Century masterpieces, and the premieres of new operas and orchestral work. This season, she appears in the Dallas Opera’s world premiere of Joby Talbot’s The Diving Bell and Butterfly and makes three important role debuts – Violetta in La Traviata at Opera Omaha, Juliette in Romeo et Juliette at the Lyric Opera of Kansas City, and Donna Anna in Don Giovanni at the Houston Grand Opera. She recently made her role debut as the title role in Alcina with the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra.
Ms. Chuchman has appeared with many prestigious opera companies including the Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Houston Grand Opera, Dallas Opera, Los Angeles Opera, Washington National Opera, Glimmerglass Festival, Opera Omaha, Glyndebourne Festival Tour, Salzburg Witsun Festival and the Hamburg State Opera. In her native Canada, she has appeared with the Canadian Opera Company, Manitoba Opera, and Edmonton Opera. Her many roles include Giulietta in I Capuleti e i Montecchi, Marie in Fille du Regiment, Adina in L’Elisir d’Amore, Cleopatra in Guilio Cesare, Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro, Gretel in Hansel and Gretel, Valencienne in The Merry Widow, the title role in Orphée et Eurydice, and Lauretta in Gianni Schicchi. She has also received critical acclaim for her performances in many contemporary operas including Mary in Jake Heggie’s It’s a Wonderful Life, Pat Nixon in John Adam’s Nixon in China, Kumdha in John Adam’s A Flowering Tree, Boonyi/India in the world premiere of Jack Perla’s Shalimar the Clown, Magnolia in Show Boat, and Guinevere in Camelot.
In concert, Ms. Chuchman has appeared in Lincoln Center’s White Lights Festival in staged performances of the Pegolesi Stabat Mater, and has also appeared with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Rhode Island Symphony, Orchestra, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, Edmonton Symphony, the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra and at the Cincinnati May and Ravinia festivals.
Born in Winnipeg, Ms. Chuchman received her Bachelor’s Degree in Voice Performance from the School of Music at the University of Manitoba. She is also an alumna of the Ryan Opera Center at the Lyric Opera of Chicago and the San Francisco Opera’s Merola Program. Ms. Chuchman’s awards include the San Francisco Opera’s 2019 Emerging Star of the Year, Opera Theatre of St. Louis’ 2017 Mabel Dorn Reeder Award, and prizewinner at the Finals of the 2009 Neue Stimmen Competition in Germany.
Zach Borichevsky
Alfredo
“The revelation was the young American tenor Zach Borichevsky, who made an astonishingly assured UK debut as Alfredo.”
~What’s On Stage
Zach Borichevsky
Alfredo
San Diego Opera debut
Tenor Zach Borichevsky is “equipped with a flexible, bright voice that already has made him one of the most sought-after singers of his generation.” Mr. Borichevsky is known as a “star-level tenor” with a “precise, nuanced high-register singing and agile acting”, paired with a “magical sense of complete spontaneity that comes from being in total command of the instrument.” A series of significant débuts have established Mr. Borichevsky as one of the most thrilling vocal talents to appear on the international stage; he has created widely celebrated international performances in roles such as Rodolfo in La bohème with Finnish National Opera, Romeo in Roméo et Juliette for Teatro Municipal de Santiago in Chile, and Alfredo in La Traviata for the Glyndebourne Festival.
Last season, Borichevsky made two last-minute jump-ins: as Edgardo in Lucia di Lammermoor with Opéra Nice Côte d’Azur and in the title role of Faust for Detroit Opera. Of the latter, OperaWire wrote “Borichevsky revealed himself to be a masterful and technically competent lyric tenor with an innate cut and ring… [he] delighted and captivated the audience with his presence.” In addition, Borichevsky reprised his honed performance of Rodolfo in Nashville Opera’s La bohème, sang Messa di Gloria for Toledo Symphony, performed the Duke in Rigoletto with the Rochester Philharmonic, and returned to Aspen Music Festival for Berlioz’s Requiem. This season,
he joins the Metropolitan Opera to cover Rodolfo in La bohème and Roméo in Roméo et Juliette. Additionally, he takes his Roméo to Toledo Opera and sings Cavaradossi in Tosca with Dayton Opera
Zach recently expanded his repertoire to include Faust, having joined the Lyric Opera of Chicago to cover in their 2022 production, in addition to performing his first Narraboth in Salome with the Spoleto Festival, USA. In that season he also performed Eisenstein in Die Fledermaus for Palm Beach Opera, reprised the role of Alfredo in La Traviata for Opera Grand Rapids, performed Cassio in Washington National Opera’s production of Otello, and Rodolfo in La bohéme with Toledo Opera. In concert, Zach performed the tenor solo in Verdi’s Requiem for the National Philharmonic at the Kennedy Center and recorded a virtual Messiah with New Choral Society.
Mr. Borichevsky has graced opera stages across the globe with performances as Edmondo in Manon Lescaut in his Metropolitan Opera début, Anatol in Vanessa for the Santa Fe Opera, Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly for Teatro Municipal de Santiago in Chile, Rodolfo in La bohème with English National Opera, and Alfredo in La Traviata with the Seattle Opera, to name a few.
Additional performances include Alfredo in La Traviata for Toledo Opera, Edgardo in Lucia di Lammermoor at the Seoul Arts Center, Lensky in Eugene Onegin, Rodolfo in La bohème, and Romeo in Roméo et Juliette all with Arizona Opera, Edgardo in Lucia di Lammermoor with Opera Carolina, Eisenstein in Die Fledermaus for Cincinnati Opera, Tamino in The Magic Flute with Boston Lyric Opera and Jonathan Dale in the East Coast premiere of Kevin Puts’ Silent Night for Opera Philadelphia.
In concert, Mr. Borichevsky has joined the Minnesota Orchestra for Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 under Osmo Vänskä, sang Rachmaninov’s The Bells with the St. Louis Symphony and with the Festival de Radio France et Montpellier under Santtu-Matias Rouvali, sang Handel’s Messiah for the New Choral Society, sang the role of Lazarus in John Adams’ The Gospel According to the Other Mary for the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center and the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra under Markus Stenz, and gave his first performances of The Dream of Gerontius with the Orquesta Sinfónica del Principado de Asturias under Rossen Milanov. Further highlights have included appearances at the Aspen Music Festival for Britten’s Nocturne and Janáček’s Diary of One Who Disappeared, Britten’s War Requiem with the National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra under Lan Shui, and the Chicago Philharmonic for Verdi’s Messa da requiem under Murry Sidlin.
Mr. Borichevsky has been honored with numerous awards from organizations including the George London Foundation, The Metropolitan Opera National Council, Gerda Lissner Foundation, Opera Index, Mario Lanza Foundation, Shreveport Opera and Licia Albanese-Puccini Foundation. Mr. Borichevsky won second prize at the Loren L. Zachary National Vocal Competition for Young Opera Singers and third prize at Plácido Domingo’s Operalia Competition.
Hunter Enoch
Germont
“Rock-solid vocally! Chief among the cast for sheer vocal presence and power.”
~Aspen Times
Hunter Enoch
Germont
San Diego Opera debut
Bass-baritone Hunter Enoch, praised by Opera News for his “weighty, dramatic baritone,” continues to garner popular and critical acclaim for his performances. In the 2023-24 season, highlights include his Dallas Symphony debut in Das Rheingold as Donner, a return to Washington National Opera as Gregorio in Roméo et Juliette, a return to Opera Theatre of Saint Louis for Philip Glass’ Galileo Galilei, and the world premiere of Touch, by Carla Lucero and Marianna Mott Newirth, with Opera Birmingham. The 2022-23 season saw several important role and company debuts, including a debut at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis in Tosca as Scarpia. Performances in the 2021-22 season included Scarpia in Tosca for Anchorage Opera, as well as the title role in Le Nozze di Figaro and Palemon in Thais with Maryland Lyric Opera. In the 2019-20 season, Mr. Enoch returned to WNO as Montano in Otello, and sang the role of Kurwenal in Tristan und Isolde with the National Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Gianandrea Noseda at both the Kennedy Center and at Lincoln Center. In the 2018-19 season Mr. Enoch returned to Washington National Opera to sing the role of William Dale in Silent Night, made his company and role debut as Scarpia for Opera Birmingham, and sang Happy in La Fanciulla del West and Raimondo in Lucia di Lammermoor for Maryland Lyric Opera.
Bass-baritone Hunter Enoch joined the Domingo-Cafritz Young Artist program at Washington National Opera in the fall of 2015. During his time with the company, he was heard as Count Almaviva in the Young Artist performance of Le nozze di Figaro, a Corporal in The Daughter of the Regiment, ADC in The Dictator’s Wife, covered Joseph De Rocher in Dead Man Walking, and sang Sharpless in the Young Artist performance of Madame Butterfly. His WNO debut was as Moralés in Carmen and he was later heard as James Miller in the world premiere of Better Gods.
Since departing the WNO Young Artist Program, Mr. Enoch has made significant debuts throughout the United States. In the summer of 2018, he made his Detroit Symphony Orchestra debut as Ping in Turandot, followed by his role debut as the Four Villains in Les contes d’Hoffmann at the Aspen Music Festival. Previously in that season, he was heard as Zuniga in Carmen with Rochester Philharmonic, Escamillo in Carmen with The Washington Chorus at The Kennedy Center, and in Bernstein’s Songfest with National Symphony Orchestra.
In the summer of 2016, Mr. Enoch returned to The Glimmerglass Festival as a guest artist to sing Marcello in La bohème and cover the role of John Proctor in The Crucible, following his festival debut as Sharpless in the Young Artist Performance of Madame Butterfly in 2014. He was a Resident Artist at the Academy of Vocal Arts during the 2014-2015 season where he appeared as Taddeo in L’italiana in Algeri, Marcello, and Valentin in Faust.
Other training includes Seattle Opera’s 2012-2013 Young Artist Program, where he sang Il Cavaliere di Belfiore in Un Giorno di Regno; the Emerging Artist program at Virginia Opera where he sang the roles of Moralès and Wig Maker in Ariadne auf Naxos in 2014; Chautauqua Opera as a Studio Artist in 2012; and the Studio Artist program at Wolf Trap Opera in 2010 and 2011. He earned his Bachelor of Music and Master of Music from University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music. Mr. Enoch has appeared as a semifinalist in the Metropolitan National Council Auditions and is the recipient of the Sullivan Foundation’s Career Development Award.
MORE CAST »
Felipe Prado
Gastone
Felipe Prado
Gastone
Tenor Felipe Prado made his Company debut as Remendado in 2019’s Carmen¸ and returned to sing the Second Villager in the world premiere of El último sueño de Frida y Diegoand Padre Matias in El milagro del recuerdo. Notable appearances include Spoletta in Tosca with Guild Opera, Borsa in Rigoletto and Gastone and Giuseppe in La traviata with Antelope Valley Symphony Orchestra and Master Chorale, Tamino in The Magic Flute with Ridgecrest Opera Guild, and Alfredo in La traviata with Pacific Lyric Association. He has been a featured soloist for the concert Opera Highlights with the California Philharmonic Orchestra. As an active member of multiple professional ensembles such as the California Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorale he has had the great honor to perform in great venues such as the Walt Disney Concert Hall, the Warner Grand Theater, The Santa Anita Race Track, and the UCLA’s Royce Hall. In 2010 he joined the AVC Concert Choir and Master Chorale and took part in many concerts in a wide range of repertoire. In 2013 he started collaborating with several groups in Los Angeles area, such as the Pacific Palisades Symphony, Los Angeles Lawyers Philharmonic and Legal Voices among others. He also became part of the California Philharmonic Chorale as a chorister under the baton of Victor Vener and vocal direction of Marya Basaraba, and the Golden State Pops Orchestra.
Travis Sherwood
Baron Douphol
Travis Sherwood
Baron Douphol
San Diego Opera debut.
American Baritone, Travis Sherwood, has received praise for his powerful voice and emotionally poignant performances around the world as an opera singer, concert artist, and recitalist, performing a wide range of musical genres and styles.
On the operatic stage, Sherwood has sung for Amarillo Opera, Mississippi Opera, Aspen Opera Theater, Opera a la Carte, Princeton Festival, Bohème Opera, Spoleto Festival USA, and Opera New Jersey. On the concert stage, Sherwood has performed with the La Jolla Symphony, Southwest Symphony, Chatter Orchestra, Hunterdon Symphony, Symphony of the Vines, Canto Bello Chamber Orchestra, Monroe Symphony Orchestra, and La Sierra Symphony Orchestra. Sherwood has also enjoyed many collaborative recitals with distinguished pianists throughout the world.
Beyond performing, Sherwood enjoys teaching the next generation of singers. He currently serves as Associate Professor of Voice, Voice Area Coordinator, and Director of SDSU Opera Theatre on the faculty of San Diego State University.
DeAndre Simmons
Marchese D'Obigny
DeAndre Simmons
Marchese D’Obigny
Company appearances: Sciarrone in Tosca (2023), The Bonze in Madama Butterfly (2024)
American bass, DeAndre Simmons. Notable appearances: Amonasro, Aida (Portland Opera in the Park); Oroveso, Norma (NJ Verismo Opera); Padre Guardiano, La Forza del Destino (Atlantic Opera Festival); Alidoro, Cenerentola (Opera Philadelphia); Carbon, Cyrano (Opera Philadelphia); Soloist, Mozart Requiem (Santa Barbara Symphony); soloist, Beethoven Ninth (Santa Barbara Symphony); Boatman, Sunday in the park with George (CCAE Theatricals); soloist, Verdi Requiem (London Symphony); Caiaphas, Jesus Christ Superstar (Moonlight Theatre); soloist, World Childhood Fdn for HM Queens Silvia of Sweden; Recital, Die Winterreise (Chicago, NYC, LA, Berlin, Paris, London); soloist, Handel’s Messiah (Grand Junction Symphony); Ferrando, Il Trovatore (Astoria Music Festival); soloist, Haydn’s The Creation (Bar Choral Society & London Symphony); Grand Inquisitor, Candide (LA Philharmonic); Cal, Regina (Pacific Opera Victoria); Sarastro, Die Zauberflöte (Opera Panama); Recital, (Musée Jacquemart-André, Paris)
IG: @DeAndresVoice
Michael Sokol
Doctor Grenville
Michael Sokol
Doctor Grenville
Company appearances: Sergeant of Police in The Pirates of Penzance (2017), Ensemble, All is Calm: The Christmas Truce of 1914 (2018); soloist, When I See Your Face Again (2021); Maestro Spinelloccio in Gianni Schicchi (2023), A Sacristan in Tosca (2023), Mr. Costello in Ghosts (2023).
Notable appearances: Metropolitan Opera; Philadelphia Orchestra; Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago; Frank Lloyd Wright, Shining Brow (Madison Opera); director, San Diego Summer Gilbert and Sullivan Workshop.
Tzytle Steinman
Flora
Tzytle Steinman
Flora
Company appearances – Page in Rigoletto, February 2019
Tzytle Steinman, once described as, “Wickedly funny and talented” by The Fargo Forum, is a mezzo-soprano originally from San Diego, CA. She has performed with multiple companies including The Glimmerglass Festival, Ohio Light Opera, Fargo-Moorhead Opera, Utah Festival Opera, Sarasota Opera and Florentine Opera. She will next be returning to The Glimmerglass Festival this summer to perform Mother Goose in The Rakes Progress and Edna/Shamana 2 in the world premiere of The House Mango Street. Her other roles include L’enfent in L’enfant et les sortilèges, Buttercup in HMS Pinafore, Venus in Orpheus in the Underworld, Rosina in the Barber of Seville (Tour), Dorabella in Cosi fan tutte, Dinah in Trouble in Tahiti, Tisbe in La Cenerentola, Prince Orlofsky in Die Fledermaus and Stephano in Roméo et Juliette. Tzytle is a Grand Prize Winner of the Patricia Crump Vocal Competition and has won multiple Awards from the Laffont Competition. She received her MM in Voice and Opera from Northwestern University and her BM from Boston Conservatory. In 2021, she was a contestant on the Price is Right. When she isn’t singing, Tzytle loves take her rescue dog, Golde, to her favorite dog beach. @Tzytle
Erika Nicole Alatorre
Annina
Erika Nicole Alatorre
Annina
San Diego Opera debut
Erika Nicole Alatorre is a Mexican-American soprano, acclaimed for her vocal beauty, musicianship and consummate acting skills. Rachel Willis-Sørensen hails “Ms. Alatorre is so talented, the world must hear her voice!” Her Recent roles include: Pierrette (Girondines) with Los Angeles’ Mission Opera, Donna Anna (Don Giovanni) Live with Vincerò Academy in Mazatlán, Sinaloa, Mexico, Donna Elvira (Don Giovanni) with LA’s Mission Opera and Violetta (La traviata) with Vincerò Academy, Zerlina in professionally staged scenes of (Don Giovanni) at Carnegie Hall and Nella (Gianni Schicchi) with Opera Romana Craiova, Romania.
Ms. Alatorre performs in the USA, Europe, Mexico, Puerto Rico, and Canada. Follow Ms. Alatorre’s career on her website, Facebook page and instagram.
Yves Abel
Conductor
“One has to say it very clearly and often. The presence of Yves Abel in the pit is a luxury. The work that Abel realizes with each new appearance is intense and the results impeccable from start to finish.”
~La Nueva España
Yves Abel
Conductor
Maestro Yves Abel is San Diego Opera’s Principal Conductor. He made his Company debut in 2013 for performances of The Daughter of the Regiment. He returned in 2014 for Pagliacci, in 2016 for Madama Butterfly, in 2019 for Carmen, in 2022 for Roméo et Juliette, the Puccini Duo of Suor Angelica and Gianni Schicchi in 2023 and Don Giovanni and Madama Butterfly in 2024. He is the Chief Conductor designate of the NordwestDeutsche Philarmonie, Germany. A frequent guest with the world’s great opera companies, Yves Abel has conducted performances at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden; La Scala, Milan; the Metropolitan Opera, New York; Lyric Opera of Chicago; San Francisco Opera; Seattle Opera; Glyndebourne Festival; Bayerische Staatsoper; Opéra National de Paris; Netherlands Opera; Grand Théatre de Génève; Teatro San Carlo, Naples; Teatro Communale Bologna; New National Theatre, Tokyo; Welsh National Opera and Opera North. He has conducted new productions in Liceo (The Pearl Fishers), Munich (I Capuleti e i Montecchi), Geneva (Les Vêpres Siciliennes), Barcelona (Madama Butterfly), Bilbao (Norma), Toulouse (Lalo’s Le Roi d’Ys and The Tales of Hoffmann), Lisbon (Il Turco in Italia), Naples (Gounod’s Faust), Dallas (Ermione), Seattle (Il trovatore and Heggie’s The End of Affair), Monte Carlo Opera (Il Turco in Italia) and Santa Fe (Così fan tutte), and at the festivals of Pesaro, Caramoor, the Menuhin festival in Gstaad, and the Spoleto festival in Charleston and Spoleto, Italy. As Principal Guest Conductor of the Deutsche Oper, Berlin from 2005 to 2011, he conducted new productions of Don Pasquale, Simon Boccanegra, d’Albert’s Tiefland, and Carmen, as well as performances of The Marriage of Figaro, La traviata, Dialogues des Carmélites, La bohème and Carmina Burana. He is a frequent guest at the Vienna Staatsoper where his repertoire includes The Daughter of the Regiment, The Elixir of Love, Carmen, Madama Butterfly, Simon Boccanegra, A Masked Ball, and L’italiana in Algeri. In concerts he has performed with the Copenhagen Philharmonic Orchestra at the Tivoli Festival, the RTE National Symphony Orchestra, Dublin, the Rotterdam Philharmonic, the Orchèstre du Capitole de Toulouse, the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra, and the Filarmonica Arturo Toscanini in Parma. He has also conducted the Toronto Symphony, Montreal Symphony, Netherlands Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Orchèstre National de Lyon, Orchestra of St. Luke’s New York, the Royal Liverpool, the Haydn Orchestra in Bolzano and the orchestras of Genoa, Naples, and Palermo among others. A Franco-Canadian, he has a particular affinity with the French repertoire and has won significant critical acclaim for his achievements as founder and Music Director of L’Opéra Francais de New York, with whom he has regenerated rare French operas and also performed the world premiere of Dusapin’s To be Sung. Since 1994, the company has performed regularly to capacity audiences at the Lincoln Center. He conducts at various festivals around the world including the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro and the Glyndebourne festival, among others. His recordings include Thaïs with Renée Fleming and Werther with Andrea Bocelli (Decca), Madama Butterfly with the Philharmonia Orchestra (Chandos), and two discs of French arias, one with Susan Graham and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (Erato) and the other with Patricia Petibon and the Orchestra of the Opera National de Lyon (Decca). His most recent recording, ‘Romantique’, is a disc of romantic arias with Elīna Garanča on Deutsche Grammophon. In 2009 he was awarded the title Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Government.
Kyle Lang
Director
“An imaginative director! Kyle Lang must be credited for the lion’s share of what is seen on the stage. Mr. Lang should surely claim his spot among America’s most able directors of opera.”
~PK Theater and Film
Kyle Lang
Director
Company appearances: Stage Director – Don Giovanni (2024), The Puccini Duo (2023), Carmen (2019), and As One (2017)
Kyle Lang is a director and choreographer newly relocated from Maui, Hi to San Diego. His more recent directing credits include Turandot with Teatro Petruzzelli di Bari, Becoming Santa Clause with Chicago Opera Theater, Die Zauberflöte with The Dallas Opera, Le Nozze di Figaro, The Pirates of Penzance and La Cenerentola with Virginia Opera, Die Fledermaus with Utah Opera, and The Bear with Wexford Festival Opera. His recent choreographic credits include Becoming Santa Clause with Chicago Opera Theater, The Pirates of Penzance with Virginia Opera and Utah Opera, My Fair Lady with Teatro Massimo di Palermo and Teatro San Carlo di Napoli, Ariadne auf Naxos with Santa Fe Opera, Vanessa with Wexford Festival Opera, and Turandot with Virginia Opera. Upcoming projects include La Bohéme with Hawaii Opera Theatre, The Pirates of Penzance with Central City Opera, and Carmen with Virginia Opera.
Scenic Design
Tim Wallace
Lighting Design
Abigail Hoke-Brady
Costume Design
Jess Goldstein
Hair and Makeup Design
Jenn Hill
Resident Conductor/Chorus Master
Bruce Stasyna
Assistant Director
Matt Haney
Stage Manager
Carmen Alfaro
Assistant Stage Managers
Caitlynn Sandoval
Adrian Speth
Musical Preparation
Catherine Miller
Production Assistant
Holden Fox
Opera Uncorked
Thursday, March 27 at 6:00 pm
The perfect evening to whet your operatic appetite just a few weeks before the performance, featuring a presentation led by Resident Conductor Bruce Stasyna every bit as scintillating as the wine and cheese served upon your arrival. Bruce will discuss the history of La traviata, what to listen for, and some of the interesting challenges and fun facts about producing opera. Opera Uncorked takes place at UCSD’s remarkable Park & Market location in East Village.
Pre-Performance Talk
April 25, 26, and 27
Beat the traffic and get the most out of the performance at a free 25-minute talk in the auditorium 50 minutes prior to each opera performance. It’s a great way to learn about the opera and note what to listen for!
Post-Opera Talk-Back
April 26 and 27
Immediately following the performance on Saturday and Sunday, join us in the Dress Circle seating section for an informative Q&A with San Diego Opera staff and cast members.
ACT I
Violetta’s salon. A revel is in full swing, and its hostess Violetta Valéry, the most beautiful courtesan in Paris, wonders how much longer her health will permit her to carry on this way. Her friend Gastone brings her a new suitor who he says has been in love with her for a year. Her escort, the Baron Douphol, disapproves. She laughs off such devotion, but the young man, Alfredo Germont, swears that his love could cure her. She protests again: friendship, not love, is all that she can offer. She gives him the camellia and tells him to bring it back when it has wilted. Alfredo is thrilled. When the party is over, she searches her soul: amidst her frenzied life of parties and pleasures, could she possibly fall in love?
ACT II
Violetta and Alfredo’s country home. Violetta has left Paris for a bucolic idyll. Three months have passed, and she and Alfredo are happier than either has ever been. She has been selling her jewels to maintain their lifestyle. A visitor is announced, who she expects will be her business agent. She is shocked to learn that he is Giorgio Germont, Alfredo’s father. He asks Violetta to leave Alfredo so that his daughter can organize a proper marriage. Violetta tells Germont how ill she is and how much she needs Alfredo, but she agrees to make the sacrifice. When Germont leaves, she writes a note to the Baron telling him she will meet him at her friend Flora’s soirée that evening. Alfredo returns to find his father waiting for him, urging him to return home to Provence. An enraged Alfredo finds the invitation to Flora’s and rushes off to Paris.
Intermission
Flora’s ball in Paris. Everyone wonders what has become of Violetta and Alfredo. She enters on the arm of the Baron. Soon Alfredo appears. He sits down immediately to gamble, intending to win enough to buy back what Violetta has sold. As the guests go into dinner, Violetta slips away to meet Alfredo and begs him to leave. She fears the Baron will challenge him to a duel. Alfredo flings the doors wide and calls everyone in. He hurls insults at Violetta and throws his money at her: “You are all my witnesses that I have hereby paid her!” Violetta faints in Flora’s arms. Germont enters in search of his son. Only he truly understands the significance of the scene he beholds, but he cannot speak of it. Alfredo is remorse-stricken.
ACT III
Violetta’s bedroom. Violetta, very weak, asks her maid Annina to open the curtains and let in the light. The streets still swell with revellers: it is the Carnival season. Violetta asks Annina to check the coin purse to see how much money remains.
The faithful Doctor Grenville arrives; Violetta makes an effort to greet him, and asks him not to forget about her. He puts on a cheerful face with her and then whispers to Annina that her mistress has but hours to live. Violetta sends Annina out to distribute coins to the poor. She re-reads the letter she has had from Germont, promising that both he and Alfredo will come to ask her forgiveness for her terrible sacrifice. Annina returns, breathless with joy. Alfredo rushes into the room, takes her in his arms, and they vow to go away together to a quiet place where all will be restored. But it is too late. She struggles across the room. Germont and Doctor Grenville have entered. She rises, painless at last … and falls.
– by Lucy Yates for the Santa Fe Opera
What does "la traviata" mean?
La traviata means “the fallen woman.” Violetta Valéry is an extremely successful courtesan, the toast of Paris and the belle of every ball, but still not respectable in the eyes of polite society. As we will see, her love affair with the smitten Alfredo Germont creates impossible social barriers for members of the Germont family.
Where did Verdi get the idea?
La traviata is based on the play La Dame aux Camélias by Alexandre Dumas the younger, son of the Alexandre Dumas who wrote The Count of Monte Cristo. The play itself was an adaptation of Dumas’s very popular semi-autobiographical 1848 novel of the same name.
Verdi was in an extremely productive period of his career, working on Il trovatore after having recently premiered Rigoletto. He was visiting Paris with his companion Giuseppina Strepponi when Dumas’ play premiered in 1852. After seeing it, he immediately started working on an opera with his librettist Francesco Maria Piave.
Read More
How did Verdi adapt the story for the opera?
First, Verdi’s opera changes Dumas’ French names to more Italian-sounding ones that flow better with the music. Marguerite becomes Violetta and Armand Duval becomes Alfredo Germont. Armand’s father, whose first name the novel never reveals, becomes Giorgio Germont. Verdi gives Marguerite’s fellow courtesan Prudence the more vivacious name Flora. Armand’s friend Gaston’s name merely gets changed to its Italian version Gastone, and the maid Nanine becomes Annina.
The drama of La Dame aux Camélias is a memory story, told in introspective fashion by the young man Armand, but La traviata has no framing device. We don’t experience the story from Alfredo’s later vantage point. Verdi lets all of the characters express inner monologues in their arias. He also drives the plot with highly dramatic scenes packed with heightened conflict. We watch events unfold in order right before our eyes.
For example, in the novel Monsieur Duval’s plea to Marguerite to leave Armand comes in the form of a letter which Armand discovers only after she inexplicably leaves him. In Verdi’s La traviata, we get the dramatic scene where she hears from Germont directly, complete with his moving aria “Di Provenza il mar, il suol.”
The action-oriented storytelling causes us to root for Alfredo and Violetta’s romance, and makes her illness in Act III all the more heartbreaking.
Dumas’ framing device for the novel and play essentially means we see Marguerite through the eyes of Armand. Verdi’s opera allows us to see Violetta on her own terms, and hear her thoughts through arias like “Addio, del passato” and her iconic “Sempre libera.”
Why is the camellia important?
The courtesan Marguerite earns her nickname “the lady of the camellias” from her penchant for wearing one. In the 19th-century “language of flowers,” camellias symbolized admiration, perfection, and sometimes doomed love. Marguerite usually wears a white camellia, but for a few days each month she wears a red one, to signal her romantic unavailability.
La traviata and the censors
Verdi was drawn to the character of Violetta. Perhaps he related to those who were judged by society, since he was a bit of a renegade himself, living in a long-time unmarried relationship with the soprano Giuseppina Strepponi.
Verdi was exploring the injustice and hypocrisy of the world around him, and he wanted to set his opera in the present day like the play on which it was based.
But the management of Venice’s Teatro La Fenice felt that the scandalous subject matter would be a little less threatening if it were set in the past, so they insisted the time period be changed to a previous era. Thus, the opera portrayed Violetta and the Germonts as living around 1700. This frustrated Verdi tremendously, who wrote in a letter to his friend Cesare Vigna that he wanted “a subject from our own time.”
After Verdi’s death, productions began to restore La traviata to its intended time period.
Yes, there really was a lady of the camellias
The play and novel La Dame aux Camélias were based on the real-life story of Marie Duplessis, one of the most renowned courtesans in Paris, with whom Dumas had a love affair in 1844 and 1845.
In the novel and play, Marguerite forces herself to leave Armand to save his family honor. The real story was not so filled with pathos or sacrificial love. Marie’s affair with Dumas ended because of her need to maintain her lavish and expensive lifestyle with wealthier patrons. But like Violetta, she died of consumption (tuberculosis) at a young age.
La Dame aux Camélias and La traviata give us a romanticized leading lady in full control of events. The life of the real Violetta was not so sunny.
Marie was born Alphonsine Rose Plessis. As an adult she changed her first name to Marie and added a more aristocratic Du to make her last name Duplessis.
She had been born into a peasant family. Her mother died when she was seven. Her abusive, drunken father sold her sexual favors to various men, including a 70-year-old with a lecherous reputation. Eventually her father took her to Paris, where he abandoned her at the age of 15. Over time, she realized that women who marketed themselves as “kept women” could have a more pleasant life than those who were abused and overworked laboring in laundries. She gradually bought the clothes she needed and undertook to reinvent herself.
After a few years of relationships with multiple wealthy men, she married the Comte Édouard de Perregaux in 1846. Sadly the marriage was never legal, as Perregaux had failed to publish the required banns. Shortly after the “wedding,” Marie’s tuberculosis progressed, leaving her a shadow of her former self.
Her funeral was well attended. The English novelist Charles Dickens was there, and he later remembered: “one could have believed that Marie was Jeanne d’Arc or some other national heroine, so profound was the general sadness.”
Marie Duplessis and Franz Liszt
Marie met Liszt in 1845, when Liszt was 34. Liszt later claimed that they had a profound connection, writing in a letter that Marie had inspired him deeply. He said she was “one of the most charming creatures I ever met.” Some called Liszt “the only man Duplessis had ever loved.” Liszt had described her as the “most absolute incarnation of woman who has ever existed.” He wrote in a letter after her death, “This poor Mariette Duplessis has died. She was the first woman I fell in love with.”
Its opening night was a flop
The opening of La traviata did not go well. Verdi had been worried that they were headed for disaster. Most of the singers were sub-par. The only good one was the lead: Fanny Salvini-Donatelli, who played Violetta. Unfortunately she was miscast, being 38 years old and not exactly slender.
Opera audiences were not so genteel in 1853. They heckled the singer, jeering at the idea she could be the most desirable woman in Paris, or a realistic choice to play an ill woman dying of consumption.
Verdi called it a fiasco. He wrote to a friend, “La traviata last night was a failure. Was the fault mine or the singers’? Time will tell.”
After the first production, he worked to revise the opera, and the next year it was performed again in Venice, at Teatro San Benedetto, with the performance of Maria Spezi-Aldighieri as Violetta. This production and subsequent ones received a much more favorable reception.
Lady of the Camellias becomes Camille
The play Lady of the Camelias to be widely produced throughout the 1800s, but in much of the English-speaking world it was titled Camille, an anglicization of the French name associated with camellias. It was produced all over, including 15 productions on Broadway between the years of 1853 and 1935.
There were multiple silent movie adaptations made, starring Clara Kimball Young (1915), movie temptress Theda Bara (1917), Alla Nazimova (1921), and Norma Talmadge (1926). But the most famous film was George Cukor’s 1936 Camille starring Robert Taylor, Lionel Barrymore, and the Oscar-nominated Greta Garbo as Marguerite.
Why is Julia Roberts smiling?
Answer: Because Richard Gere took her to La traviata.
In the 1990 hit film Pretty Woman, corporate raider Edward Lewis (Richard Gere) takes his down-to-earth date-for-hire Vivian Ward (Julia Roberts) to her first opera, Verdi’s La traviata. By the end of this comic yet moving scene, we realize that the intensely private Edward has not only revealed himself to Vivian by inviting her into a world that means so much to him, but also given her the opportunity to become enchanted in this musical wonderland herself.
Ready for some cinematic bubbles to burst? The singers playing Violetta and Alfredo onstage are actors Karin Calabro and Bruce Eckstut, and they are lip-syncing to a recording of La traviata. And though they are supposed to be at San Francisco’s War Memorial Opera House, the 1989 Bay Area earthquake disrupted schedules and made plans to film in San Francisco unrealistic, so the scene’s exterior was filmed at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, and the interiors were filmed at Warner Grand Theatre in San Pedro.
Video: Watch the Scene
There are also some interesting parallels between La traviata and Baz Luhrmann’s film Moulin Rouge, which paid homage both to La traviata and to La bohème, also set in 19th-century Paris. Both feature a “fallen woman” in a transactional world, finding true love with an idealistic outsider, before they are tragically separated due to external forces and illness. Luhrmann acknowledged his debt to La traviata when promoting the movie, and in fact one of its working titles before it became Moulin Rouge was “The Lady of the Camellias.”
Katy Perry wears Verdi so well
In 2014 Katy Perry made a splash with a Valentino dress she wore to the Grammys. The dress, created under the direction of Valentino co-creative directors Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pierpaolo Piccioli, was titled “La Valse [The Waltz] de Violetta Valéry” and featured musical notations from Violetta’s aria “Sempre libera.”
The dress was designed for the Valentino Spring 2014 Haute Couture collection, which featured pieces inspired by the world of opera. The collection was unveiled at Paris Fashion Week, and La traviata wasn’t the only opera alluded to. The 63 looks featured also contained nods to Tosca, Wagner’s Ring Cycle, and Madama Butterfly.
Nor was it the last time Valentino would be connected with La traviata. Two years later Sofia Coppola directed a production with contemporary inflections for Teatro dell’ Opera di Roma. Costume design for the production was by Nathan Crowley, but at Coppola’s request, Valentino Garavani personally designed Violetta’s first-act party gown and the third-act nightdress for her death scene. His fashion house also contributed the choristers’ costumes, designed by Chiuri and Piccioli.
During the opera’s limited run, Valentino mounted an exhibit at the opera house titled “La Traviata: Mirror of the Time,” which featured sketches, designs, and actual costumes.
Corporate Sponsors
