OPERA
LA TRAVIATA
Opera House Joan Sutherland Theatre, January 23
Until March 27
Reviewed by PETER McCALLUM
★★★★★

After cheers at the close, and a sense of excited expectancy while the cast assembled, a sizeable part of the audience leapt instantly to their feet when the curtain rose for the final bow. When Samantha Clarke, who had just sung a luminous, deeply human Violetta, finally returned to stage, many of those still seated followed suit.

Clarke triumphed in this role last year, when this coolly austere, clear-lined production by Sarah Giles replaced the much-loved opulent and venerable version of La Traviata created by the late Elijah Moshinsky. That the reception was even stronger this year owed much to the masterly pacing of conductor Johannes Fritzsch (which in no way diminishes the achievement of Jessica Cottis at the premiere).

Fritzsch’s tempos were always judicious and unhurried, supported by a deeply felt pulse and scrupulous attention to detail that allowed for a rare blend of gratifying precision and expressive flexibility between stage and pit.

In this context the voices were able to blossom with glorious natural colour, without distortion or any sense of frenetic breathlessness. In Violetta’s great three-movement aria from Act 1, Ah, fors’e lui che l’anima, Clarke unfolded the conflicting emotions with rich, vivid colour, sculpting the lines and embellishment for their expressiveness and charm, completely unblemished by hints of shrieking display, while Fritzsch and the Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra supported with discreet transparent clarity.

As her lover Alfredo, Ji-Min Park sang with a totally different kind of strength, the vibrato robust, the edge firm but without harshness or strain. His aria at the opening of Act 2 carried smooth lyricism. Jose Carbo as the initially stern patriarch Giorgio also bloomed wonderfully under Fritzsch’s unhurried tempos, creating warm depth and noble arcs of expressiveness.

Clarke and Carbo jointly made their psychologically complex Act 2 scene, in which each finds a deep need for connection with the other, a touching highpoint. In the climactic scene in Act 2, where the beguiling melody first heard in the overture returns for a single appearance, Park created a persona of amiable obliviousness while Clarke erupted in a moment of overwhelming intensity.

Angela Hogan as Flora, Violetta’s confidante, mixed effervescence and vocal focus, and the other support roles (Richard Anderson as a resplendent but brutish Barone Douphol, Shane Lowrencev as the gentle Doctor Grenvil, Catherine Bouchier as Annina, Virgilio Marino as Gastone and Luke Gabbedy as the Marquis) had both vocal and theatrical strength.

Charles Davis’ set, with lighting by Paul Jackson, neatly partitions frivolous public and sordid private activity in Act 1, reality and ideal in Act 2, and the present life and the next in Act 3. The Opera Australia Chorus cavorted seedily and sang with forceful cohesion, particularly as they watched dancers choreographed by Allie Graham in an ingenious reverse-mode performance in Act 2.