La Traviata – St George’s Hall

VERDI’S 18th opera, a failure at its first performance in 1853 in Venice, has since captivated the world, and even this month in Yorkshire has received two professional productions, first Opera North in Leeds followed by this one, Ellen Kent’s International Company in Bradford.

Certain differences between the two are inevitable and interesting. An orchestra on the move each night cannot cope to compete with the expertise of Opera North’s resident body, and scenery is also less sophisticated.

But the treatment of the composer’s score matters more and the response of principals likewise. Both first acts ended with Verdi’s unwritten top E flat, much to the satisfaction of both audiences.

Then in the second act, scene one can underline the differences: in Leeds, the tenor aria had time to please also with a performance of the optional O mio romorso!; in Bradford he was in too much of a hurry to pursue his problems on stage.

Both baritones sang sympathetically about the soprano’s fate which ended rather more satisfactorily in Bradford by including his thoughtful cabaletta ne rispondi, rarely sung, before following correctly the break Verdi required.

The shocking denunciation of Violetta by Alfredo was then fully felt following a frivolously trivial stage show, laying Violetta’s agony utterly bare – the performer Maria Tonina’s finest moment.

John Pettit