Review: San Diego Opera’s ‘La Traviata’ was a triumphant visual and musical feast

The San Diego Opera concluded its successful 2024-25 season Sunday with a triumphant staging of Verdi’s beloved La Traviata (The Fallen Woman). From conception to execution — most notably, soprano Andriana Chuchman, tenor Zach Borichevsky, and bass-baritone Hunter Enoch — this production swept the boards.

If the plot of Verdi’s La Traviata (whose original title was a Woody Allen-esque “Love and Death”) doesn’t bear close scrutiny (verismo this is not), it never really needs to. Verdi’s gorgeous tunes, masterful orchestration, and shrewd dramatic instinct produced a masterpiece that you need only sit back and enjoy to its tragic-yet-satisfying end.

Director/choreographer Kyle Lang deserves credit for multiple deft decisions that both tightened the opera’s flow and gave it a freshly animated look-and-feel. As director, he grabbed our attention by ingeniously staging the opening prelude as a graveyard flashback in which Alfredo and the pallbearers step through their grim duties in reverse motion.

To a libretto that fairly groans with big abstract themes — love, death, sacrifice, honor, remorse sin, God, etc. — Lang brought a much-needed physicality, from little things like Violetta throwing down a leather folio to protest Germont’s demand (Act II, scene 5) to the more melodramatic: Alfredo grabbing Violetta’s arm to plant a serious Hollywood kiss rather than the libretto’s discreet hand-kiss (Act I, scene 3) or Alfredo’s collapse to the floor when Violetta and Germont shame him for throwing money at her (Act II, scene 15).

Lang’s decisions as choreographer further amplified the drama. His kinetic, even sexy staging of Act II’s gypsy and matador scenes (9-11) more than filled the void left by Violetta, Alfredo, and Germont’s absence while underscoring the contrast between infernal Paris (where Violetta fell from grace) and the wholesome countryside (where she and Alfredo, temporarily, restore it).

By having a black-costumed Carnival Chorus crawl and writhe past Violetta’s death bed (Act III, scene 4), Lang cleverly dramatized the threat that Violetta’s fallen past still poses to her nearly achieved redemption. All this visible heat and motion energized Francesco Piave’s fraught, high-concept libretto and greatly intensified this production’s visual allure.

But La Traviata stands and falls with Violetta. It is among the repertoire’s most challenging roles not merely because she is the drama’s heart and soul but because Verdi deliberately composed each act to challenge a different quality of the soprano’s voice: brilliant coloratura runs and trills in Act I; more lyric-dramatic middle-register singing in pivotal Act II; floaty, attenuated hurdles in Act III.

With her robust soprano, confident high notes, and sheer stamina, Chuchman comfortably stepped up to the opera’s crucible moments: Act I’s “Sempre libera”; Act II’s “Dite alla giovine” duet with Germont, and the climactic “Addio del passato” in Act III. Chuchman’s natural acting chops and charismatic stage presence gave her character the magnetism that separates competent Violettas from the hard-to-forget. That Chuchman has established herself as a soprano to watch is all the more remarkable given she only first performed Violetta last year!

Chuchman’s Violetta seemed to overwhelm Borichevsky’s Alfredo in Act I. In Act II he audibly and visibly warmed to the role, his voice gaining luster and projection, his acting humanizing the role even as Alfredo reveals his flaws. Hunter Enoch brought such high-toned gravitas and credibility to his turn as Alfredo’s father, Germont, that we almost forget it’s Germont’s selfish desire to protect his family’s image and wealth that motivates him to bully Violetta into abandoning her happiness.

The production’s comprimario all brought outsized color to their roles, especially soprano Erika Niccole Alatorre as Violetta’s loyal maid Annina, mezzo-soprano Tzytle Steinman as the lithe Flora, bass-baritone Travis Sherwood as proud Baron Duphol, and bass Deandre Simmons as the amiable Marchese D’Obigny.

This Traviata was a visual feast. Costume designer Jess Goldstein’s contributed the tasteful, authentically “contemporary” (mid-nineteenth-century) wardrobe that Italian censors denied Verdi. Abigail Hoke-Brady designed the subtly luminous, drama-enhancing lighting. Principal conductor Yves Abel’s steady hand inspired a crisp, vigorous performance from the San Diego Symphony musicians. Chorus master Bruce Stasnya guided a unanimous, full-throated San Diego Opera Chorus.

Even flat-out triumphs aren’t perfect. If Philip Gossett (editor of the Traviata critical edition) is right that “it is essential that the dramatic rhythm be continuous,” then the lengthy scene changes came close to threatening the momentum of Saturday’s performance.

Judging by the rare empty seats, the packed pre-concert talk (by San Diego State’s director of orchestras, Michael Gerdes), the audience’s rapt attention all evening, and their standing ovation and bravi at the curtain, it’s obvious San Diegans love their opera. With general director David Bennett’s announcement that Yves Abel’s contract has been extended through 2032, this month’s financially fruitful gala, and the ongoing $7.5 million renovation of the dated Civic Theater (wrapping up this September), San Diego Opera looks well positioned to sustain momentum into its just-announced 2025-26 season: Leoncavallo’s “Pagliacci,” Rossini’s “The Barber of Seville,” and Bizet’s “Carmen.”

Paul S. Bodine has been writing about music — from classical to pop/rock — for over 30 years for publications such as Classical Voice North America, Times of San Diego, Orange County Register, and Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Among the artists he’s interviewed are Joshua Bell, Herbert Blomstedt, Sarah Chang, Ivan Fischer, Bruno Canino, Christopher O’Reilly, Lindsay String Quartet, and Paul Chihara.