“Valerie’s Violetta is a triumph of feminism,” says Renato Palumbo, the celebrated Italian maestro who returns to Cologne to direct the premiere of the final lyrical season. With more than fifty recordings of La Traviata under his belt, one of the most beloved and popular titles in the collection, “Valerie’s Violetta is a triumph of feminism,” that of the young courtesan (Violetta) who, among lovers, luxuries and Parisian parties, discovers love (Alfredo) when her life is slipping away into illness.
The short life of Marie Duplessis, the woman who actually inspired the character of Marguerite Gauthier in Alexandre Dumas’s autobiographical novel (h). “He died in 1847 at the age of 23. Already at the age of 48, Dumas wrote the literary work Lady Camellia. “In ’52, the play, and in 1853 Verdi composed his opera,” sums up Palumbo in an interview with Nation. “Never has it happened that, six years after the death of anyone in this world, a composer of Verdi’s magnitude has written a lyrical work that connotes the entry into history. For this reason, we are facing a real triumph of feminism.”
For his part, theater director Emilio Sagi, who completes the duo of this new production that will be shown starting Tuesday in nine public performances (and a tenth closed show), adds: “I want to tell what is in the plot: the story of a woman who is a victim of tuberculosis and a class society that does not forgive her for her past (the past of a high-flying prostitute) and does not allow her to redeem herself in a relationship with a man from a wealthy family.” Although it may seem trivial, the idea of narrating only what is in the book is revolutionary compared to the trends that prevailed in this genre. “I don’t want to explain anything,” says the director, who began his directing career in Spain. Harm Forty-five years ago. I know these words aren’t current, but I don’t care. The work is so complete and wonderful that it is enough to tell what is there for the audience to enjoy it, see a beautiful scene and be excited.
“Harm “It’s a very modern opera,” Palumbo says. It is modernity and simplicity. It is Picasso when he reaches the composition of two lines after a very long history of study and work. The music is so beautiful that I can’t say it bothers us, but it takes us away from the real drama, from the tragedy.
-Is it a class or moral struggle? Are they the values of another time or our values?
-Emilio Sagi: I think this is a current debate because if a son brings a prostitute into the family, in many cases she will be rejected, just as if the son were in a relationship with a man. It is not the same premise as today, but it is a current topic that I want to bring closer to our days, by highlighting the courage of Violetta, a character full of moral strength.
-Is there sympathy in the eyes of Giorgio Germont, Alfredo’s father?
-He is: no one. The father is a motivator, a manipulator, and a terrible sight. He goes to see her and tells her that she has to break up with Alfredo. She protests because without this love she would rather die. He responds with the most horrific atrocities. She knows she is sick and yet she says to her: “You, young and beautiful, when time passes…” Violetta is a victim of that class society, and yet she has the dignity of leaving the love of her life behind. Germont redeems himself by being a father, by the guilt he eventually admits, and by the beauty of the music he sings.
Renato Palombo:-In the beginning, the father is not bad. It is in the letter at the end when he says to her: Heal yourself, you deserve a better life! Because you can’t talk about a better future for a dying person. I saw Traviata In a different way before I became a father and after I have a daughter, I think about her completely differently. It is opera that changes with us every day. I wonder why Violetta falls in love with Alfredo? Such a man is unimportant.
-The idea of “telling the story as it is” is also modern.
He is:- I performed this opera in the eighties, and like all young people, I wanted to attract attention, demand and say something. Today I don’t want that. I don’t want to explain anything. I don’t want to teach. There are many colleagues who want to give a lecture, saying this or that. I believe that classes should be taught in classrooms and theater should be performed on a stage. That’s why I want to say what it is, in a choral work with the artists and the three wonderful Violetta players. I want to try to do it with all my heart and with all the intelligence I can.
– What does visual storytelling consist of?
He is:- In a very beautiful show. The action takes place in Paris in the mid-1960s, a time of luxury and high fashion. The set is all white because I see in Violetta a figure of great purity, with an exaggerated and stunning costume (designed by Renata Shochem). Lots of light with dark moments. Instead of ballet, I wanted the chorus to participate in the dances like the characters themselves. The two operas are wonderful moments, but they are very different: the one is more refined, the other is more fun and vulgar. Traviata It is such a wonderful opera that it does not have a single weak point. Even the most trivial passages are of admirable musical perfection and beauty. Plastic will be something surprising, poetic and exciting at the same time.
– What challenges does this famous work pose for the director? You said, “The music is so beautiful that it takes us away from the drama.”
RP: Opera today is not well known. My grandfather, who was a simple worker on the Sicilian railway, knew this Trovatore, Rigoletto and Traviata By memory. Today, opera lovers know about the singers (Callas, Sutherland, Mufo) but they do not know the deep meaning of music and harmony from a technical standpoint. This is much more difficult. The difference between the first and second premise, for example. What does the key of B minor mean? That Violetta is already dead. What does C minor tell us? It still has some life. A director’s job is to tell a story, not in hermetic chapters, but in a cinematic continuity where everything makes sense. This is not easy! One gets an idea of history perhaps in a different way than usual. But be careful, you don’t have to say what the music says. This is very easy! No, no, the director must tell what he himself discovered by studying music.
-For example?
RP: – End of the first semester. Crap, crap… They experience it as a great joy, the decision to enjoy and live freely. In fact, it’s the opposite because, always talking about the harmonic level, if you want to be happy, the ending has to go to A Major. However, it goes flat, which is a terrible flex switch. The orchestra below creates a place of well-being and a sweet, loving atmosphere. Violetta’s words contradict this harmonious discourse. It’s a resource Verdi uses often. As in Pensiero goes Nabucco. A sad song about the injustice of slavery and sung in an almost happy lead style. He wrote it in the key of F sharp, which is one of the hardest and most difficult to play. Then the orchestra conveys the suffering of the people in a tone full of contradictions, difficulties and discomfort.
-Because as the saying goes, the devil is in the details. And what is his seal?
RP:-There are moments when it is not the power of the music that commands, but the power of the word, and here lies my most important instruction. Spintosextra ritenutos. They’re conjugations, little things that give character. in Add Del Passatois sung from the first note to the last note, making it understood that Violetta is very ill, and that she is dying, because that suffering is written in the music.
-How did you manage to unify so many details in the three actors?
RP:-And because you use my material, I take it with you anywhere in the world. There are all clear indications of what I want, and then, every character has their own personality and idea, but that shouldn’t conflict with what I think. However, I do not think that music is an art for the Taliban. It is a living, open art. For the orchestra, it’s a piece of music that seems easy to play, but sounds like Mozart: “amateur’s pleasure, professional’s madness.” In Traviata it is the same because you have to play the piano, with delicacy and taste, which is difficult and my task is to show how to achieve it.
-You and the stage director have different views on what kind of woman Violetta was. How do they complement each other?
RP: – Emilio’s creations are always beautiful, classic and modern. He does smart, respectful and elegant things. It is true that our views differ, but in the end, it is the atmosphere of the orchestra that highlights the message of the music that prevails.
traviata, By Giuseppe Verdi. A new production of the opera in three acts with libretto in Italian by Francesco Maria Piave based on the novel The Lady of the Camellias (1848) by Alexandre Dumas (h). Shows: November 18, 19, 20, 21, 23, 25, 26, 28 and 29. Room: Teatro Colon (Libertad 621).
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