REVIEW - LA TRAVIATA @ NCPA BEIJING

This week my friend Samily and I went to see the opera La Traviata at the National Center for Performing Arts here in Beijing.  I was sooooo happy to get out and see an opera and to finally be doing something that made me feel like I was back in my element.  So here is my review of the performance.  I do however need to let you all know that La Traviata was the first opera I saw at The Metropolitan Opera in New York some years back and it was the famous and lavish Franco Zeffirelli productionstarring my secret German boyfriend Jonas Kaufmann as Alfredo, so seriously, any other production of La Traviata will never, never meet the standard set by Mr. Zeffirelli or The Met.

I was really, really looking forward to seeing this performance because the role of Violetta was played by Inva Mula who is a French/Albanian Soprano who performs all over Europe, including La Scala and this is one of her signature roles.  A lot of you may actually be familiar with her if you have seen the movie "The 5th Element" which is one of the dumbest sci-fi movies of the 1990's starring Bruce Willis.  There is a scene where Bruce Willis goes to a performance and this tall blue alien lady sings an opera aria and then it turns into this techno bit.  Inva Mula is the voice that sings the song in the movie.  

Okay, on to the review... For me this was a mediocre production.  There were things I liked but there were things I didn't like and unfortunately the things I didn't like outweigh the things I did like.  First of all, I arrived late so I missed almost all of act 1 but arrived just in time to hear the aria by Ms. Mula.  She had a gorgeous voice but I felt like her interpretation was lacking some power and she didn't go for the high note at the end.  Grrrrrr!  The man who played Alfredo was not a very good actor and his voice was not my favorite.  His motions and actions on the stage seemed so unnatural and I found that to be distracting.  On to the man who played Germont, the father.  LOVED HIM!  He was great!  The chorus sang well and the orchestra was perfect although I wish they had been a tad louder.  That may have more to do with the acoustics in the performance hall than the orchestra itself but they didn't miss a note from what I could tell and their exactness was noticeable.  

Costumes for the most part were beautiful.  I didn't care for the matador outfits the men had on in act two - they looked like something a high school color guard team would have because they were covered in bright red sequins. Also, the character of Violetta is a sweet, lovable, and elegant person and she always was portrayed as such in her clothes throughout the show until the end.  Okay, so I know in Act 3 she is in misery because she is heartbroken and ill but I don't know who designed that horrible white night shirt thing she had on. It looked awful and was in no way an expression of the character of Violetta.  Stage direction was decent although some of the positioning seemed unnatural.  The set had a this really cool mirror effect.  Everything on the stage was reflected into the background using a giant mirror and that was really neat.  The backgrounds in scene 1 of Act 2 were not my favorite - not sure who painted them but I think they were starting to run out of money.  The ending of the opera was completely ruined by someone's idiotic idea to lower the giant mirror in the background so the audience was reflected in it for the last 10 minutes. It looked awful and it was such a huge and ugly distraction that all the attention was given to it and not to the performance.  Seriously people, this is freaking LA TRAVIATA!!  You don't do stupid stage tricks the last 10 minutes when everyone on stage is pouring out their heart and soul to glorious music!  The point is to engage the audience in the lives of the characters, not themselves.  I promise had they left that mirror thing where it was, I would have come away from the performance feeling much more positive.

The worst part of the performance was the audience.  I've never heard so many people whispering during a performance, including the ushers in the back.  A man in the row in front of us was tapping his program on the seat in front of him during the majority of the third act and another man was taking pictures the first part of act 2.  A guy behind me was eating something so the wrapper was really loud and the steps are all made out of wood and have no carpet on them so any time someone gets up to leave you hear a loud clacking sound.  I am writing a letter to the center to complain today.  WORST AUDIENCE EVER!