Subscribe | UPI Odd Newsletter Subscribe WASHINGTON, May 20 (UPI) -- La Traviata is not only arguably Giuseppe Verdi's best-known opera; it is also one of the most familiar in the operatic repertory. From the drinking chorus "Beviam!" early in the first act to Violetta's wrenching death scene leaving not a dry eye in the house, the music is comfortably predictable. But the Washington National Opera production playing to full houses at the Kennedy Center jolts that familiarity. Restored material from the opera's world premiere in Paris in 1853 transforms Act II and breaks the familiar musical patterns of Act III. Advertisement It's hard to imagine this masterpiece of 19th-century music drama as a flop, but the first performance was so poorly received that Verdi went back to the musical score and made changes. Clearly the "fixes" worked, and the revised version became a perennial success. Advertisement What went wrong the first time is a bit hard to fathom. The main problem seems to have been that some of the music was too taxing for the singers. "The soprano part had a lot of high Cs, and Verdi decided to make it easier," Giovanni Reggioli, who conducts the ongoing Kennedy Center production, explained. "Verdi is trying to please the audience. When he feels that something doesn't work, he changes it. This was not unusual: Composers made changes all the time. The score became more of a sacred piece later, with Wagner and the 20th-century composers." It was tenor Placido Domingo's idea to go back to the original version and restore the missing material. Reggioli admits to having been doubtful at first. "I thought, 'Oh my God. Why me?'" he recalled in a recent interview. "Now I have to do the musicologist." A closer study of the score dispelled his early misgivings -- and not just because world-renowned tenor Domingo is also the musical director of the WNO. "I fell in love with the music," Reggioli admitted. "Next time I do Traviata I would be eager to use the original version again." The main restoration, a discarded duet between Violetta and her lover Alfredo´s father, Germont, unquestionably has great lyrical beauty and adds to the drama. There are also some new orchestrations with a surprisingly modern flavor. The overall effect is to give a welcome lift to the middle section of the opera that can seem slow to modern audiences after the boisterous opening act. Advertisement The story of Verdi's La Traviata was well known to the contemporary public even before the curtain went up. The work was based on Alexandre Dumas the Younger's best-selling 1848 novel, "La Dame aux Camellias," and his own subsequent dramatization of the work in 1852. A beautiful but fatally ill Paris courtesan -- in the opera renamed Violetta Valery -- breaks with her old life and retreats to the country with her young lover Alfredo Germont. Enter Alfredo´s father, who persuades Violetta to renounce his son because the scandal was harming the family's reputation. Germont senior actually relents in the third and last act, and the lovers are reunited -- only by then consumption has wasted away Violetta's health, and she is on her deathbed. Today's audiences have a hard time accepting the plot, particularly Violetta's sacrifice. But Reggioli points out that the Paris audience would have understood the older Germont's rigid social attitudes. In the mid-19th century there was no happy ending for a woman with Violetta's background -- and no one knew it better than Violetta herself. The restored duet underlines her double sense of guilt, first at her past and then at leading astray Alfredo, a young man from the provinces. Germont senior is able to place her renunciation of Alfredo in the context of the need to make amends for her past life. Advertisement The WNO was confident of getting away with the technically difficult restorations because two highly accomplished sopranos were cast in the role. Hei-Kyung Hong, who sang Violetta on the recent opening night, is both a singer of formidable range and an accomplished operatic actress. Andrea Rost, who takes over the role this week, is equally brilliant in vocal techniques and dramatic characterizations. Some "new" material in Act III adds to the intensity of the only death scene in opera that includes dialogue. But there was another change that does not make it into the production -- incidentally the work of Placido Domingo's wife Marta. Traditionally La Traviata was retro-dated to the 18th century. This was done because moralistic Victorians found the material too real and close to home, says Reggioli. Yet conductor Herbert von Karajan would refuse to conduct the opera because he considered it too implausible. Times change. Remaining performances of La Traviata at the Kennedy Center are May 23, 26, 29 and June 2. -- (Please send comments to [email protected].)
