Opera Scotland

Traviata 2005Ukrainian National Opera, Odessa

Read more about the opera Traviata

For this spring tour of the UK, Ellen Kent  and Opera International brought in a company from the Ukrainian National Opera of Odessa.

The overall standard of performance in this difficult piece really was quite remarkable - all the more so given the extremely demanding tour schedule to which company members were subjected from the end of January to early June. It may seem surprising that they would give as many as 39 performances of Traviata, usually in one night stands. But the companion piece on this tour, an equally impressive Butterfly, was scheduled for more than twice that number. On this occasion, Aberdeen missed out, but the business of scheduling must be a serious challenge for management and venues.

Design standards were quite high in an entirely traditional style - almost luxurious, given the demands of touring, and the sometimes primitive stages to be encountered

There can be little doubt that Violetta and Cio-Cio-San are two of the most demanding roles at the dramatic end of the lyric soprano repertoire. For the title role of Butterfly three sopranos alternated, but for Traviata, only two of them were cast, when three tenors sang both Pinkerton and Alfredo. The standard of all was most encouraging - healthy young voices, technically well-schooled, with no sign of strain, and with good acting ability. Perhaps this combination is not so common for sopranos, but for tenors it still seems relatively unusual. The baritone had the part of Germont to himself while only having one colleague sharing Sharpless, so he also had an exhausting tour. However, as shown the previous year with his superb Rigoletto, Vladimir Dragos was an excellent singing actor by any standard.

Unusually, the small walk-on parts, messengers, gardeners or whoever, are not identified either in the main programme or on the cast list inserted for the specific evening.