Opera Holland Park has revived its 2018 production of Verdi’s most popular opera, La Traviata. The eponymous “fallen woman” of the title is Violetta, a role of such raw emotional power and one that requires an equal tour de force vocally, it has become something of a proving ground for sopranos. No problems here for Alison Langer who played the role in an OHP Young Artists Performance back in 2018 and is now very much at the top of her game for the whole 2025 season. She moves from the confident, brittle courtesan of Act I through the sweetness and despair of her Act II pastoral escape to the final pathos of lonely illness with conviction in her characterisation and a strong vocal command.
We begin, in fact, with the illness. Behind a curtained circle of the stage, even before the orchestra begins the overture, there is a terrible raucous wheezing. I hear one audience member speculating whether the sound could be one of the park’s famous peacocks passing by. It’s not. It is the sound of tuberculosis – a disease bizarrely considered somewhat romantic in the 19th century – and it stalks Violetta throughout her story.
Alison Langer as Violetta and Ellie Edmonds as Annina in La Traviata
The curtained circle is one of the better parts of the staging here. Cordelia Chisholm’s Belle Epoque costumes and setting are ravishing but less successful is that the action plays out almost entirely on the back of the stage behind the orchestra in Rodula Gaitanou’s production and doesn’t use the apron in front until the final scene. While the last moments are given an urgency and intimacy by being played out so close to the audience, the earlier scenes are often too cramped at the back because this is a big cast.
The Opera Holland Park Chorus are as fine as ever but their parties could have spilled out across the entire stage to better effect while the principals would have been more engaging if they weren’t so far away all of the time. This was particularly the case in the first act – when Violetta meets her Alfredo – resulting in an apparent lack of chemistry between the lovers.
Zwakele Tshabalala as Gastone and the Opera Holland Park Chorus
This was certainly not due to the quality of the singing. Matteo Desole is back as Alfredo, his warm tenor particularly affecting in the later scenes. As his father, Michel de Souza sings a beautifully modulated big duet with Violetta in Act II and is even more moving in the final act when he unbends in remorse. Nicholas Garrett is back as a fine Barone Douphol (essentially the villain of the piece) as is Ellie Edmonds as a sweet-voiced Annina. Despite its comparatively depleted size for a Verdi opera, the City of London Sinfonia play splendidly under the baton of Matthew Kofi Waldren.
La Traviata runs at Opera Holland Park on 23rd, 25th, 29th and 31st July, and 2nd August. All performances at at 7.30pm with a 2pm relaxed performance on 27th July. For more information, and for tickets, please visit www.operahollandpark.com.
Photos by Ali Wright
