La Traviata

We went to see La Traviata last Saturday night. We love, love going to the Opera with all the glitz and glamour. This time I decided to dress in a formal evening gown, just because I was in the mood. Prior to the Opera, we had dinner and drinks at Kendalls. Then the Opera. A nice Saturday night.

La Traviata is the normal Italian Opera scenario. Boy finds girl, boy loses girl, boy finds girl again, girl dies.

This Opera is about Violetta a Parisian courtesan who falls in love with Alfredo, an aristocrat who is obsessed with her. She leaves her previous life to make a commitment to Alfredo. She has to sell most of her possessions to maintain their life of ease, living in the country. One day, Alfredo's father meets with her to convince her to leave Alfredo because of the scandal it is causing his family. Alfredo's younger sister is planning to marry and her fiancee may leave her if the scandal continues. So Violetta leaves Alfredo to return to her previous life in Paris. In the final act, she lays dying and Alfredo and his father reunites with her.

In La Traviata there is a hit a minute. A couple of years ago we saw La Traviata and it brought tears to my eyes. In the second act there is the dance of the gypsies and a world renowned flamenco dancer. The performance of the gypsy dancers is a special favorite of Max's. This performance was good and all the singers were excellent. Maybe it was the acting, but I just didn't get the same passion as I did from the previous performance of the opera. Also, the gypsy dancers in this Opera was not as entertaining as the previous one we've seen.

Also, there were distractions in this audience. As we sat waiting for the performance to start, a large man and his girlfriend sat down in front of us. She was a small Japanese girl dressed in an authentic kimono. During the performance they were a major distraction because they kept leaning into each other, kiss on the cheek here and kiss on the lips there. I wanted to whisper to them that this is an opera, not a drive-in theatre. Get a room for goodness sake. Then there was a couple behind us who was talking. These tickets are expensive and for people to be so inconsiderate is mind-boggling.

But all in all, it was still had a thoroughly entertaining evening.