Pity lies at the core of Tom Cairns’s brilliantly conceived 2014 production of La traviata, making a welcome return to Glyndebourne this season. Pity, of course, for doomed Violetta and her lover, Alfredo, but also pity for Alfredo’s father, Giorgio, who, in destroying their affair to save his family’s reputation, finds the consumptive courtesan to be a far better person than he could ever be.
This focus on the psychology of the drama rather than the opulent dazzle of 19th-century Paris has a double benefit: it helps underscore the relevance of the piece (for all our advances, social hypocrisy and notions of family honour are still with us today) and it throws an even greater spotlight on the principals. But dangers can lurk here.
Soprano Kristina Mkhitaryan, as Violetta, rises magnificently to the occasion in her Glyndebourne debut, singing with remarkable poise and exquisite tonal colour, while her fellow Russian Igor Golovatenko is a first-class Giorgio, ramrod straight yet gradually buckling under the weight of his own conscience. The intense focus, however, is not so kind on Alfredo, tenor Zach Borichevsky. The top of his voice is thin and unconvincing and his intonation often alarmingly unstable.
Hildegard Bechtler’s restrained set and costume designs frame the production’s intentions beautifully, and Richard Farnes conducts the London Philharmonic Orchestra with measured authority. This is no mawkish tragedy but a deeply intelligent study of cruel injustice.
