Giuseppe Verdi / Robert Wilson/ Teodor Currentzis
The production is dedicated the memory of Gerard Mortier
Giuseppe Verdi / Robert Wilson/ Teodor Currentzis
The production is dedicated the memory of Gerard Mortier
“A blockbuster operatic melodrama from the most “calm and collected” stage director of our time – a disciple of experimental theatre, the outstanding American director Robert Wilson. His strange, abstract, surreal pictures engender gasps of adulation. The fact that Wilson is to stage an emotional opera from Verdi is already intriguing. The source of the plot of La Traviata is a novel by Alexandre Dumas fils, which he subsequently adapted for the stage. A courtesan appearing on stage as the main heroine, who sacrifices her love for a young aristocrat for the sake of his happiness and career, was perceived by the Minister of Police as undermining public morals. The matter was complicated by the fact that the inspiration behind the character of the courtesan was a real person – a demi-monde lady, known in the salons of Paris, and Dumas fils’ mistress. As a result, the play was banned from the stage in France for a long time. Verdi provoked no less public outcry subsequently and was responsible for putting a heroine with such questionable social status on opera stage for the first time.”
– Perm Opera Theatre
La Traviata was commissioned by Gerard Mortier to open at Teatro Réal, Madrid, in April 2015. Following Gerard Mortier´s untimely departure from the theatre, partly due to his unstable health condition, the production was rescheduled to open at Landestheater Linz on September 19, 2015 and, in it´s current version, at Perm Opera and ballet Theatre on June 17, 2016. The opening Grand Theatre de Luxembourg will take place on October 12, 2018.
Description
Opera in three acts
Performed in Italian with Russian subtitles
Libretto by Francesco Maria Piave, based on Alexandre Dumas-fils’s play La Dame aux Camélias
The opera was written in 1853. This version was first performed in Perm on September 19, 2016
Musical Director and Conductor: Teodor Currentzis, Direction, design and light: Robert Wilson, Associate stage director: Nicola Panzer, Conductor: Valentin Uryupin, Chorus Master: Viatly Polonsky, Associate stage director: Nicola Panzer, Associate set design: Stephanie Engeln, Costume design: Yashi
Associate light design: John Torres, Dramaturg: Konrad Kuhn, Technical Director: Philipp Olbeter, Assistant directors: Giovanni Firpo/ Johann Mittmann, Producer: Unlimited Performing Arts, Workshops: Landestheater Linz, Austria
A production by: Unlimited Performing Arts, Perm Opera and Ballet Theatre, Landestheater Linz and Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg.
Teodor Currentzis is the Artistic Director of the Perm State Opera and Ballet Theatre, Artistic Director of the ensemble MusicAeterna and of the MusicAeterna Chamber Choir, both formed in 2004, during his tenure as Music Director of the Novosibirsk State Opera and Orchestra (2004-2010).
MusicAeterna, now resident in Perm, has been granted the status of the first orchestra of Perm State Theatre of Opera and Ballet. In 2015/16, MusicAeterna’s European touring include a new staging of Rheingold at the Ruhrtriennale Festival, the Da Ponte Operas in concert version in Dortmund and a tour with Patricia Kopatchsinkaja to include Berlin, Vienna, Zurich, Rotterdam. At home, they will stage Traviata with Bob Wilson and give concerts in St. Petersburg and Moscow. In recent seasons, MusicAeterna have made their debuts at the Festival International d’Art Lyrique in Aix, Lucerne Easter Festival, Helsinki Festival, Klara Festival, Brussels, Radialsystem Berlin, Berlin Phiharmonie, Cité de la musique, the International Festival Baden-Baden, the Bregenz Festival, Vienna Musikverein and the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam. Outside of Perm, Teodor will conduct a new production of Macbeth with Zürich Opera and will return to SWR Baden-Baden for a tour with Patricia Kopatchinskaja.
Teodor Currentzis and MusicAeterna are exclusive Sony artists and this year will finish recording all the Mozart Da Ponte operas; the first recording (Figaro) was released in January 2014 and won the ECHO prize for Opera Recording of the Year (17th/18th century opera). Così fan tutte in 2015 and Don Giovanni will be released in 2016. Also this year he released The Sound of Light; a compilation pieces by Rameau. In October 2015, he will release The Rite of Spring. Previous recordings include Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 14, Mozart’s Requiem and Percell’s Dido and Aeneas all on the Alpha label and the Shostakovich Piano Concertos with Alexander Melnikov and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra on the Harmonia Mundi label.