National Opera Company’s 'La Traviata' Opens at National Theater on the 21st
The National Opera Company will perform Verdi's representative opera "La Traviata" at the National Theater's Haeoreum Theater from the 21st to the 24th in celebration of Verdi's 210th birthday.
La Traviata means "The Lost Woman" and depicts the tragic love story of Violetta, a courtesan (a high-class prostitute catering to the wealthy). Violetta, who suffers from tuberculosis, meets the young nobleman Alfredo by chance, and they quickly fall in love, but their love ends in tragedy with Violetta's death.
Through La Traviata, Verdi criticizes the hypocrisy, hedonistic culture, and gold-worship of the aristocrats of the time, and through Violetta, he questions what true love is. Verdi also broke away from the tendency of operas at the time to be mainly based on historical or mythological stories, actively embracing contemporary reality to create a new trend with contemporaneity.
Just as Verdi infused his work with contemporaneity, the National Opera Company's upcoming La Traviata performance will also reflect aspects of our present-day lives throughout the stage. Violetta will appear wearing a leather jacket and jeans, while Alfredo will be dressed in a modern suit. Violetta's friend Flora will wear a flashy leopard print outfit.
The stage will be designed to resemble a penthouse. With only a piano on stage, Violetta's life and identity will be shown, and as various characters enter Violetta's space, the pain and chaos of reality will be revealed.
This performance will specially feature a girl symbolizing Violetta's childhood and pure love. Director Vincent Boussard said, "Through the piano, the video projected behind it, and the young girl, we plan to visually explain Violetta's changing emotions," adding, "The desire to 'find the lost path' will fill the stage through Violetta's song."
Soprano Park So-young and Yoon Sang-ah have been cast as Violetta, who shows true love at the end of a devastated life. Park So-young gained attention for her performance as the Queen of the Night in Mozart's The Magic Flute at the Metropolitan Opera in New York and the Komische Oper Berlin, and debuted on the domestic opera stage in 2021 as Musetta in the National Opera Company's La Boh?me. Yoon Sang-ah has won numerous prestigious competitions both domestically and internationally, including the Arles Competition in France and the Les Corts Competition in Spain, and has played leading roles in the National Opera Company's The Tales of Hoffmann and La Boh?me.
The role of Alfredo, the young man confessing pure love, will be played by tenors Kim Hyo-jong and Kim Kyung-ho. Kim Hyo-jong is an exclusive vocalist at the Bremen Theater in Germany and has been gaining attention on European stages; he appeared as Arnold in the National Opera Company's Korean premiere of William Tell in 2019. Kim Kyung-ho is an exclusive vocalist at the Leipzig Theater in Germany and is recognized in theaters across Germany, Austria, Belgium, and other European countries.
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The National Opera Company will also present this performance online. The performance on the 23rd at 3 p.m. will be streamed through the National Opera Company's online streaming service, KnomaOpera, and Naver TV.
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