The last production of the 2025/26 GNO season, the revival of La Traviata, will be presented for the first time at the Stavros Niarchos Hall, inaugurating a new era of summer opera performances in the ideal conditions of an air-conditioned hall.
Giuseppe Verdi’s masterpiece, directed by Nikos S. Petropoulos, after its triumphant tour in Thessaloniki and China, returns to the Greek National Opera twenty-five years after its first performance at Olympia, as part of a tribute to the great Greek director, set designer and costume designer of the opera.
Petropoulos offers us a unique postcard of the French 19th century, creating a spectacular depiction of the scenes both in Violetta Valéry’s residence in Paris and in her country house on the outskirts of the French capital, with impressive costumes that are completely consistent with the spirit of the work.
The opera describes the love of a courtesan with a scion of a good Parisian family. The relationship provokes the reaction of the young man’s family, the couple separates and meets again shortly before the girl’s death.
The premiere of La Traviata, in 1853 at the Teatro Fenice in Venice, is usually cited as one of the greatest failures in the history of opera. “La Traviata was a fiasco, don’t look for excuses, it’s just the way it is,” Verdi wrote to his publisher Tito Ricordi the very next day, on March 7, 1853. A century and a half later, Verdi’s masterpiece is recognized as one of the most popular works in the repertoire, with hundreds of performances each year in opera houses around the world and thousands of spectators watching it ecstatically.
In La Traviata, Verdi achieves a detailed psychographic portrait of his heroine. Depending on the transitions in her psychology, Verdi composes for the voice in a different way in each act. In Act I, the voluptuous freedom and the glamorous but decadent Paris are described with music that demands virtuoso skills from the soprano who interprets the title role. In Act II, the serenity of life in nature and the heroine’s deep emotions are conveyed by the warm voice of the lyrical soprano, while the tragic capture of thwarted love is highlighted by the dark tones of the voice that express pain and despair.
