✕ ✕
Turning tips into memories
Login
Signup

You have reached the limit of free articles.


To enjoy unlimited access to Culture Whisper sign up for FREE.
Find out more about Culture Whisper

Please fix the following input errors:

  • dummy

Each week, we send newsletters and communication featuring articles, our latest tickets invitations, and exclusive offers.

Occasional information about discounts, special offers and promotions.


OR
LOG IN

OR
  • LOG IN WITH FACEBOOK

Thanks for signing up to Culture Whisper.
Please check your inbox for a confirmation email and click the link to verify your account.



EXPLORE CULTURE WHISPER
✕ ✕
Turning tips into memories
Login
Signup

Please fix the following input errors:

  • dummy
Forgot your username or password?
Don't have an account? Sign Up

OR
  • LOG IN WITH FACEBOOK

If you click «Log in with Facebook» and are not a Culture Whisper user, you agree to our Terms & Conditions and to our Privacy Policy, which includes our Cookie Use

Support Us Login
  • Home
  • Going Out
    • Things to do
    • Food & Drink
    • Theatre
    • Visual Arts
    • Cinema
    • Kids
    • Festival
    • Gigs
    • Dance
    • Classical Music
    • Opera
    • Immersive
    • Talks
  • Staying In
    • TV
    • Books
    • Cook
    • Podcast
    • Design
    • Netflix
  • Life & Style
    • Beauty
    • Fashion
    • Gifting
    • Wellbeing
    • Lifestyle
    • Shopping
    • Jewellery
  • Explore
  • Shopping
  • CW SHOPS
  • Support Us
  • Get Started
  • Tickets
  • CW SHOPS
Get the Best of London Life, Culture and Style
By entering my email I agree to the CultureWhisper Privacy Policy (we won`t share data & you can unsubscribe anytime).
Opera

La Traviata ★★★★★ review, Glyndebourne Festival Opera

21 May 17 – 27 Aug 17, 20 performances; three Sunday performances start 15 minutes earlier. Dinner interval of 85 minutes.

With 20 performances of this classic opera, there has never been a better time to try the complete Glyndebourne experience

By Claudia Pritchard on 21/5/2017

1 CW reader is interested
The 24-hour party life turns sour in La Traviata. Photo: Richard Hubert Smith
The 24-hour party life turns sour in La Traviata. Photo: Richard Hubert Smith
La Traviata review, Glyndebourne Festival Opera 4 La Traviata review, Glyndebourne Festival Opera Claudia Pritchard
Ill-fated love, thwarted by duty, restored too late to cheat death … Such is the stuff of opera, but it is the music that turns a series of tropes into a truthful whole, and once in a while a voice comes along that illuminates even the most familiar opera anew.


The Russian soprano Kristina Mkhitaryan makes her debut at Glyndebourne Festival Opera in a revival of Tom Cairns’s 2014 production of Verdi’s La Traviata. And she brings to the role of the courtesan Violetta, who gives up the party life for love, a spellbinding range of vocal colour enriched by a giddying technique that takes the voice into the furthest corners of experience and emotion.


She is joined by her fellow Russian, the baritone Igor Golovatenko as the father of her lover Alfredo, for the central scene in which Violetta agrees to give up Alfredo to save his family’s honour. Maybe it’s their national bond, more likely it’s just masterly musicianship, but, either way, the pair have a painterly gift for feathering in a dust of sound or applying the broad brushstrokes of passion, against the watery Monet landscape of Hildegard Bechtler’s design for the couple’s country retreat.


If American-born Zach Borichevsky as Alfredo is outclassed by the two Russians, he does have the youthfulness of the unformed character, and there is nice work from one of Glyndebourne’s home-grown artists, James Newby, who stepped up as the Marchese on opening night and impressed with his few bars. That’s a name to watch out for.


The London Philharmonic Orchestra under Richard Farnes fair purrs along, with some nice solo work, and a red-blooded feel for Verdi’s pulsating rhythms, and the GFO Chorus is in its element in the party scenes, roistering in Bechtler’s 20th-century allsorts frocks and hats.


Verdi-lovers are spoiled for choice for Traviatas this summer: a second cast takes over at Glyndebourne for the high-summer batch of the season’s 20 performances, with Lebanese-Canadian soprano Joyce El-Khoury as Violetta. She sang the role earlier this year in the five-star Royal Opera House production, which also stretches into July, with three Violettas, including Corinne Winters. Either is a great introduction to opera or satisfying for old hands.


La Traviata is sung in Italian with English surtitles. A performance from 2014 is relayed at cinemas across London on 8 June. Click here for more details.

by Claudia Pritchard

What La Traviata review, Glyndebourne Festival Opera
Where Glyndebourne, Lewes, East Sussex, BN8 5UU | MAP
Nearest tube Victoria (underground)
When 21 May 17 – 27 Aug 17, 20 performances; three Sunday performances start 15 minutes earlier. Dinner interval of 85 minutes.
Price £20 - £260
Website Click here for more information and booking



Most popular

Things to do in London this weekend: 27–29 January
Things to do in London this weekend: 27–29 January
Culture After Dark: The Best Museum Late Night Openings
Culture After Dark: the best museum late-night openings
London Theatre Guide: best plays on now in London (Photograph: Peter Lewicki)
London Theatre Guide: best plays on now in London, 2023

Editor's Picks

London opera 2017: romance, tragedy – and world-class singing
London opera 2017: romance, tragedy – and world-class singing
Fan club: a much-loved Don Pasquale returns to Glyndebourne. Photograph: Clive Barda
Glyndebourne Festival Opera 2017
The summer opera house at Garsington rises from the gardens. Photograph: Mike Hoban
Garsington Opera 2017 booking opens
La Boheme is one of the hits of Opera Holland Park 2016. The 2017 seasons promises more Puccini
Opera Holland Park 2017
Corinne Winters is one of the most sought-after sopranos of her generation. Photograph: Kristin Hoebermann
Corinne Winters interview: the Royal Opera House soprano raised on rock'n'roll
Glyndebourne Festival Opera
Summer country house opera: a survivor's guide
Sign up to CW’s newsletter
By entering my email I agree to the CultureWhisper Privacy Policy (we won`t share data & you can unsubscribe anytime).
1

Glyndebourne Festival Opera

London Philharmonic Orchestra

Verdi

You might like

  • Tosca opens Grange Park Opera's first season in its new home at West Horsley Place

    Tosca, Grange Park Opera

  • Lisette Oropesa's Violetta is abandoned by fairweather friends in La Traviata. Photo: Tristram Kenton

    La Traviata, Royal Opera House review ★★★★★

  • Jive-talking in Opera Holland Park's La Rondine. Photo: Robert Workman

    La Rondine ★★★★★ review, Opera Holland Park

  • The spectacular designs for Turandot are by Sally Jacobs. Photograph: Tristram Kenton

    Turandot, Royal Opera House

  • Natalya Romaniw's Jenufa is overpowered by Peter Hoare's jealous Laca. Photo: Robert Workman

    Jenufa ★★★★★ review, Grange Park Opera



  • The Culture Whisper team
  • Support Us
  • Tickets
  • Contact us
  • Press
  • FAQ
  • Privacy
  • Terms and conditions
  • Cookies
  • Discover
  • Venues
  • Restaurants
  • Stations
  • Boroughs
Sign up to CW’s newsletter
By entering my email I agree to the CultureWhisper Privacy Policy (we won`t share data & you can unsubscribe anytime).
×