La Traviata 

The Grand, Leeds

4/5

SOMETIMES language is no barrier to understanding. When Hye-Youn Lee’s Violetta mourns her fate she captures the raw emotion so powerfully that the Italian-English surtitles in this Opera North production are hardly necessary to grasp La Traviata’s plot. 

As such the South Korean is a perfect ambassador of the company’s initiative to attract a new generation of opera-goers. 

She captures the emotional and physical journey of the courtesan who falls in love with a young nobleman with an ease that seems almost second nature. 

The inspiration behind the film Pretty Woman, Giuseppe Verdi’s classic is ideal for anyone new to opera, as the plot and music have permeated popular culture. 

It’s a story that’s been modernised many times, with one of the previous productions transposing it to San Francisco at the onset of the Aids epidemic, but director Alessandro Talevi has kept this revival broadly traditional. 

This allows set and costume designer Madeleine Boyd to draw on the opulence of belle epoque Paris, with sumptuous costumes worn during the two key party scenes. 

In act one, Violetta’s soiree descends into a virtual orgy as women in corsets lounge on luxurious cushions and men in stages of Bacchanalian undress simulate sex. 

That state of intoxicated debauchery is one from which Ji-Min Park’s Alfredo distances himself as he innocently declares his love for Violetta in a sweetly understated duet. Well matched with Hye-Youn Lee, there’s a believable chemistry between them as she coquettishly twirls her hair and tries to convince herself that she should continue to pursue a life of pleasure. 

That traditionalism is given subtle touches of the modern day, signalled from the opening of the production with Violetta shadowed against a full moon. This gradually dissolves into a petri dish showing multiplying bacteria, which in turn mutates into an endoscope travelling through the heroine’s TB-ravaged bronchial canals. 

There are deft references to modern notions of celebrity, with Violetta lying on her deathbed as shadowy masked faces look through the Art Deco-esque window. Indicating her life as performance, it’s a powerful conclusion to a production that pays dividends by playing safe. 

Runs until November 1, box office: operanorth.co.uk