La Traviata
Royal Opera House
Roberto Devereux
Opera Holland Park
The Royal Opera’s press and marketing departments, normally no slouches when it comes to alliterative vulgarities, have missed a golden opportunity. With Berg’s Lulu drawing thin houses, getting thinner as the evening proceeds, alternating with La Traviata, Renée Fleming starring, and a packed house, more smartly dressed than for anything else this season, why did they resist calling the pair ‘Tragic Tarts’ and even selling a two-for-one specially priced deal? Was it just a coincidence, or purely subconscious planning, that opera’s two most celebrated sex workers were there to be compared and contrasted? Perhaps next time round they can swap sets, with Traviata effortlessly surviving the minimalism of the new Lulu, while that would fit snugly into the now rather tired designs of Bob Crowley, and gain some of the atmosphere that it desperately needs.
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