The Met: Live in HD, the Metropolitan Opera’s award-winning series of live high-definition cinema simulcasts, continues with Verdi’s La Traviata, starring soprano Nadine Sierra as one of opera’s ultimate heroines, the self-sacrificing courtesan Violetta, on Saturday 5 November at 4:55pm when the opera will be screened across The Eye Cinema, Palas and Omniplex Salthill.
Sierra, who enjoyed great critical success as the haunted title heroine in The Met’s production of Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor, makes her Met role debut as Violetta, one of opera’s most iconic roles. Joining Sierra is tenor Stephen Costello as her self-centred lover, Alfredo and baritone Luca Salsi as Alfredo’s disapproving father, Germont.
The vibrant production of Verdi’s beloved tragedy is directed by Tony Award–winner Michael Mayer. Soprano Renée Fleming will host the live transmission.
Verdi’s musical-dramatic ability to portray the individual in a marginalised relationship keeps this work a mainstay on the world’s stages. The vocal and emotional scope of Violetta is enormous, with its inexhaustible vocal and dramatic possibilities, and challenges. From her Act I show-stopper aria “Sempre libera degg’io” to the haunting regret of “Addio, del passato” in Act III to the extended Act II confrontation with Germont, Violetta is considered a pinnacle of the soprano repertoire.
The popular revival is stage directed by Sarah Ina Meyers, with Maestro Daniele Callegari on the podium.
“[Ms. Sierra’s] performance is accomplished, accurate, and absolutely in character, also exemplifying her considered phrasing and easy access to her top register.” BBC Music Magazine
