Forum to Present Live Screening of Verdi’s ‘La Traviata’

A scene from “La Traviata”

The Forum presents a live screening of “La Traviata” at 7 p.m., Thursday, Jan. 10, at Prior-Jollek Hall on the Antilles School Campus. The Court Yard will open at 6 p.m. with small meals and desserts by Amalia Café.

Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts Michael Mayer’s richly textured new production of Giuseppe Verdi’s “La Traviata,” featuring a dazzling 18th-century setting that changes with the seasons. Soprano Diana Damrau plays the tragic heroine, Violetta, and tenor Juan Diego Flórez returns to the Met for the first time in five seasons to sing the role of Alfredo, Violetta’s hapless lover. Baritone Quinn Kelsey is Alfredo’s father, Germont, who destroys their love. Later performances feature Anita Hartig, Stephen Costello, Artur Ruciński and Plácido Domingo.

Verdi’s musical-dramatic ability to portray the individual in a marginalized relationship to society keeps this work a mainstay on the world’s stages. The vocal and emotional scope of the title character is enormous — 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 her lover’s father, Germont.

In a remarkable career spanning six decades in the theater, Giuseppe Verdi (1813–1901) composed 28 operas, at least half of which are at the core of today’s repertoire. Francesco Maria Piave (1810–1876) was Verdi’s librettist during his productive middle period, who also worked with him on Ernani, Macbeth, Rigoletto and La Forza del Destino, among others. Alexandre Dumas (1824–1895) was the son of the author of “The Three Musketeers.” The play “La Dame aux Camélias” is based on his own novel of the same name.

Run time: 3 hours, 15 min. with a 15 min. intermission.
Act I – 30 min., Intermission 15 min.; Act II – 64 min.; Act III – 33 min.

Tickets: adults $20, teachers $10 and students are free. Ticket Sale Online at @ instantseats.com or at the box office of the Prior-Jollek Hall the evening of the live screening. The event is made possible by Viya.