Verdi: La Traviata, Baden Baden 2015

   in Opera Now (May, 2017)
Verdi’s La traviata from the German spa town of Baden-Baden is rather a disaster in tenor Rolando Villazón’s ghastly production. He had the idea of the characters inhabiting a circus – well, yes, one can see what he’s getting at – but then flogs it to death without developing it with any insight. At least it doesn’t go downhill, since it already starts at rock bottom. It’s very garish and wearing to look at, and provides no insights whatsoever. Violetta lurches onto the stage and we experience her story in flashback, her character mirrored by a trapeze artist. The hard-working cast cavorts and gurns in their hideous Day-Glo costumes. Pablo Heras-Casado …