Past Production Reviews
6“Adam Smith as Turiddu sang intensely, ardently and with remarkable dynamics.”
“Tenor Adam Smith performed the fickle Turiddu with panache and a voice that delivered…”
La traviata continues to fascinate us some 170 years after its inception partly because it presents the viewer with no clear-cut heroes or villains. Its principle characters are a lot like the rest of us, imbued with glaring defects and endearing, even transformative strengths: in roughly equal measure. Francesca Zambello’s 2018 production, which opened at the Lyric Opera of Kansas City on November 5th, rides on these subtleties, and its naturalistic, even humane approach stays in the mind long after the curtain falls. (Its haunting opening and closing set-pieces, which I will not reveal here, nudge this familiar love story toward the macabre.)
Lyric Opera of Kansas City opened their season with the classic opera Carmen. Rising star Ginger Costa-Jackson sang the title character with enthusiasm and energy, opposite Eric Fennell as Don José and Robert Mellon as Escamillo. Mellon’s voice rang through the Kauffman Center with ease, and Andrea Carroll sang a sweet Micaëla, and she had a shimmering luxurious sound.
Sylvia D'Eramo as Musetta was a scene stealer as well she is meant to be in Act 2. Her voice was distinctive – highly florid and excitable – but it seemed entirely apt for the part of the demi-mondaine, intent on playing one man off against the other. Watching her, I thought “power and puerility”, that capacity to flaunt her feminine charms edged by the tinge of desperation. Who did she belong to? It was played just right, and the gesture of depositing the bill with the “respectable” homme d’affaires met its target.
While the male Bohemians provided a joyful start to the opera, Sylvia D’Eramo’s Musetta stole the show in the second act. Although a relative newcomer to the opera scene, D’Eramo’s powerful, agile voice stood out, particularly in the way it floated above Puccini’s thick orchestration better than any of the other cast members. Moreover, although it could seem as though she overacted in Act 2, the decision to do so matched Musetta’s over-the-top character.
