Opera Director Randi Stene about La Traviata

La Traviata holds a special place in the opera repertoire. Not only is it the most often performed opera in the world, it is also probably the opera that has introduced the most people to this art form and showed them how fantastic it is. In the film Pretty Woman, which is based on the same myth about ‘The Lady of the Camellias’, we see how the high-class prostitute Vivian enters the opera house as if it were a strange, foreign place, but on encountering La Traviata, experiences the opera as “so good I almost peed my pants!”  

Although I did not pee my pants, I had a defining experience the first time I heard La Traviata. When I was a student and experienced the performance for the first time at Youngstorget, the Danish soprano Inga Nielsen was playing the leading role of Violetta. This work has held a special place in my heart ever since. I experienced what opera can be and how it can affect you. La Traviata is also the opera I have seen most often and, as a mezzo-soprano, I had the opportunity to sing the role of Flora in several productions in my youth.   

La Traviata tells an intense story in which it is easy to relate to the fate and perspectives of many of the characters. But it is first and foremost Verdi’s music that makes this work so brilliant. From the very first tone – from the gentle notes of the strings almost gasping for air to the sound of dazzling parties and intense encounters – this perfect score takes us on a heartbreaking and dramatic journey that ultimately is about being seen and loved for who you are.  

When I decided to order a new production of La Traviata, I envisioned a classic, grand and beautiful staging with lots of energy and strong relationships between the characters. Together with set designer and costume designer takis, director Rodula Gaitanou has created a world that reveals the contrasts between what we broadcast to others in public and who we are in our own homes. By setting the story in the roaring 20s, they spotlight the borderline frantic celebration of life so characteristic of that era, which also characterises Violetta’s life as it is coming to an end. At the same time, they show Violetta’s strength – aided by the sopranos Yaritza Véliz and Lina Johnsson, who alternate in the role. They share the stage with Davide Giusti and Bror Magnus Tødenes as Alfredo, and Yngve Søberg and Johannes Weisser in the important role of Alfredo’s father, Giorgio Germont. This series of performances extends all the way until February 2024, and the musical direction is shared by Anja Bihlmaier and Constantin Trinks.   

The first time that La Traviata was performed in Oslo was in 1874 at Christiania Theater under the name Violetta. Perhaps that would have been a more appropriate title given that La Traviata, often translated as ‘the fallen woman’, has an extraordinary ability to rise again. At the old opera house at Youngstorget, she was revived under such directors as Einar Beyron, Jens Christian Ek, Per E. Fosser and Stein Winge, while at Bjørvika, we have previously seen her under the direction of. Tatjana Gürbacka. Violetta is now ready to show us a good time once more in a new and beautiful guise. I hope you are ready for her – and that she will once again introduce new audiences to the wonderful world of opera.  

Randi Stene, 
Opera Director