Violetta Valéry – Madison Leonard (soprano); Alfredo Germont – Oleksiy Palchykov (tenor); Giorgio Germont – Roland Wood (baritone); Gastone de Letorières – Sam Harris (tenor); Baron Douphol – Chuma Sijeqa (baritone); Doctor Grenvil – Henry Waddington (bass baritone); Annina – Mathilda Bryngelsson (mezzo-soprano); Flora Bervoix – Alexandria Moon (mezzo-soprano); Marchese d’Obigny – Sam Young (baritone); Giuseppe – Matthew Sotillo-Cooke (tenor); Messenger – Peter Lidbetter (bass); Flora’s Servant – Sisa Mjekula (baritone)

Garsington Opera Chorus, Philharmonia Orchestra / Douglas Boyd

Director Louisa Muller; Designer Christopher Oram; Lighting Designer Marcus Doshi; Movement Director Matthew Steffens

Garsington Opera, Wormsley
Sunday 31 May 2026

Reviewed by Richard Whitehouse

Among Verdi’s most often revived works, despite a somewhat fraught premiere at La Fenice, La traviata has long since became a victim of that familiarity breeding contempt. From which vantage this production, itself a first for Garsington Opera, affords something of a corrective.

First unveiled at Santa Fe Opera two years ago, Louisa Muller’s staging provides a welcome abstraction – blurring the sense of any specific time or place without sacrificing that dramatic realism Verdi was intent on conveying in his handling of Piave’s skilful libretto. What comes over most readily is the interplay of outward (public) show and inward (private) confessional – abetted by Christopher Oram’s arresting and deftly rotating sets, along with Marcus Doshi’s alternately garish or spectral lighting and Matthew Steffens’s fluid yet alluring choreography.

Cast-wise the evening is dominated by Madison Leonard’s Violetta, a victim of circumstance too capricious to warrant respect if never too obstinate to seem other than empathetic. Caught between the dictates of her own desires and those of a society intent on having a piece of her, she presides over or propels the action even at her most vulnerable and has the vocal presence to match. Hardly her equal emotionally, Oleksy Palchykov is a steadfast Alfredo as out of his depth in this social milieu as in affairs of the heart, while always believable in his protestation of love as to override those admittedly selfish warnings from his father. To which end Roland Wood is a forthright but never unyielding Germont, drawn unwillingly yet inevitably into that ‘love triangle’ such as makes this opera far more social commentary than escapist indulgence.

Smaller roles are unobtrusively well taken, among them Mathilda Bryngelsson’s supportive if uncomplaining Annina and Henry Waddington’s brooding yet compassionate Doctor. Chuma Sijeqa brings panache to the otherwise vacuous Douphol, with Alexandria Moon’s Flora and Sam Harris’ Gastone pertinent cameos both as confidants of Violetta or Alfredo respectively, and Sam Young not a little amusing as Flora’s lover d’Obigny. Neither can Garsington Opera Chorus be faulted for its contributions which, in themselves, mark something of a departure for Verdi by eschewing the brazenness of his earlier ‘crowd scenes’ for something altogether subtler and more insinuating. Verdi might not have drawn attention to the psychology of his situations as did Wagner, but this does not make his approach any less probing or insightful.

Douglas Boyd steers a confident and assured course across an opera which can all too easily become episodic whatever its relative concision. He is no less mindful of a need to underline the restraint in orchestral writing that finds Verdi exploring more equivocal and ambivalent shades of expression; not least the fateful preludes to the first and third acts which, between them, encapsulate this drama’s emotional as surely as its motivic essence. Suffice to add that the Philharmonia renders the score with a finesse not always to be expected in the opera-pit.

A finesse, moreover, maintained throughout a final scene whose gradual evanescence makes the implacability of its closing chords the more startling. They undoubtedly set the seal on a production which, taken overall, restores to this opera an integrity it should always have had.

La Traviata runs until 24 July 2026 – with performances on 13, 20, 24 & 28 June, then 9, 11, 16, 20 & 24 July. You can find more information on the production and explore ticket options at the Garsington Opera website

Published post no.2,910 – Sunday 7 June 2026