‘La Traviata’ opens IU Opera Theater’s 60th season

With evocative themes of betrayal, honor and unconditional love, the new production “La Traviata” kicks off the IU Opera Theater’s 60th anniversary season at 8 p.m. Friday at the Musical Arts Center.

Stage Director Tito Capobianco brings Giuseppe Verdi’s music to life by highlighting graduate student voices and elaborate staging.

“There are lots of mirrors on set, and it is very ethereal,” said Maria Levy, executive administrator of the IU Opera Theater. “I say ethereal because it is supposed to show the superficiality and frivolity of the life that Violetta lived at that time.”

Living in the early 1800s in France, Violetta Valery, the protagonist, is a courtesan, or prostitute, for wealthy men and is played by Joanna Ruszala and Jung Nan Yoon.

“Actually, Violetta is my dream role,” Yoon said. “Obviously, Violetta is an attractive but hard role. This role needs all of the technique as a soprano.”

Violetta’s story begins at a party, where she meets Alfredo Germont, played by Joshua Whitener and Jason Wickson.

“He’s a young person, 24 or so,” Whitener said. “Everything he does is for Violetta. He loves her passionately, and his whole drive is for her.”

This confession of love takes Violetta by surprise.

“Because Violetta was a courtesan, she did not think that love was an option for her,” Levy said. “The men there are married, or they aren’t serious about women like her. But she does fall in love, and that is a big turning point for her.”

Later on, the unmarried couple live together, in turn tainting the image of Alfredo’s sister, who wishes to marry. Alfredo’s father Giorgio Germont, played by Jin Uk Lee and Scott Hogsed, steps in and asks Violetta to leave Alfredo so his daughter can marry.

Violetta leaves, but a party with her former lover and Alfredo’s rival Baron Douphol, played by Nathan Brown and Adam Ewing, complicates her predicament.

In Act II, Alfredo becomes very upset, and sings an aria “O mio rimorso!”

“I have to say the cabalettas are my favorite,” Whitener said. “A cabaletta is the second part of an aria that is usually left out of most performances, but we are doing some of them. They are very difficult and challenging. One of them I sing (“O mio rimorso!”) ends on a high C.”

Alfredo then goes to the party, where he wins money gambling against the Baron.

Because Alfredo was making a spectacle, Violetta worries the Baron will challenge Alfredo to a duel, so she asks Alfredo to talk with her in private.

Alfredo agrees, but uses the opportunity to ask where Violetta’s love lies. She lies, telling him she loves the Baron, to which Alfredo replies by angrily throwing his money in Violetta’s face.

The two part ways, and Violetta begins to die of consumption, from which she has suffered all along. On her deathbed, Violetta receives a letter from Alfredo’s father saying he has told Alfredo the truth and that he is on his way to her, but Violetta knows it is too late.

“I love Violetta’s last aria, “Addio del passato,” because I can never keep calm about sadness when I sing this part,” Yoon said. “I feel that I am just being Violetta, especially more in the moment.”