La traviata

Music by

G. Verdi

Metropolitan Opera

New York, US

2020

Wednesday
February
26
19:30
Saturday
February
29
20:30
Thursday
March
05
19:30
Monday
March
09
19:30

Cast

Violetta Valery  Lisette Oropesa
Alfredo Germont  Piero Pretti
Giorgio Germont  Luca Salsi
Flora Bervoix  Sarah Larson
Annina  Maria Zifchack
Gastone  Brian Michael Moore
Baron Douphol  Dwayne Croft
Marchese D’Obigny  Jeongcheol Cha
Doctor Grenvil  Kevin Short
Giuseppe  Patrick Miller
Messenger  Ross Benoliel
Germont's Daughter  Kendall Cafaro

Director

Michael Mayer

Set Designer

Christine Jones

Costumes

Susan Hilferty

Choreography

Lorin Latarro

Lighting

Kevin Adams

About

Michael Mayer’s sumptuous staging, a highlight of the 2018–19 season, returns with two casts of bright stars. Sopranos Aleksandra Kurzak and Lisette Oropesa share the role of Violetta, the opera’s tragic heroine, opposite tenors Dmytro Popov and Vittorio Grigolo as her ardent lover, Alfredo, and baritones Quinn Kelsey and Luca Salsi as Alfredo’s stern father, Germont. Karel Mark Chichon and Bertrand de Billy conduct one of opera’s greatest scores.

Production a gift of The Paiko Foundation

Major additional funding from Mercedes T. Bass, Mr. and Mrs. Paul M. Montrone, and Rolex

Lisette is interviewed in Revista Arcadia

Interview - Revista Arcadia

Lisette is interviewed in Revista Arcadia for her upcoming Live in HD performance of Manon at the Metropolitan Opera

 Interview  

Reviews

Review: Lisette Oropesa Makes ‘La Traviata’ Her Own

In Act I, when Violetta, a charming courtesan, is throwing a lavish party, a soprano must summon flights of coloratura brilliance and coquettish sparkle. Ms. Oropesa breezily dispatched runs and embellishments as she mingled with her guests and met Alfredo, the smitten young man from a bourgeois family who has been pining for her from afar.

Yet you could detect a trace of forced vivacity in Ms. Oropesa’s interpretation, an intentional touch of tremulous fervor in her sound, even as she let bright-voiced, ebullient phrases soar. Here was a young woman determined to prove that she was undaunted and would remain, as she later sings, “sempre libera”: always free.

—  Anthony Tommasini  •  New York Times

Oropesa is an unforgettable Violetta in Met’s “Traviata” revival

There’s a melancholy feeling that very occasionally accompanies the greatest performances. Tangled up in the thrill of witnessing a historic interpretation of an iconic work comes the sad realization that you may never encounter its equal.

The Metropolitan Opera has seen a number of superb sopranos appear as Violetta Valéry in the past decade: Diana Damrau, Natalie Dessay, Sonya Yoncheva, and Angelina Gheorghiu are just a handful of the most recent leading artists to make a mark in La Traviata’s touchstone role.

The sensational performance that Lisette Oropesa gave on Wednesday night in her role debut at the Met deserves to be counted in the very first rank.

Oropesa brings a voice ideally suited to the role: direct and lively, bright yet round, so focused you can almost see it as it pierces through the air of the auditorium and slams into the back wall. Yet even with its power and laser clarity, her soprano never feels aggressive, as she wields her instrument with musical sensitivity and classic elegance.

—  Eric C. Simpson  •  New York Classical Review

Metropolitan Opera 2019-20 Review: La Traviata (Cast B)

Lisette Oropesa, taking on the role at the Metropolitan Opera for the first time (according to her official website she had taken it on just 11 times prior to this run), is one of the few artists that can manage to pull off the role with not only the dramatic temperament, but also the vocal consistency.

—  David Salazar  •  Opera Wire

BWW Review: A Marvelous Oropesa is Definitely Not 'Lost' in Met's TRAVIATA

She gave a stellar performance that showed a firm grip on all the facets of the role--the coloratura, the drama, the pathos, the glamour.

She was the party girl of Act I, the delirious lover and compassionate figure of Act II, and the dying woman of Act III, each perfectly placed, each cannily acted. Whether she was singing the joyous "Sempre libera" at the opera's start or the woeful "Addio del passato" at the end of Act III, she was in full command of all that was demanded of her. She had good backup from the Met Orchestra, under Bertrand de Billy, with the usual stellar work of the Met Chorus, under Donald Palumbo.

—  Richard Sasanow  •  Broadway World