Opera Western Reserve Aims for New Heights with ‘La Traviata’

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – With its move to Powers Auditorium now permanent, Opera Western Reserve is taking advantage of the theater’s many strengths to create a better audience experience.

It will perform Verdi’s “La Traviata” there at 7:30 p.m. Friday.

The company moved to Powers last year on an experimental basis and was pleased with the results. It had previously staged its annual performances at Stambaugh Auditorium.

The move lived up to expectations for the audience and the cast, said Scott Skiba, production director.

“The sound was fantastic last year,” he said. “A lot of folks were pleasantly surprised at how balanced the sound was, how the singers came through. … It sounded better than anything [we ever did] at Stambaugh.”

That’s because Powers has an orchestra pit, he said.

At Stambaugh, the orchestra was assembled in the aisle in front of the stage, which meant the music competed with the singers instead of complementing them. It also necessitated moving the audience seating several rows back.

Some operagoers for last year’s production of “Carmen” were worried that the sound would not be as good at Powers, Skiba said, but that was not the case. In fact, the overall effect was more natural.

“One of the great strengths of Stambaugh Auditorium is its acoustics, but when you put the orchestra on the floor [in front of the stage], those properties were compromised, and the singers were overpowered,” he said. “Folks who have seen a lot of our productions said it worked really great. Had I walked into the hall blindfolded, I would have thought I was in Pittsburgh or Chicago.”

Another advantage Powers has over Stambaugh is that the stage has spacious wings and dressing rooms, and also a fly system to drop in set pieces. This makes for quicker and smoother scene transitions and a more visual performance.

Music director Susan Davenny Wyner, who has led the orchestra at OWR productions since its inception, was also pleased with the move to Powers.

“The theater is not only gorgeous but was made for the combination of voices projecting without the aid of any microphones along with all the glorious colors from the orchestra instruments,” she said. “It’s an amazing combination – to hear the voices spinning over the instruments.”

The people who built Powers “knew what they were doing,” Wyner said. “Every person in the audience feels as though the musical drama and emotions are right there with them, immediate and real, and not far, far away,” she said.

With the sound issues corrected, OWR is now focused on improving its visual production values.

The set for “Carmen” last year was minimal. The stage was bare except for a low, sloping platform on which images and colors were projected to set the tone. There were no other scenery elements.

Things will be different this year.

“We’re exploring a bit,” Skiba said. Most noticeable will be scaffolding that will add multiple levels to the stage. Some scenery pieces will also be incorporated to help bring the story to life.

Opera Western Reserve last performed “La Traviata” in 2010. It also filmed an abbreviated version of the opera in 2020, when public gatherings were forbidden because of the pandemic, and posted it online.

This year’s cast includes three newcomers to OWR in the principal roles: Alisa Jordheim, a soprano, as Violetta; Jose Simerilla Romero, tenor, as Alfredo, Violetta’s love interest; and Luis Ledesma, baritone, as Germont, Alfredo’s father.

Jordheim is “a gem,” Wyner said. “She conveys buoyancy and delight in the beginning of the story and then incredible poignancy as she sacrifices the man she loves.”

Her co-lead, Romero, “brings a true ringing Italianate tenor voice to the role,” Wyner said. Romero sang the role of Alfredo last season with the English National Opera.

The cast also includes some familiar faces, including the return of soprano Sarah Joyce Cooper as Annina, Violetta’s friend. Cooper last appeared with OWR as Juliet in the 2021 production, “Romeo and Juliet.”

The cast also includes Rachael Pavloski, mezzo-soprano, as Flora, Violetta’s friend; Jaehyuk Choi, tenor, as Gastone, the viscount; Brian Keith Johnson, baritone, as Barone, a friend of Violetta; Jason Budd, bass, as Dottore; Aidan Eddy, bass, multiple roles; and Benjamin Burney, tenor, as Giuseppe.

“La Traviata” – which translates as “the fallen woman” – is a sad tale that takes place in Paris in the mid-1800s.

It centers on Violetta, a lively and beautiful courtesan in the palace of Gastone, who leads a life of partying until she takes up with Alfredo. Violetta later ends her affair with Alfredo at the behest of Germont, who says she is bringing disgrace to his family. But she does not share that with Alfredo. Instead, she takes the blame, which leaves her lover crushed.

After her money runs out, the tuberculosis-stricken Violetta finds herself living in a small apartment in Paris, mostly in solitude. Full of remorse, Germont eventually tells Alfredo the real reason why she ended her relationship with him. Alfredo hurries to see her and expresses his love for Violetta as she dies in his arms.

“The story is timeless, the music is gorgeous, and the drama is heartbreaking,” Skiba writes in his program notes.

The plot is based on a true-life love affair of French author Alexandre Dumas Fils, who turned it into his 1848 novel “The Lady of the Camellias.”

The novel became a hit and was adapted into a play. Verdi then adapted it into an opera that premiered in Venice in 1853.

“La Traviata” raised eyebrows upon its premiere, as it was rare at that time for an opera to be based on such contemporary subject matter.

Opera Western Reserve’s production moves the time frame to the early 1900s. It features costumes by Brian Palumbo of Gepetto’s Costumes in Struthers.

Themes from “La Traviata” have been borrowed by filmmakers over the years, most notably in “Pretty Woman” (1990), starring Richard Gere and Julia Roberts. In one scene of the movie, the two lead characters, a respected and wealthy businessman and a prostitute, go to an opera to see “La Traviata.”

Tickets for Friday’s performance can be purchased in advance at the box office, 260 W. Federal St., downtown; by phone at 330 259 9651; and online at OperaWesternReserve.org.

Pictured at top: A party scene in Opera Western Reserve’s production of “La Traviata.” The company is using scaffolding and other techniques to set the scene.

Copyright 2024 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.