Verdi - La Traviata
by Peter Mussbach
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Damiana Pinti, Matthew Polenzani, Mireille Delunsch, Yutaka Sado, Zeljko LucicDirector: Peter Mussbach
DVD: Region Code 0
Audio: English (Unknown); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); English (Subtitled); German (Subtitled); Italian (Original Language)
Format: Classical, Dolby, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.78:1
Running Time: 130 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2007-05-08
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Bel Air Classiques
Movie Reviews of Verdi - La Traviata
Movie Review: Peter Mussbach on being and nothingness
Summary: 5 Stars
Peter Mussbach's Traviata on DVD, as performed in 2003 at the Aix-en-Provence festival promises on its cover the story of a death and love. That is what it delivers. And so much more.
While Willy Decker's Traviata is the last breath in the joy of life, Peter Mussbach's Traviata is one long last breath of death. Gracious Mireille Delunsch is the Violeta. Her lyrical voice of subdued expressiveness and a flavour of fragility convey this agony with searing emotional authenticity. Matthew Polenzani's Alfredo is well nuanced in emotional spectrum and depth. His Alfredo feels almost as equally unfortunate as Violeta and only slightly less tragic remaining throughout, firmly centred in the role. Zeljko Luèiæ, my fellow compatriot from the non-existent Yugoslavia, gifted with a gorgeous voice of remarkable width and an echo of a cathedral bell, was an impressive father Germont thanks mostly to his vocal ability. It would be utterly mind-spinning had his acting be a little more fine-tuned. I cannot quite pinpoint what was imperfect there, maybe a little excess of intent was visible, but this comes under the category of hair-splitting.
There is a custom in some cultures that if a girl dies before she gets married she is buried in a wedding gown. Such funeral apparel is the only dress this Violeta wears. In fact she appears as already dead. There is only one moment in this Traviata when Violeta appears alive, and that is when she meets the father Germont. This is the only time she is trying to negotiate something for herself in her earthly life, the only occasion when she for a moment she considers her life a reality. That is when she losses the only thing that matters to her. But, did she ever have it in the first place? Was it yet another illusion? Everything else before and after this moment of attempt to be in this world to claim her love, is either recollection of a nightmare life passing before her as if she is a remote, detached observer from another world, or everything just fades away and becomes reduced to mere flashes of fluorescent light in the darkness.
The entire opera appears as one final prolonged look back at the life already gone in which there was nothing anyways, only some shadows and distant noises. This becomes strikingly obvious in the scene which takes place in the countryside home. What in the libretto is suggested as a country house where Violeta and Alfredo enjoy their passionate love affair, Mr. Mussbach stages as Violeta's lifeless body lying on the ground, face towards the floor, over which, as if he does not notice her, Alfredo sings his exaltation of redeeming love into a void emptiness . Was her love ever a possibility, regardless of her terminal illness, regardless of her past?
The cold empty black stage remains unchanged throughout. It is divided into front and back planes by a transparent black curtain. It is all one big nothing. The dynamic is created by intermittent film footage superimposed over the images of the story as it unfolds. The film depicts a road as an unambiguous symbol of a life path. Violeta's life is a speedy highway trip through the rainy night. This life by night is from time to time seen through a rainy windshield from the position of a traveler in the hands of an invisible driver in an invisible vehicle. The road sometimes turns into a tunnel. Maybe it is the same tunnel in which another young woman, a real princess, met her death in the arms of her forbidden lover. There are other hints at fallen heroines of life depicted in this story. Some people recognize in Violeta's hairstyle and dress hints at Marilyn Monroe. Life and fiction abound with inspiration for the theme of the tragic fate of love without the blessing of social approval.
Throughout the performance the stage is lit with a somber light which does not shine but rather merely reveals the dark joyless shadows of equally dark and joyless people passing by Violeta only remotely. The line between illusions reality and hallucinations is blurred. It is all real and unreal at the same time. That is perhaps the greatest effect of this production.
The only time in which we see a crisp and refreshing light akin to sunlight is when long and painful agony ends.
In spite of merciless reduction in colour and décor, this Traviata delivers this tragic story in flavours stronger and sharper than any other Traviata I have seen.
The DVD should contain a warning for the emotionally infirm not to watch this production without access to the shoulder of a responsible and balanced adult.
Summary of Verdi - La Traviata
DVD, featuring Mireille Delunsch (Actor), Matthew Polenzani (Actor), Peter Mussbach (Director).Similar DVD Movies
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