Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #10836 in DVD
• Released on: 2007-11-12
• Rating: Exempt
• Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Classical, Colour, DVD-Video, PAL
• Original language: Italian
• Subtitled in: German, English, French, Italian, Spanish
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 141 minutes

Synopsis
A performance of Verdi's LA TRAVIATA featuring opera stars Renee Fleming and Rolando Villazon.

Customer Reviews

Vocally and visually a treat
I love this opera and have the Placido Domingo 1982 and Netrebko/Villazon Salzburg versions as well as this one, all great concepts. Renee Fleming brings a natural youthful charm, warmth and dignity to the role and the 'traditional' setting for the melodrama is sumptuous. The opening night garden scene works very well for the comings and goings of the chorus into the house and later when we hear Alfredo singing outside the garden walls. Renee Fleming and Rolando Villazon are just beautiful to look at and listen to. Villazon is perhaps the most touching and believable Alfredo ever, a young passionate man struggling to cope in a world he barely understands. Villazon has described Alfredo as being very young and it is the first time he has felt these emotions. You can see why he is drawn to Violetta and why she finds him irresistible. His gift of a book seems to hint at the fact that the courtesans of Paris often presided over 'salons' frequented by artists and writers as well as their aristocratic 'patrons'(see Renee Fleming's research into the role on the Met site). Renato Bruson as Germont Pere is a little older in looks and voice than one might expect at first and although his voice is past it's prime he husbands it's resources well to portray the 'rash old man', set in his ways, unbending, determined not to let Violetta be involved with his family and not emotionally close to his son. His manipulation of Violetta, working on her insecurities by suggesting that the age gap will become a problem later on, and appealing to her motherly noble feelings towards his young daughter is believable because of the presumed ages of the two leads. Highly recommended.