Lisa Simeone hosts this broadcast of Verdi's La Traviata from the 18th-century Teatro di San Carlo in Naples, Italy. Featuring the tragic love story between the sympathetic courtesan Violetta Valéry and her admirer, Alfredo, the opera is also familiar to many audiences through the Julia Roberts-Richard Gere movie Pretty Woman. Simeone considers the cinematic connections between the movie and the opera through this presentation, conducted by Nello Santi.
Listen to World of Opera on the Operavore stream each week at WQXR.org. The program streams Thursdays at 4 pm, Saturdays at 5 pm and Sundays at 1 pm.
Cast:
Violetta Valéry: Maria Grazia Schiavo (soprano)
Alfredo Germont: Ismael Jordi (tenor)
Giorgio Germont: Giovanni Meoni (baritone)
Flora: Giuseppina Bridelli (mezzo-soprano)
Annina: Marta Calcaterra (soprano)
Baron Douphol: Fernando Piqueras (baritone)
Gastone: Massimiliano Chiarolla (tenor)
d'Obigny: Italo Proferisce (bass)
Teatro di San Carlo Orchestra and Chorus
Nello Santi, conductor