Rehearsals are well under way now for La Traviata, ​next year's big Duchy Opera production:
our orchestra is in place, soloists have been auditioned and new singers have joined the Chorus in preparation for this musical treat. Costumes are being designed, colours chosen and staging envisioned.

​​The opera is based on Alexandre Dumas' (fils) novel La Dame aux camellias and was first performed at the Teatro La Fenice, Venice in 1863. Apparently, the soprano was 'unsatisfactory', the tenor was 'not in good voice', and the baritone was unhappy singing in an opera with 'no intrigues', 'no duels', and 'none of the trappings of high romance'. After the first night Verdi himself described it as a 'fiasco' after the audience had laughed at the thought of an extremely stout lady dying of consumption.

​Before you decide to cross the tickets off your Christmas list let me reassure you. The Venetians heard La Traviata again just over a year later. This time it was pronounced an overwhelming success and was produced throughout Italy. then Europe, and soon became the most talked-of opera of its day. Fiona Maddocks in the Guardian described it as one of the top 50 operas, and as perhaps Verdi's most performed work, containing all the elements of operatic addiction: a beautiful, consumptive, fallen-woman heroine, grand Parisian party scenes, the travails of love, a troubled father and a deathbed scene, all set to Verdi's faultless score.

​What's not to like?

"Wouldn’t it be terrific if the singer just starting out could hear and heed these words from the singer who has made such wise choices in her career that she is still working as hard as ever and her schedule stretches way into the future?" (from http://eyesometric.wordpress.com/category/cardiff/).
"I must admit to being shocked when Frau Kasarova recalls racism against singers of Slavic origin but it shows that obstacles and negative attitudes can forge a core of steel in a  personality with talent, ambition and, above all, integrity. Thank goodness there are strong women who are wise as well as being superstars and long may these women impart sensible advice to the young."

Excerpts from the full interview:

• “I had a con­tract for Don Car­los. And Ioan Holen­der, Direct­or of the Vien­na State Opera, res­cued me say­ing: “Ves­se­li­na, if you want a long career, go back to Moz­art and Ros­sini. If you sing dra­mat­ic parts, in 6 years you will be exhaust­ed.”

• “Back then, they advised me not to sing too much in the US as voi­ces quick­ly die there. Sing­ers per­form with large orches­tras in vast halls with audi­en­ces of 4,000-5,000 peo­ple. It is good for an art­ist to appear in front of an Amer­i­can audi­ence, but with­in rea­son­a­ble lim­its. I fol­lowed their advice and I wasn’t wrong. I would advise young sing­ers not to hur­ry with dra­mat­ic parts. It is not only about vocal cords endur­ance. Jit­ters, stage fright may break the tie voice-per­son-spir­it­u­al­i­ty. And when art­ists feel fear, they can­not con­tin­ue their way.”

•  ”And besides, dis­ci­pline is also crit­i­cal for sing­ers, their under­stand­ing where their lim­its are, how much they should sing and what and whom with. And that is why I have sur­vived through so many years.”

• “The most impor­tant thing is to stay com­plete­ly down to earth. Only few art­ists can cope psy­cho­log­i­cal­ly with the word ‘suc­cess.‘ I do not know how my art is eval­u­at­ed, but I have remained a very down-to-earth and nat­u­ral­ly-behaved per­son.”

• “And I have refused to sing Leon­ore in Fidel­io. I have done this to spare my voice. Back then, these parts were not for me.“

HERE is the full interview that Frau Kasarova gave to Europost’s Roslava Kumanova and published in 2011.

Duchy Opera is currently casting roles for the autumn 2014 performance (in English) of Donizetti's "Elixir of Love", particularly for this Bass/Baritone role. The travelling 'quack', Dr. Dulcamara, arrives unexpectedly at a small town in the Basque country, peddling his bottled cure-of-all-ills to the locals. He is convincing rogue, extrovert and colourful. Contact us for more information.

Added 24/01/2014:
THE ROLE of Dulcamara HAS NOW BEEN ALLOCATED