Verdi: La Traviata
- Live from the Opéra National de Paris.
Diana Damrau is well known for her role as Violetta in Verdi’s Opera, La Traviata.
The theatres where she has performed Verdi’s most popular opera are: the Metropolitan, New York; La Scala, Milan; London’s Royal Opera House; the Bavarian State Opera in Munich and the Zurich Opera. The Paris Opéra joined that list of leading houses in June 2014.
The other performers in this DVD recording are: Francesco Demuro (Alfredo), Ludovic Tézier (Germont), Anna Pennisi (Flora), Cornelia Oncioiu (Annina), Kevin Amiel (Gastone), Fabio Previati (Il Barone Douphol), Igor Gnidii (Il Marchese d’Obigny), Nicolas Testé (Dottore Grenvil), and all supported by the Orchestre et Chœur de l’Opéra National de Paris, Francesco Ivan Ciampa conducting.
When she first sang Violetta – in New York in 2013 – Damrau told the Metropolitan Opera’s Playbill that: “I waited a long time to tackle this role because it’s very special for me. I fell in love with opera watching the Franco Zeffirelli movie of La Traviata with Teresa Stratas and Domingo as Alfredo. I was 12 and I sat glued to the TV screen and I cried, and afterwards I thought, ‘This is the most beautiful thing humankind can create.’ But I wanted to wait, because to sing Violetta and express her feelings you really have to understand life…”
Here is the famous Brindisi from La Traviata, with Diana Damrau and Plácido Domingo: