Opera Review La Traviata Buxton Opera Festival, Buxton Opera House

Director James Hurley’s production of Verdi’s La Traviata for Buxton Opera Festival takes as its central visual conceit the jewel box of the title character, the successful courtesan Violetta Valéry: hers is the first face we see when the lights go up, engraved in gargantuan form on the outsize jewel-box which contains most of the action.

It’s the only original touch in an otherwise admirably straightforward and clear reading of this familiar opera, in which the emphasis is placed on storytelling and performance rather than any directorial concept. Set in period (1840s), this adaption of Alexandre Dumas’ La Dame Aux Cammelias, depicts the travails of Violetta and her insistent suitor Alfredo Germont during their early courtship, their (very) brief period of non-connubial bliss, the rupture when Alfredo’s father insists on Violetta ending the relationship to save the Germont family’s good name and their final reconciliation before Violetta dies of that other classic Victorian disease, consumption.

Polish-American soprano Alexandra Nowakowski, after a less than ideally steady start, grows into the role of Violetta, finding more sympathy with the ‘fallen woman’ of the final two acts than the party of the girl of the first one. It’s an affecting portrayal which should find great focus as the run develops. As her lover Alfredo, Armenian tenor Tigran Melkonyan has the right clarion notes for this ardent but immature man and his acting is convincing but perhaps there is a slight lack of chemistry in the relationship with Violetta. In the always grateful baritone role of Alfredo’s father, Giorgio, André Heyboer finds the pathos in the nearest thing the plot comes to a real antagonist (the comprimario character of Violetta’s ‘other lover’ the Baron Douphol doesn’t properly count). Elliot Squire provides the simple but elegant set and Zahra Mansouri the period-appropriate costumes. In a generally Stygian stage picture, Ben Pickersgill’s lighting focuses the action very effectively and conductor Adrian Clarke and Chorus Master Fergus McAlpine handle both the big moments (the Act 1 ‘brindisi’ and Violetta’s arias) with aplomb.

Reviewer: Paul Ashcroft

On 11.07.2026