Small troupe stages ‘Traviata’ of justice

Spokane-Coeur d’Alene Opera took on a formidable challenge Friday and came out with a winner. Verdi’s “La Traviata” ranks as the best-loved opera in the minds of many opera fans, and visually extravagant productions with all-star casts in the great opera houses abound. What’s a small company with a limited budget to do?

First, and most important: Find a wonderful Violetta. “La Traviata is a pima donna’s opera,” Robert Lawrence writes in the introduction to the score from which every American singer learns. Absolutely. Verdi would be the first to agree.

Spokane-Coeur d’Alene found Leslie Mauldin, who combines the vocal tenderness and verve of Verdi’s consumptive courtesan and a youthful beauty with an experienced actress’s ability to make the audience feel Violetta’s great range of emotions. Mauldin sang beautifully in her arias from the brilliant “Sempre libera!” of Act I to the quietly tragic “Addio del passato” of Act IV. She was also fine in her duets with her lover, Alfredo, in her confrontations with Alfredo’s father, and in Verdi complex ensembles such as the party scene of Act III.

The male leads were impressive, as well. Chad A. Johnson brings a nicely ringing tenor and youthful good looks to the part of Alfredo, Violetta’s impulsive, headstrong lover. Johnson needs to expand his acting gestures beyond the standard-issue tenor’s out-thrown arms to make his emotional points. But his character of voice makes him well-suited to the part.

For me, Alfredo’s father, Giorgio Germont, is the most intriguing character in “La Traviata.” The elder Germont enters in Act II as an imperious, bullying stereotype of a tradition-bound Provencal father bent only on saving his family’s honor. The transformation Germont undergoes after meeting Violetta and learning of the sacrifices she has already made for his son, and those she is willing to make, brings about a change that is dramatically and musically one of the greatest achievements of Verdi and his librettist, Francesco Maria Piave.

David Malis brought his experience as a singer in some of the world’s great opera houses and his experience as an opera director to this great baritone role. The impact of Malis’ secure vocal projection and clear diction was powerful. His performance on opening night might have used some quieter legato singing as he grew more sympathetic to Violetta and perhaps a body language that showed a tad more tenderness. But those qualities did show in Malis’ appearance during Violetta’s death scene at the opera’s finale.

The thought of a 15-member ensemble dealing with the richness of Verdi’s orchestration – the score calls for the violins to be divided into 16 solo parts in the preludes of Acts I and IV, for instance – made me wonder just how far short of ideal this tiny ensemble might fall. Actually, the effect was much better than I feared in a skillful but anonymous arrangement for reduced forces. The dreamlike oboe and clarinet solos played by Gary Plowman and Jim Sandberg were particularly touching. Conductor Joseph Mechavich brought an experienced hand to the production.

The secondary roles were well sung by singers from the Spokane region, and the locally recruited chorus made a lively contribution to the opera’s two party scenes. The English supertitles made life easier for non-Italian listeners, though there were problems now and then with coordinating the titles with the action.

Visually, the Spokane-Coeur d’Alene production was elegantly costumed, and the sets had a simplicity that gave the singers (and the dancers in Act III) an uncluttered but elegant background.

“La Traviata” is the opera that introduced this writer to opera as a teenager growing up in Texas far from big-city operatic life. I love this opera. My verdict on the Spokane-Coeur d’Alene company’s production? See it!