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The tough curlicues and quick traces of the primary act are generally not fairly safe for her, and in “Sempre libera,” which brings down the Act I curtain, she exudes obscure contentedness moderately than greater, riskier emotions. However even in these opening scenes, she is a heat presence — heat vocally, too, however with a rapidly vibrating shimmer to her tone that retains the sound buoyant and refreshing.
There isn’t a cynicism or hardness to her conception of the function, simply the woundedness of a quick-smiling lady who has trusted too simply. Blue’s Violetta is all the time human-size, even in full, wealthy cry in her confrontation with Germont, the bourgeois father in search of to tear his son away from a liaison that threatens the household.
She reveals restraint within the third act, not milking the music for additional emotion. Her “Addio del passato” was brisk and bleak; her “Gran dio,” offended moderately than pleading. The irrepressible Nadine Sierra and the scorched-earth Ermonelo Jaho provided completed Violettas on the Met earlier this season, however the candy, honest Blue — who lets the tragedy patiently unfold — could also be my favourite.
The tenor Dmytro Popov is an earnest, ringing Alfredo; as his father, the disapproving Germont, the baritone Artur Rucinski generally forces his seductive tone. In tiny components, Megan Marino is a sprightly Flora, and, over 600 performances into his Met profession, Dwayne Croft (right here Baron Douphol) nonetheless brings a hearty voice and dramatic funding each time he steps onstage.
Michael Mayer’s vulgar manufacturing drags down the opera. Within the first act, Alfredo warns Violetta, “The best way you’re residing will kill you,” which is unnecessary if, as right here, the opening scene has all of the demimonde hazard of a Hamptons backyard get together. And, on this interval setting, the visibly modern labels on the bottles of bubbly come throughout as but extra lazy summer-stock falsity in a staging filled with it.
However the present is surprisingly bearable with Blue’s tender honesty at its heart.
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