Doing Our Best to Make Things Jolly

The second of what I hope will be many, many lifetime trips to the Met was to see Verdi’s La Traviata. It was conducted by Carlo Rizzi, and featured soprano Mary Dunleavy and tenor Wookyung Kim. I found it to be an awesome experience. The world of opera is still very new to me, and I don’t yet feel expert enough to offer much by way of useful opinion, either about the productions themselves or about the singers. I think I can feel my taste gradually cultivating, but I’m not there yet. I hope that eventually, I’ll come home from the opera and write in-depth reviews, the way I do when I come home from seeing some Gilbert & Sullivan. There is so much to learn and know! It is exciting.

But I meant to be talking about this production of La Traviata. Like most Americans, I’ve been peripherally exposed to many of the famous opera themes in various out-of-contexts, including television commercials and Bugs Bunny cartoons. I didn’t realize how many of the familiar tunes come from Traviata.

I knew that Moulin Rouge was based on Traviata, but I didn’t realize how closely it remained; I pretty much recognized scene by scene.

I feel like I should have more to say about this, but nothing’s coming out right now. Maybe later. In the meantime, here are some pictures.

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