MassOpera Will Present LA TRAVIATA Next Month

Beginning Sunday, October 17th at the historic Eustis Estate in Milton, MA, MassOpera presents an innovative, immersive production of La Traviata by Giuseppe Verdi. The production is presented in collaboration with Historic New England.

La Traviata, spearheaded by Katy Early, director and MassOpera's Dan Ryan, conductor, is reimagined as a site-specific immersive production in which audience members are led to four locations throughout the Eustis Estate as if they are inside the opera itself. It is Director, Katy Early's goal to have the audience "feel like they're guests at the party scenes and 'flies on the walls' of the moments between this couple, Violetta and Alfredo, as they grapple with how to be together through gorgeous singing." In addition to the cast and patrons, the instrumentalists will also be part of the action of the show, creating a truly immersive experience. The production promises to be an intimate and unique experience with 18 performances limited to 25-30 audience members per performance.

Originally slated for Fall 2020, MassOpera's production of La Traviata has been a project a long time in the making. Auditions for the production were originally scheduled for March 2020, in conjunction with the MassOpera Vocal Competition, however, shortly after applications closed, the pandemic shut the world down and the Vocal Competition and Traviata auditions were cancelled. MassOpera was then met with the challenge of rescheduling the performance twice, holding virtual auditions, and changing the traditional production concept to fit the demands of live performance in a world still affected by Covid-19.

While the pandemic created many challenges for MassOpera's La Traviata, what has come out of those challenges is a production that is thoughtful, innovative, unique and greater than what was originally conceived. Due to Covid restrictions, MassOpera is able to offer an intimate and immersive production in which the patrons are limited to a small group of no more than 25-30 people and an atmosphere in which both the performers and patrons are in the same world. The intimate nature of the show allows for both the safety of all involved in the production and a truly special and different theatrical experience. Of the concept for the production, Early states that, "There are limits to how immersive a show can be given the constraints of COVID protocols and the very real concerns about consent that are being raised through the work of intimacy direction these days. Unlike some immersive plays that I've attended in the past, no audience members and performers will ever be touching one another, but there will be some really great eye contact à la the performance practice of Shakespeare in which the proverbial fourth wall will evaporate and everyone in the room will have to confront that they are real, live human beings sharing a space together. And that posture of really looking at one another and being witnessed is a brave thing to do! Violetta and Alfredo do it, the audience members will be invited to do so, and I think that's what we're all learning how to do again post lockdowns and Zoom screens."

In addition to the non-traditional nature of the production MassOpera has also opted for more non-traditional casting. In keeping with its guiding principle, "To ensure gender parity both on-stage and off," MassOpera cast six Violettas and a female in the role of Giorgio Germont giving multiple talented female singers in the opera profession performance opportunities.

Tickets for La Traviata are $75 for Regular Tickets, $35 for Student Tickets, and available for purchase at https://massopera.org/events/la-traviata/.

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