Tale of a starlet-harlot

By Casey Gillis

Published: November 5, 2008

Verdi’s “La Traviata” first premiered in 1853 to catastrophic results.

“It was booed off the stage on opening night,” says Craig Fields, artistic director of Opera on the James and director of the company’s upcoming production of “Traviata,” which is scheduled for one performance at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 15.

The opera was based on a popular novel about a courtesan, or prostitute, who falls in love and leaves her old life behind.

Everyone had read the novel, Fields says, but seeing it on stage was completely different because “it exposed their lifestyle.”

The fact that the protagonist was a lady of the night also made people uneasy. Verdi was eventually pressured into setting the story in a previous century and, within two years, it became a hit, he says.
“(People) wanted some distance.”

The story clearly has staying power — ever heard of a little movie called “Pretty Woman?” — and Opera America lists it as one of the 20 most-performed operas in North America.

“It’s one of these kind of universal stories” that reappears in nearly every culture in some guise, Fields says.

For his part, Fields has put a twist on his production of the tragedy.

Opera on the James’ “La Traviata” is set in 1930s Hollywood, and the main character, Violetta, is now a struggling actress.

“We play her as a starlet-harlot,” Fields jokes.

He was inspired by a 1936 film adaptation of the story called “Camille,” which starred Greta Garbo.

“I started making the connection … with these women who went to Hollywood (seeking stardom) in the 1930s.”

A lot of the women wound up in situations that were similar to those of courtesans in the 1800s, he says. Contractually, they were slaves to the big studio executives and often found themselves on the casting couch to land parts.

Some aspiring actresses “were really living a kind of prostituted life trying to get a role,” Fields says.

He sees Violetta and her lover, Alfredo, as victims of a hypocritical society. In the story’s original incarnation, they lived in a society that condemned courtesans but was also fascinated by them.
“They were starlets of the 19th century,” he says.

Violetta meets Alfredo, a high-society type who has been secretly in love with her for years, at a party, where he confesses his feelings to her. She eventually falls for him, too, and they are blissfully happy for a few months — until his father tries to break them up because he thinks she’s not good enough for his son.

In Fields’ version, which premiered at the Duluth Festival Opera in Minnesota last summer, the lovers are both aspiring actors.

“(Violetta) went to Hollywood to be a star,” Fields says. “Then she fell on bad times.”

The production will also feature the Opera Symphony Orchestra, singers from the Lynchburg College Choral Union, dancers from the Virginia School of the Arts, clips from classic 1930s movies, and pictures of legends like Bette Davis, Joan Crawford, Vivienne Leigh and Garbo, his original inspiration.

“I really kind of centered on Garbo,” he says. “She really had this kind of mystique about her.”

if you’re going
WHAT: Opera on the James’ ‘La Traviata’
WHEN: 7:30 p.m. Nov. 15
WHERE: E.C. Glass High School auditorium
TICKETS: $10 students, $25 general admission, $45 reserved seating and $75 patron reserved seating. Tickets available at the Virginia School of the Arts, Givens Books and the Lynchburg Visitors Center, online at http://www.lynch
burgtickets.com.
INFO: (434) 528-3397