La Traviata

Verdi was born in the small village of Roncole in the province of Parma. His family recognized and encouraged his talents early on, and he received a good basic education in the nearby town of Busseto.While earning a living as an organist, he began to write operas in Milan; in 1839 his Oberto was successfully performed at La Scala. His next opera, Un giorno di regno (1840), was a failure. Much worse, Verdi's two young daughters and his wife died. He overcame his despair by composing Nabucco (1842); it was a sensational success and was followed by the equally successful I Lombardi (1843). For the rest of the decade he wrote a hit opera every year. Rejecting the prevailing structure of Italian opera—a patchwork of open-ended scenes and inserted arias, duets, and trios—he began conceiving of an opera as a series of integrated scenes, then as unified acts. Specializing in stories in which people's private and public lives come into conflict, he produced a series of masterworks, including Rigoletto (1851), Il trovatore (1853), La Traviata (1853), Don Carlos (1867), and Aïda (1871). A fervent nationalist, he was regarded as a great national figure. After composing his Requiem (1874), he retired, but destiny brought him together with the poet and composer Arrigo Boito, initially to revise Simon Boccanegra, their mutual esteem led to the two great operas of Verdi's old age, Otello (1886) and Falstaff (1890).His works are still a mainstay of the operatic repertoire throughout the world, and no composer of Italian opera has managed to match his popularity, perhaps with the exception of Giacomo Puccini.

SYNOPSIS

Violetta Valery, a beautiful young courtesan is entertaining friends at a lavish party in her salon, to celebrate her recovery from an illness. Her friend, Gaston has brought with him Violetta’s secret admirer Alfredo Germont, who has been dying to meet Violetta for a very long time. Alfredo later declares his love for her. Violetta rejects him but - after the guests leave - keeps contemplating the possibility of a real relationship with true love. She still manages to persuade herself that she needs freedom to live life, night and day, from one pleasure to another.

A few months later, Alfredo and Violetta - although unmarried - are now happily living together in Violetta's country house.Violetta has fallen in love with Alfredo, she has completely abandoned her former life and slowly starts to believe in true love. To finance their life together she keeps selling her belongings.

When Alfredo needs to travel to Paris, his father visits Violetta in his absence and tells her that their relationship is compromising their family and is bound to destroy Alfredo’s and his sister’s future. Violetta wants the best for the love of her life so she decides to leave him, telling him that it’s because she misses her old, wild existence. To get over Alfredo, Violetta is back to her old ways. Later, the two of them meet at a ball. Alfredo attacks her and humiliates her in front of her friends by throwing money in her face – the money he ’owes for her services’ during their life together. It is already too late when he discovers how undeservedly he treated the woman who had sacrificed her love for him so selflessly.

A few months after the party, Voiletta is extremely distressed and confined to bed. Germont’s apology arrives too late. Alfredo also rushes to Violetta’s side, and begs her forgiveness, but happiness cannot give back her health and living force any more. She dies in his arms.

Maria PAKHAR (soprano)

The Russian soprano, Moscow Stanislavski and Nemirovich-Danchenko musical theatre staff soloist, Bolshoi Theatre (Moscow) and Paliashvili Opera House (Tbilisi) guest performer. She holds the vocalist/opera soloist diploma of the Ural State Conservatoire (Ekaterinburg), an opera soloist certificate of the Vishnevskaya Opera Center (Moscow) and has a pianist diploma from the Kazan State Conservatoire. Her repertory includes Marguerite (Faust), Natasha Rostova, Mimì and Musetta, Nedda, Iolanta, Tatiana, Micaëla and Violetta, Rosalinda (Die Fledermaus), Fiordiligi. Ms. Pakhar is a student of Nikolai Golyshev, Vladimir Scherbakov, Galina Vishnevskaya.

Péter BALCZÓ (tenor)

The Hungarian tenor, Péter Balczó, was born in Debrecen in 1983. He started playing the violin at the age of 7. He graduated from the Music Faculty of Debrecen University as a singer in 2009. He has been singing in the Csokonai Theatre, Debrecen since 2006, mostly in lyric and comprimario roles. As a finalist of opera Competition and Festival 2009 he was singing Gonzalve in Ravel’s L’heure Espagnole. Currently he is performing as Sou-Chong in The Land of Smiles at the National Theatre of Miskolc. He participated in numerous international master classes and competitions.

Sergio FORESTI (baritone)

Sergio Foresti, graduated in piano, opera singer and vocal chambre music, is one of Italy’s most sought after bass-baritones performing on the international stage. He specialises in Baroque music, in particular in works by Handel and Vivaldi, but has also made his mark in principal Mozartian roles and his vast repertoire extends from Monteverdi to Tchaikovsky. He won prestigious prizes like the Diapason d’Or, the Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik and the Grammy Award. He has sung in important Opera Houses like Teatro alla Scala, Staatsoper Unter den Linden Berlin, Staatsoper München , Teatro Real Madrid.

Tamás PÁL began his career in 1960 at the Hungarian State Opera in Budapest, assisting conductors such as János Ferencsik and Lamberto Gardelli. At a very young age he mastered a vast musical repertoire and was the first in Hungary to conduct Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess and Berg’s Lulu. He was appointed director of the Szeged National Theatre in 1975. His acclaimed Figaro production ushered a tradition of Mozart into the city. He has worked worldwide conducting opera productions including Don Pasquale in Portland, USA, Don Giovanni in Peru, and Madame Butterfly, the guest performance of the Hungarian State Opera, in Japan. The new opera of Caracas opens its very first season with his Aida. His numerous television and cd-recording credits include Cimarosa’s Secret Marriage and Hungary’s national opera, Bánk Bán. He is constantly working with opera luminaries such as Éva Marton and Andrea Rost, the main characters of the Bánk Bán opera movie. His entire career is marked by a keen interest in the buried treasures of the opera genre. The public got acquainted with Liszt’s Don Sanche and Donizetti’s masterpiece Mirin Faliero, as well as many of Cimarosa’s and Saleri’s opera pieces, through his recordings. The maestro’s pedagogical work is also remarkable; he was an esteemed professor of the Franz Liszt Academy of Music between 1999 and 2005. Currently he is on the faculty of music at the University of Szeged.

KENTAUR

Multi-talented Kentaur (born László Erkel) is a versatile artist. The set-designer-painter-musician studied at the Vocational Secondary School of Visual Arts, and graduated from the predecessor of the Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design, the Hungarian Royal National School of Arts and Crafts in 1988 as a painter. He studied classical music for 9 years and was the founding member of numerous music groups. He has been designing album covers, concert posters, book covers and theatre bills since 1982. In the 90s he was responsible for the visual look of Vígszínház, Budapesti Kamara Theatre and József Attila Theatre. His first job as a set designer was Enikő Eszenyi’s cult direction ’ Leonce and Lena’, and he has worked for plenty of Hungarian and foreign theatres in Slovakia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Great Britain, the United States, Australia, Japan, the Philippines, Austria and Estonia evers since. He is contantly designing for directors Róbert Alföldi, László Marton and György Korcsmáros. A recipient of numerous professional awards: Hungarian Critics Award (1994), Slovakian Critics Award (1996), Dömötör Award (2000), Gundel Award (2004), Jászai Mari Award (2007)…among others. Since 2000 he has been focusing on his career as a painter. A book (title: Kentaur) was published on him as a designer, painter and musician in 2004.

Tamás JURONICS was born in Tata in 1969. After graduating from the Hungarian Dance Academy he accepted Zoltán Imre’s invitation to join the Szeged Ballet, and has created choreographies of his own from 1991. He has been the Artistic Director of the Szeged Contemporary Ballet since 1993. He was among the very first Hungarian choreographers to use contemporary elements in his choreographies, with highly qualified dancers performing them. Today he is an internationally renowned artist who has created more than fifty choreographies. His works are characterised by their clean and solid forms, and deliberate dramaturgical structures. Spectacular scenes, lighting, visual effects, and unique music are all defining features of his productions. He was appointed artistic director of the Szeged National Theatre in 2008. This celebrated choreographer has received the Harangozó Gyula Award in 1997, the title of Esteemed Artist in 2005, The Imre Zoltán Award and the Prima Award in 2007, Award for the Culture of Szeged, the Eck Imre Award in 2009 and the Dömötör Award several times. He was awarded the prestigious Kossuth Prize in 2009.