Soprano’s stunning debut in Verdi classic gets Opera Australia’s season off to stirring start

Soprano Samantha Clarke makes a stunning debut in new production of Verdi’s La Traviata.

Petah Cavallaro as Annina and Samantha Clarke as Violetta Valéry in Opera Australia’s new production of La Traviata. Picture: Keith Saunders

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You are going to hear a lot about Samantha Clarke in the years ahead and not just because she is an outstandingly gifted soprano. As she ably demonstrated on the opening night of Verdi’s La Traviata, her whole body inhabits the role, her physical persona matching the artistry of her voice.

She dominated the stage from the start in this fresh working of Verdi’s classic opera with a distinctive clarity of tone and warmth as the doomed heroine, Violetta.

She is no stranger to the role elsewhere but it was a stunning debut for Opera Australia.

We’ve had impressive sopranos before performing as Violetta but I doubt I’ve seen anyone carry this off with the same aplomb as Samantha did here.

The British-born singer, now based in Perth, looked stunning and sounded bang on target. Obviously, she’s well on her way to being a star.

Kang Wang impressed as Alfredo Germont. Picture: Jade Ferguson.

Chinese-Australian tenor Kang Wang, as Violetta’s lover Alfredo, certainly did not lack vocal power or flexibility but seemed stiff in the first half. He more than redeemed himself later with his heartfelt rendering of Parigi, o cara.

A former member of the Lindemann Young Artist Development Program of New York’s Metropolitan Opera and a finalist in the 2017 Cardiff Singer of the World competition, he is the son of professional opera singers in China.

One of the challenges facing performers acting as Alfredo’s father is creating sympathy for a man who is initially out to destroy his son’s relationship with Violetta to protect the family honour.

Here, New Zealander Phillip Rhodes proved to be a safe hand in this, his debut role for Opera Australia.

Listening to his sonorous baritone deployed with great effect in one of the world’s top 10 operas you probably wouldn’t guess that his musical tastes include such genres as hip-hop.

As Baron Douphol, Violetta’s jealous lover, Richard Anderson brought his ever-reliable bass to the party and mezzosoprano Angela Hogan did likewise as the courtesan Flora.

Conductor Jessica Cottis, making her OA debut too, led the orchestra and chorus through Verdi’s score with easy confidence and just the right amount of rigour.

Regular operagoers familiar with previous lavish OA productions of Traviata’s set might find this version a little underwhelming. The stage is divided into sections for much of the action, presumably so we can see the darker side of Violetta’s life as a high-class prostitute in one area while partygoers behave with abandon in another.

This tends to compress the crowd scenes which are packed in any case into bland rooms with little or no props. It just niggled.

Don’t let this put you off though; the singing is excellent, with the added bonus of Verdi’s most heart-stirring music.

As students of history will already know, the real Violetta was based on the life of Marie Duplessis, who died of tuberculosis in Paris at the age of 23 on February 3, 1847. One of her lovers was Alexandre Dumas, son of the author of The Three Musketeers. The son’s subsequent book, La Dame aux camelias (yes, one l), was used by Verdi as the basis for Traviata.

DETAILS

• OPERA La Traviata

• STARS Samantha Clarke, Kang Wang, Phillip Rhodes, Angela Hogan

• AT Sydney Opera House

• UNTIL March 14

• BOOKINGS 9250 7111, [e-mail]