Taken Apart and Analyzed

Opera Pacific is trying hard and thinking big these days. Tuesday night it began a new season, its 14th, with “La Traviata” at the Orange County Performing Arts Center.

Little in the presentation of this familiar opera was taken for granted, and everywhere its ambition was on display. Sets and costumes, which came from San Francisco Opera, were sumptuous and handsomely detailed. Linda Brovsky, the feisty director, demonstrated a fresh interest in theatrical verisimilitude. John Mauceri, the conductor on a musicological mission, eagerly cleansed Verdi’s beloved score of encrusted dubious traditions and restored some standard cuts. Elizabeth Futral, a young American soprano who operaphiles have their eyes on, enthusiastically sang her first Violetta.

But while there is much to admire in the thinking and effort behind this production, it has the feel of “Traviata” taken apart, its components carefully analyzed and disinfected, then put on display. For instance, Futral--who has the voice, the personality and the temperament for the famous consumptive 19th century French courtesan--seemed pulled in at least one too many directions.

Brovsky gave Futral a gesture, a movement, a facial expression for practically every note she sang. During her aria “Ah, fors’e lui” and its brilliant cabaletta, Futral self-consciously juggled flirtatious, love-besotted and consumptive contradictions. On top of that, she also juggled what seemed her natural tendency for big, Verdian emotionality with the requirements of Mauceri’s conducting, which favored agile, precise articulations of phrase and brisk tempos.

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Like Futral’s performance, this is a “Traviata” that wants to be many things. The company advertises it as “Verdi’s Greatest Opera!” (what kind of superlatives will it find for “Don Carlo,” “Aida,” “Otello” and “Falstaff”?). With three intermissions, it expands a tight two-hour drama into a grand event (the 20-minute second scene of the second act is set off by two 20-minute respites). The production expects modern acting and movement yet functions as a traditional costume drama (making it a bit too close to a TV movie for comfort). It boasts grandness yet feels constricted. The costumes by John Lehmeyer are gorgeous, and the sets by John Conklin have elaborate detail, but the limited size of the chorus and the smallness of the set leave much empty space on the stage.

Brovsky, who has a background in dance, is most effective in the fluid party scenes. It was a brilliant stroke to turn dancing Gypsies and matadors, choreographed by Lili del Castillo, into amusing parody rather than opera’s more common unintentional kind. But the modern style of acting she asks for looks artificial in these costumes. Verdi shocked with “Traviata” because he put his own contemporary society on stage (not opera’s usual history or mythology or biblical parable). Here we simply pretend to return to the past.

Still, there is splendid singing from Futral, with its share of touching moments, and she is surrounded by an equally hard-working, if not as vocally accomplished, cast. David Miller is a tall, handsome, ardent Alfredo, but his voice is limited. Louis Otey brought a rare degree of warmth and sympathy to Germont, Alfredo’s father, but not a commanding voice. Jamie Offenbach (Baron Douphol), Kirstin Chavez (Flora) and Shoghig Koushakjian (Annina) demonstrated a real improvement in Opera Pacific’s ability to put together a cast that works well as an ensemble.

Mauceri’s ideas about “Traviata” sounded more radical for their emphasis on instrumental articulation and lightness than for his efforts to restore Verdi’s original tempos and dynamics (there is enough variety in conductors’ interpretations to make these seem as much personal as musicological). One heard details that felt fresh, whether or not they were integrated into a larger concept of the production. But a fresh start, even if not a completely successful one, is still a fresh start, as Opera Pacific continues to impressively remake itself.

* “La Traviata” continues tonight through Saturday, 7:30 p.m., and Sunday, 2 p.m. (with Cassandra Riddle and Andrew Richards replacing Futral and Miller on Friday and Sunday), Orange County Performing Arts Center, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa, $32-$107, (800) 346-7372.