Feast for the Eyes if Not the Ears

Andrea Andermann’s “La Traviata From Paris” combines lush and colorful indoor/outdoor locations from the French capital with Verdi’s familiar tragic opera.

Actual Parisian sites--the Hotel Boisgelin in Act I, the park in Versailles called Hameau de la Reine for Act II, the Petit Palais and the Ile St.-Louis, subsequently--are used for the scenery and sets.

The engaging result--to be aired on PBS’ “Great Performances” Sunday night--looks charmingly different from many “Traviatas” in memory, achieves strong dramatic performances from an exceptionally good-looking cast and sounds depressingly mediocre.

The singing is competent and forgettable, the musical score just decently handled. A CD recording of the Zubin Mehta-conducted performance--with the RAI Symphony--should not tempt even collectors of many recorded “Traviatas”: It offers nothing new or outstanding.

Still, there is much to see: the locales--particularly Marie Antoinette’s elegant little farm in Versailles, which takes all of Act II outdoors in quietly bucolic splendor--and the acting, which keeps the watcher engrossed.

The beauteous Russian soprano Eteri Gvazava brings nothing vocally special to her assignment as Violetta, but her acting is compelling, and the observer early on is caught up in the drama of the piece.

Similarly, Argentine tenor Jose Cura’s Alfredo does not live up to his reputation as the next-great one; the tenorial sound that comes across on the television screen and on the accompanying CD seems croony, short on point and without individuality. But he, too, acts convincingly.

For once, the singer of Germont pere is actually as old as the character. That is the 75-year-old Rolando Panerai, the Italian veteran, delivering the notes most capably, if without all the breath and legato one expects in this role. Give him a break: If he sings “Di Provenza” rather quickly, he still sings it well, and his previous scene with Violetta is touching in the extreme, with a heartfelt sincerity.

The rest of the cast members maintain a good dramatic standard, and they wear their elegant costumes with flair. The English translation at the bottom of the screen is serviceable.

Andermann conceived the production; the stage director is Giuseppe Patroni Griffi. The opera was filmed in Paris in June of this year.

* “La Traviata From Paris” airs on PBS’ “Great Performances” at 9 p.m. Sunday on KCET-TV and KVCR-TV.