A grandiose ‘La Traviata’

Intimate, personal, touching drama, Verdi’s “La Traviata” stands radically apart from Verdi’s other middle-period operas, the pot-boiling “Rigoletto” and “Il Trovatore.” The um-pah-pah still is there, and so are the grand opera gestures in not one but two party scenes. But we hang on one character, the consumptive courtesan Violetta Valery.

We admire her vivacity, we respect her tenacity, and most of all, we learn to love her as she learns the meaning of love. By ennobling a “fallen woman,” Verdi taught the moralistic audience of his day a lesson in character. We cry once we understand that society expects death to be the price of redemption.

Moving enough, “Traviata” needs no cheap sentimentality to help it along. Sunday night at the Hollywood Bowl, it got none in what was a downright grandiose performance of the opera conducted by John Mauceri with his Hollywood Bowl Orchestra.

A few years ago, Mauceri led “Traviata” at Opera Pacific in a theatrically chaotic production held together by dramatically concise and carefully articulated, if slightly clinical, conducting. At the Bowl, under aggressive amplification, that style started to seem relentless. There was grandeur to be sure in Mauceri’s evident desire to project to vast spaces, and there were dramatically compelling moments. But the singers were glued to microphones and music stands, and Mauceri’s underscoring their every accent turned intimacy into an immediacy more suited for, well, those other Verdi potboilers.

As she proved with Mauceri in Orange County, Elizabeth Futral is a commanding Violetta. The American soprano is in complete vocal command of the demanding role. Her dusky lower range reveals Violetta’s vulnerability and dark side; her shining high notes express the steely strength of this complex, remarkable woman.

With Frank Lopardo as an impressively stentorian Alfredo, soprano and tenor were locked in a larger-than-life love affair, overpowering Earle Patiarco’s mild-mannered Germont, Alfredo’s troublemaking father. But the result too often proved dramatic without real drama.

That is partly the problem with opera at the Bowl. A good host, Mauceri thoroughly walked the audience through the plot before each act. But plot and performance didn’t necessarily mesh. The singers performed to the crowd, not to each other. “Traviata” proceeded, one aria or ensemble number after another, more like oratorio than opera. Without theater and under heavy amplification, the score sounded as though it had one dynamic -- loud.

That is not to say that it wasn’t thrilling to hear the big moments -- Futral’s splendidly sung “Sempre libera,” Alfredo’s wild outbursts at the gambling table and those rapt Verdian ensembles -- swelling magnificently throughout the Bowl. But there was so much overcompensating that far too many moments were big moments. And that was dulling.

Two things would make a difference for opera at the Bowl. The first and most important would be if it were sung in English, because dramatic nuance is lost on most of the audience. Futral has proved how good she can be at opera in translation on her recording of “Lucia di Lammermoor” in English.

The second would be to use body mikes. Whatever is lost in sound quality would be made up in allowing the singers to interact with each other. Large video screens are something else to consider.

The supporting cast included many familiar local singers, including Jamie Offenbach, Suzanna Guzman and Nmon Ford. The Opera Pacific chorus, reading from scores like all the rest, did not make a strong impact.