‘La Traviata’ gets a sumptuous treatment

Over its 19 seasons, Opera Pacific has paraded before its audience a number of Violettas in Verdi’s “La Traviata.” The latest, seen Tuesday night in Segerstrom Hall at the Orange County Performing Arts Center, is a charming, petite Russian soprano Dina Kuznetsova. But she is not the hero of this handsome and lavish production.

The hero is John DeMain, the company’s artistic director, who led Verdi’s most popular masterpiece with consummate authority and sensitive detailing, unveiling anew the drama and poignancy in its familiar musical contours. He was assisted by a strong orchestra, a finely tuned chorus and a cast of young and promising principals.

The production, from Lyric Opera of Chicago, is both airy and sumptuous, the costumes rich, colorful and eye-catching. Act 2, looking like an elegant outdoor glade, works best. Act 3 -- here folded into the second act for a two-intermission presentation -- overdoes the red but attractively so.

Stage director Amy Hutchison moves her cast about efficiently if not especially imaginatively but allows idiosyncratic behavior on the part of Kuznetsova, who is still finding her way in the part, sometimes semaphorically. The soprano, once past the awesome vocal challenges of the opening scene, sang best in the lyric sections of Acts 2 and 4. Her voice would seem to lack the core and solid power demanded by the role’s more dramatic outbursts.

Garrett Sorenson inhabited Alfredo with an attractive, Italianate sound and promising acting, also still in the tentative stage. English baritone Ashley Holland, pleading illness, nonetheless sang well, particularly in “Di Provenza,” but did not interact much with his colleagues. The secondary roles were enacted unobtrusively, with standout performances from Susan Nicely as Annina and Todd Robinson as Dr. Grenvil.

The strongest musical impetus came from the pit, where the orchestra excelled in the exposing preludes to Acts 1 and 4 and gave the final act particular expressiveness. The chorus, trained by Henry Venanzi, sang with high spirits and tight ensemble and looked best in the gorgeous costumes for the Spanish dance in Act 3.

The production will receive three more performances this season, with an alternate set of principals and conductor Sunday.

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‘La Traviata’

Where: Opera Pacific at the Orange County Performing Arts Center, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa

When: 7:30 p.m. today and Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday

Price: $35 to $185

Info: (800) 346-7372 or

www.operapacific.org