Verdi: La Traviata (the complete opera, recorded at Aix-en-Provence in 2011)

"Her age and silvery voice may not in theory be suited to playing Violetta. But try believing that after Ah, fors'è lui or Addio, del passato, emotional pinnacles scaled with tremendous, tender subtlety. There's also plenty to relish in the bloom and finesse of the London Symphony Orchestra" The Times, 16th March 2012 ****

"Natalie Dessay dominates the stage. A superb production. Well worth seeking out."
(MusicWeb July 2012)

"This is one of the most truthful and moving realisations of Verdi's La Traviata I could ever imagine...such is its intelligence in focusing on the essentials of the characters and the action that one is repeatedly knocked sideways...Dessay is exceptional throughout, not just physically but vocally; she realises Verdi's notes with insight as well as technical command. Charles Castronovo's impetuous, intensely vulnerable Alfredo is equally fine." BBC Music Magazine, May 2012 *****

With this new production of La traviata at the 2011 Aix-en-Provence Festival, Natalie Dessay made her first European appearances as Verdi's Violetta, a pinnacle of the soprano repertoire. She made her debut in the role in 2009 at the Santa Fe Festival in the US, and subsequently sang Violetta in Japan. Dessay's 2011-12 season will include La traviata at the Vienna State Opera (in this Aix-en-Provence production by French theatre and opera director Jean-François Sivadier) and the New York Metropolitan.

Violetta makes tremendous demands on a singer, both vocally and dramatically, and signals Dessay's transition from lighter coloratura roles to the more full-blooded lyric repertoire. "I'm tired of playing weeping girls," she told the French magazine Télé 7 Jours, "Violetta is a real woman. That makes a nice change!" The change was clearly successfully achieved: describing Dessay's performance, the Financial Times wrote that "her theatrical impact is devastating".

Sivadier's production was staged in the open air, in Aix-en-Provence's exquisite Théâtre de l'Archevêché with its huge spiral staircases, medieval arches and 18th-century wings. The stage décor was minimal, the simple costumes evoked the 1940s or 1950s, and the prime focus was on intense characterisation.