“La Traviata” under the magnifying glass

The Staatstheater Kassel is staging a revival of a very special version of Verdi’s masterpiece from October: “L’ultimo sogno — Un’immagine di Traviata” by Carlo Ciceri was premiered in the corona year of 2020, conducted by Francesco Angelico, who also commissioned the work. The Italian composer and conductor Ciceri, who died at a young age in March 2022, created much more than simply a chamber version of the opera. He placed Verdi’s work under a magnifying glass: opera as a temporally stretched-out dying in one act. As in Verdi’s score, his title figure Violetta Valéry is doomed not only musically, but also dramatically from the very first second, as she experiences the events of the opera in flashback as a feverish dream. Violetta, dying of lung disease, dreams her last, the dream of her own life. The Staatstheater Kassel presents four performances on 22 and 29.10, 26.11. and 22.12.2023. (photo: Nils Klinger)