The title means 'The Fallen Woman' although I feel a more appropriate title would be 'A Woman's Sacrifice'. It tells the story of a courtesan named Violetta, who is the object of affection of a young nobleman named Alfredo. Initially she rejects him but she soon learns to love him, to the point that she abandons her rich and lavish lifestyle to live with him under more meager circumstances. However, Alfredo's father Giorgio pleads with Violetta to leave him because her reputation (she lived as a courtesan) is bringing shame to the family, which, in turn, threatens the engagement of Alfredo's sister. Despite her immense love for Alfredo, Violetta agrees to leave him.
When Alfredo finds out, he feels betrayed and assumes that she has left him to return to her former lover, the Baron. When they meet in a party, Alfredo demands that Violetta admit she is love with the Baron, which she does under duress to protect the real reason for her leaving Alfredo. As she does, he humiliates her in front of everyone. Giorgio denounces the act of his son, who eventually learns the truth about Violetta's sacrfice. By then it is almost too late. Violetta is dying from tuberculosis. Somehow, when Alfredo comes to her sickbed, she feels revived long enough for them to sing a duet together. It unfortunately doesn't last and the opera ends as Violetta dies in Alfredo's arms.
It's an incredibly sad story, as all operas are. But it is precisely this intensity and immensity of emotion that makes 'La Traviata' powerful and compelling. This opera was performed in CCP for three nights, with two performances topbilled by a Korean cast. We got tickets for the Korean show where Violetta was played by Yun-Kyuong Yi. While the entire cast was great, it was Yun-Kyuong Yi who really owned the show. Her voice is amazingly brilliant and can be heard clearly even when she sings with the rest of the chorus. Her control and range are absolutely astounding. The role calls for her singing while slumped over or even lying in bed and she navigated through those physical challenges with ridiculous ease. Naturally, she received the loudest cheers and strongest applause, and she got a standing ovation from everyone at the end of the show.
Check out this video of her singing the aria 'Sempre Libera' which is performed towards the end of the first act. If you don't want to listen to a 10-minute aria sung in Italian, then maybe you can skip to my favorite parts - 5:17 to 5:34 and 7:26 to 7:43. In these parts, she sings the same high note in two different styles - one with full power and the other with restraint. This is exactly how she did it when we watched her. Talk about control. (I checked other versions of 'Sempre Libera' and she seems to be the only one who does that power vs. restraint style, so I guess it must be her signature.)
After the show, the lead cast went outside for a meet-and-greet. A lot of people flocked around Yun-Kyuong Yi but we still managed to get her autograph and I also got to take a photo of my mom with her. It was a very unique and wonderful experience. The fact that we paid P1545 per ticket and sat in the fourth row made it even better (I think they must have gotten a lot of sponsorships because I found the tickets to be incredibly inexpensive for the seats we had in a show like this). A couple more operas are lined up this year, include Madame Butterfly. I reckon I will find myself in CCP again to watch that. In the meantime, I will continue to relish my first-ever opera experience.
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