The Atlanta Opera’s revival of ‘La traviata’ combines emotional depth and vocal brilliance

Mark Gresham | 11 NOV 2025

Saturday’s opening night of The Atlanta Opera’s production of Giuseppe Verdi’s La traviata at Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre offered an evening that balanced vocal virtuosity with intimate human storytelling, under the assured direction of conductor Evan Rogister and the visionary staging of Francesca Zambello. The 19th-century opera, which traces the tragic life of the courtesan Violetta Valery, found renewed immediacy in this production, both musically and theatrically.

The production is a reprise of the company’s acclaimed 2019 co-production with Washington National Opera and the Glimmerglass Festival. Zambello, who directed the original staging, returned as production director for this revival.

In an innovative departure from tradition, Zambello frames the evening as the final chapter of La traviata, opening with the heroine in a tubercular sanatorium—white‑gowned and dying—while the familiar Parisian salon and its bravura party music unfold as a feverish flashback. As the overture concludes, Violetta casts off her hospital gown and steps into a glittering ball dress, the ward dissolving into the Act I party scene. The effect is a subtle inversion of expectation: the glamour and gaiety of the social world are filtered through the inevitability of death, lending the courtesan’s wild dance of freedom and doomed love added poignancy. Throughout, the production combines visual splendor with emotional intimacy, allowing the audience to feel both the glamour and the tragedy of Violetta’s fleeting joy and inevitable fate.

Mané Galoyan’s Violetta anchored the evening with a performance of rare emotional nuance and technical precision. In “Sempre libera,” her soprano soared with radiant clarity, effortlessly navigating Verdi’s demanding coloratura passages while conveying the character’s outward defiance and inner uncertainty. Yet Galoyan’s strength lay not merely in vocal fireworks but in the subtler moments: the hushed fragility of the final acts, the hesitant pauses that suggested Violetta’s awareness of her own mortality, and the tender, almost conversational phrasing in her interactions with Alfredo. Her portrayal struck a delicate balance between independence and vulnerability, transforming what can sometimes feel like a stock operatic figure into a fully realized, deeply human character.

Long Long’s Alfredo Germont provided a complementary counterpoint, bringing a tenor voice of warmth and flexibility. Long imbued his character with both the impetuous passion of youth and the sincerity of genuine emotional conflict. His duets with Galoyan were highlights of the evening, capturing the oscillation between exhilaration and despair that Verdi’s music so keenly expresses. In the intimate exchanges, Long’s phrasing revealed a thoughtful attention to text, while in the more dramatic outbursts, his voice retained a lyrical clarity that avoided harshness. His portrayal underscored Alfredo’s vulnerability to both love and societal pressure, lending the role a sense of realism often absent in more broadly-drawn interpretations.

Anthony Clark Evans, as Giorgio Germont, Alfredo’s father, brought a baritone of authority and understated gravitas. Rather than leaning on moral sternness, Evans emphasized the character’s internal conflict, portraying a father torn between social propriety and paternal love. His rendition of “Di Provenza il mar” was both sonically rich and dramatically sensitive, allowing the audience to sense Germont’s awakening empathy and ultimate reconciliation with his son and Violetta. Evans’ performance reinforced the opera’s emotional core, providing a counterbalance to Alfredo’s youthful impetuosity and Violetta’s fragility.

The Atlanta Opera Orchestra, under Rogister’s direction, delivered a performance of both elegance and dynamism, shaping Verdi’s sweeping arias, ensembles, and orchestral interludes with clarity while never overshadowing the singers. The ensemble demonstrated remarkable responsiveness in passages where shifts in tempo and dynamics mirrored the drama unfolding onstage, enhancing the emotional currents of the story and supporting the singers’ character portrayals.

Secondary characters and the Atlanta Opera Chorus contributed solidly to the evening. Yet, the night’s most compelling moments arose from the interplay of the three principals, whose vocal and dramatic synergy made the opera’s familiar narrative resonate with renewed poignancy.

With the return of Verdi’s masterpiece after a six-year absence from the Atlanta stage, The Atlanta Opera reaffirmed that La traviata remains not only a showcase for vocal artistry but also a vehicle for the profound exploration of love, loss, and societal constraint. The performances of Galoyan, Long, and Evans underscored the company’s ongoing commitment to combining technical mastery with thoughtful storytelling, offering Atlanta audiences an experience at once sonically thrilling and emotionally resonant. ■

EXTERNAL LINKS:

• The Atlanta Opera: atlantaopera.org
• Evan Rogister: evanrogister.com
• Francesca Zambello: francescazambello.com
• Mané Galoyan: manegaloyan.com
• Long Long: mkimpresari.com/artists/long-long
• Anthony Clark Evans: prometheanartists.com/anthony-clark-evans

About the author:

Mark Gresham is publisher and principal writer of EarRelevant. He began writing as a music journalist over 30 years ago, but has been a composer of music much longer than that. He was the winner of an ASCAP/Deems Taylor Award for music journalism in 2003.

Read more by Mark Gresham.

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