By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Philippe Béziat
Original language title: Traviata et Nous
Country: france
Year: 2013
Running time: 120
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2294917/combined
Kyle says: “BECOMING TRAVIATA, or in its much better French title TRAVIATA ET NOUS, is a documentary on preparations and rehearsals for a production of Giuseppe Verdi’s beloved 1853 opera ‘La Traviata’ at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, starring charismatic soprano Natalie Dessay, who enjoyed a great triumph as Cleopatra in the 2013 Metropolitan Opera production of George Frideric Handel’s ‘Giulio Cesare in Egitto.’ The production’s stage director and music director are billed second and third — Jean-François Sivadier and Louis Langrée respectively. Those unfamiliar with the work may be unaware that its libretto by Francesco Maria Piave is based upon the 1852 play ‘La dame aux camélias’ adapted from the 1848 novel by Alexandre Dumas. Its most famous version is the 1936 George Cukor film CAMILLE starring Greta Garbo and Robert Taylor, although more than likely, acolytes of Maria Callas (I am one) will strongly disagree. Probably the greatest recording of the opera is the 1955 La Scala recording with Callas and Giuseppe di Stefano, conducted by Carlo Maria Giulini. But the 1958 Lisbon version is so famous, exhibiting Callas’ emotional and vocal problems in the performance to heart-breaking effect, that playwright Terrence McNally wrote a play titled ‘The Lisbon Traviata’ that resulted in stardom for Nathan Lane in 1989.
“The story is about a fashionably famous ‘courtesan’ dying of tuberculosis who, against her instincts and wishes, falls in love with a handsome young man who is smitten with her many charms, especially her capacity to enjoy life. She discovers not only true love, but also redemption, even though she acquiesces to an appeal by the young man’s father to give him up, in order to prevent disgrace falling upon the family. They part bitterly but reunite lovingly just as she dies. If the story of redemption through love continues to ring true with audiences, aspects of society structure and family duty do not. But Verdi created one of his greatest heroines in Violetta Valéry, and sopranos of each generation eagerly take on the opera’s many musical and dramatic challenges, just as directors attempt to bring a modernist focus to the story.
“With a confident eye for visual detail, director Philippe Béziat counterpoints the delicate high strings of the prelude with specifics of stage production, such as tools, shovels, mops, brushes, and gloves, transitioning smoothly into Natalie Dessay putting on makeup in the rehearsal room, and from the sound of the orchestra into the sound of a rehearsal piano. Director Sivadier and his star work out particulars such as whether her performance should start with her back to the audience or with her turning to face the audience. We revel in Béziat’s many uses of the opera to highlight Sivadier’s relationship with Dessay, at all moments focusing his attention on using details for dramatic truth. With introduction of the breathtakingly handsome Charles Castronovo as Alfredo, a transition occurs from director as Pygmalion to something more dangerous. Dessay’s gazing deeply and longingly at Castronovo invests him with a quality both majestic and moving, not to mention sexually arresting.
“Especially compelling are moments when Dessay is ‘marking’ her performance, allowing us to share in her search for dramatic emphasis in Violetta’s phrases. Her total commitment brings moving focus to portions of scenes and arias included in the documentary. Violetta’s ‘É strano’ is dissected with Sivadier’s observation to Dessay that she resembles every woman in life, every heroine of the stage who has ever said, ‘How strange….’ When she finally performs the moment, she makes it her own, strange, unique and utterly believable. Occasionally Dessay demonstrates a wicked sense of humor, as in a suggestion containing the Chekhov reference ‘I’m a seagull!’ to which Dessay replies without missing a beat, ‘No — You’re a cow!’
“The film functions as a provocative deconstruction of ‘La Traviata’ not only in Béziat’s seamless alternation of rehearsal room piano and vocal practice with full orchestra and onstage performance, but also in a similar back-and-forth with Dessay heard on the soundtrack as other stage business is seen taking place, such as during ‘Ah, fors’è lui’ (‘Ah, perhaps he is the one!’). Rarely has ‘Sempre Libera’ been as thrilling as in the transition here from rehearsal room into full stage with orchestra. At such moments, deconstruction becomes not only a declaration of artistic affirmation, but also a celebration of interpretation through the rehearsal process. Another particularly telling example is a loving close up of the clarinet playing the melancholy music representing the state of Violetta’s soul, transitioning into the rehearsal pianist’s explanation of the pain Violetta experiences writing a farewell letter to Alfredo, then into full orchestra rehearsal of the scene, and finally into Dessay performing the scene on stage.
“Béziat’s filmic treatment of Act III is emotionally devastating, capturing the power of music to express what is otherwise inexpressible, again in back-and-forth transitions from rehearsal to performance. The moment of Dessay collapsing to the floor with Castronovo on top of her is repeated numerous times, as is her collapsing in death at the opera’s conclusion. Béziat records Dessay with a look of such total desolation in her eyes at the thought of giving up life with Alfredo that one stops breathing momentarily. On the backstage wall are written VIOLETTA and TRAVIATA; during Dessay’s performance of the letter from Alfredo’s father, a stagehand is seen gradually stripping away letters from the backstage wall one by one until nothing is left. BECOMING TRAVIATA joins Ingmar Bergman’s TROLLFLÖJTEN a/k/a THE MAGIC FLUTE (1975) and István Szabó’s MEETING VENUS (1991) as one of the few indispensable films about opera. 4 cats”