The really tragic thing about Giuseppe Verdi’s “La Traviata”? The story of the noble courtesan Violetta Valéry can easily be transferred to our present day. Nothing has changed since Alexandre Dumas wrote his “Lady of the Camellias” (1848), which was based on a real case. The novel became the template for a play, which Verdi in turn referred to in his opera (premiered in 1853).
Social intolerance, ostracism, that’s what the “La Traviata” production presented by Opera Incognita this year is about: Violetto, non-binary, lives as drag queen “Violetta” and escort lady. In love with Alfredo, who comes from a wealthy family, she/he, already terminally ill, experiences something like appreciation for the first time in her life. But the connection may not be there.
Last spring, what was probably the first “queer” Traviata in musical theater was a sensation, especially because of the great counter-tenor Uri Elkayam, who is also an internationally known drag queen artist. Now the celebrated production is returning to Munich; the touching opera about the (im)possibility of love can be seen in the Silver Hall of the Deutsches Theater from October 24th to 27th.
“La Traviata”, Tue, 24th, to Fri, 27th Oct, 8 p.m., Silver Hall of the German Theater, tickets below www.deutsches-theater.de