La traviata
Giuseppe Verdi
Nadia Fenwick returns to the role that made her, in a staging that strips the salon back to chairs, glass and a single unforgiving light.
A party in a house that is already being sold out from under its owner. Violetta, who is ill and knows it, meets a young man who has been watching her for a year without speaking.
Three months in the country, and the arrival of a father with a reasonable request that ruins two lives.
A room emptied of furniture. Carnival outside. The reconciliation arrives on time and too late.
Kestrel Aubry’s production has been in the repertoire since 2019 and has never looked the same twice; it is rebuilt around whoever is singing Violetta. This revival is the first with Nadia Fenwick since her debut in the part, and the first to restore the second-act cabaletta that the original run cut for time.
The set is four walls of mirrored glass that lose their silvering across the evening. By the last act you can see straight through to the back wall of the theatre, which is the point.