A room emptied of furniture: rebuilding Traviata around whoever sings it
The production has been in the repertoire since 2019 and has never looked the same twice.
Kestrel Aubry’s Traviata was built with a rule: the staging is rebuilt for each Violetta rather than the Violetta being fitted into the staging. This is unusual, mildly expensive, and the reason the production has survived four revivals without going stale.
The fixed elements are four mirrored walls that lose their silvering across the evening, and a chair. Everything else — the blocking, the amount of furniture in Act I, whether the party is crowded or thin, how long Violetta is alone before she sings — is set in the rehearsal room with whoever is singing.
Nadia Fenwick, who returns this season, sang the first run in 2019. She has asked for the second-act cabaletta back, which we cut then for time. She is right and we should not have cut it.