As we grieve over Violetta in her death throes at the end of Verdi’s La Traviata, it’s hard not to see a metaphor here for the embattled English National Opera itself. The company’s music director Martyn Brabbins resigned a week ago in protest at its proposed solution to Arts Council England cuts, describing it as “managed decline”. The possible demise of ENO is a catastrophic prospect and this revived Traviata is a timely reminder of what the company has been so good at over the decades: an integrated company of singers and players presenting in English a bold new take on classic repertoire.
It’s true that of the principals, only Roland Wood as Germont is an ENO regular, but three of the smaller roles are taken by ENO Harewood Artists. And both chorus and orchestra might have been giving an object lesson in the advantages of a cohesive ensemble company. The former was electrifying in the party scenes, for which chorus director Martin Fitzpatrick deserves credit (less so for his clunky translation). The orchestra played superbly for Richard Farnes, whose taut, emotionally charged conducting was in perfect sync with the production.
