Palazzo Barbarigo Minotto 23 December 2021 - La Traviata | GoComGo.com

La Traviata

Palazzo Barbarigo Minotto, Venice, Italy
All photos (7)
Thursday 23 December 2021
8:30 PM
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Important Info
Type: Opera
City: Venice, Italy
Starts at: 20:30

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Overview

“This Opera of love and loss is totally stunning, fully engaging and sometimes raises the hairs on the back of your neck.“
THE ARGUS

The mise en scène of ‘La Traviata’ by Giuseppe Verdi has strong links with Venice: it was first performed at the Gran Teatro La Fenice on March 6th 1853.
Musica a Palazzo adheres to the ‘indications for contemporaneity’ requested by Verdi for the first performance (which caused a scandal due to its brazen realism).
The first act begins in the Portego (central hall) and the spectators will realise with amazement that they are actually playing the role of the Violetta’s guests (Traviata): she drinks a toast with them and among these she will meet Alfredo.
The second act is staged in the Sala Tiepolo, the beauty and privacy are the perfect setting in which to appreciate the subtlety of the character’s ‘inner speech’ and to be moved by her vicissitudes.
The drama of Violetta’s illness and death takes place in the bedroom with an alcove where not even the extraordinary beauty of the 18th-century stuccoes are able to distract the spectator from the emotional intensity of the song: the voices of the performers that are so intimately close, will tug at your heart strings.

History
Premiere of this production: 06 March 1853, Teatro La Fenice, Venice

La traviata is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi set to an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave. It is based on La Dame aux camélias (1852), a play adapted from the novel by Alexandre Dumas fils. The opera was originally titled Violetta, after the main character. It was first performed on 6 March 1853 at the La Fenice opera house in Venice.

Synopsis

Set in and around Paris in about 1850.

Act I

Violetta Valéry, a Parisian courtesan, greets the guests at her salon. Among them are Flora Bervoix, the Marchese D’Obigny, Baron Douphol and Gastone, who introduces Violetta to a new admirer of hers, Alfredo Germont. The young Germont, who has been admiring her from afar, joins her in a drinking song. An orchestra strikes up in an adjacent room, inviting the guests to dance. As the guests make their way to the ballroom, Violetta, who is suffering from consumption, feels faint; she therefore sends the guests on ahead and retires to her boudoir to recover. Alfredo enters and, realising that they are alone, admits his love for her. She replies that love means nothing to her. She
is, however, touched by the young man’s sincerity and promises to meet him the following day.
When the guests have departed, she asks herself whether Alfredo is the man she could love. Despite
the strains of Alfredo’s love song drifting in from outside, she decides she prefers her freedom.

Act II

scene 1
A few months later: Alfredo and Violetta have set up house together in the country, outside Paris. Alfredo says how happy they are, but when Violetta’s maid Annina lets on that Violetta has been selling her belongings to pay for the house, he hastens into town to raise the money himself. Violetta comes in search of him and discovers an invitation from her friend Flora to a soirée that very night. Violetta has no intention of returning to her former life, but she is forced to reconsider
on encountering Alfredo’s father. He is very taken with Violetta and her civilised manners but orders her to renounce Alfredo: his son’s scandalous liaison with Violetta is threatening his daughter’s forthcoming marriage. Violetta considers his demand unreasonable, but before long Germont succeeds in persuading her. Alone and desolate, Violetta sends a reply to Flora accepting her invitation and sits down to write a farewell letter to Alfredo. His return takes her by surprise, and she can barely restrain herself as she passionately reminds him how much she loves him before
rushing out. As the maid brings him Violetta’s farewell letter, Germont returns to console his son and reminds him of life in their family home in Provence. Alfredo spots Flora’s invitation and suspects that Violetta has left him for another man. In a rage, he decides to confront her at the soirée.

scene 2
At the soirée, Flora hears from the Marchese that Violetta and Alfredo have parted. Flora asks the guests to make way for a visiting troupe of performing gypsies. They are followed by matadors and a song about Piquillo and his sweetheart. Alfredo rushes in and delivers some bitter comments about love and gambling. Violetta appears on the arm of Baron Douphol, who challenges Alfredo to a game of cards and loses a small fortune to him. As the guests go in to supper, Violetta asks to have a word with Alfredo in private. She is afraid the Baron will be enraged by his loss and urges Alfredo to leave. Alfredo misunderstands her and orders her to admit she loves the Baron. Disappointed by Alfredo’s reaction, Violetta lies and confesses that yes, she does. Alfredo calls the other guests to gather round in order to denounce his former beloved in public and throws the money he has won at her feet. Germont, arriving at that very moment, expresses his disapproval of his son’s behaviour. The guests likewise rebuke Alfredo and Douphol challenges him to a duel.

Act III

Violetta’s bedroom, six months later. Dr Grenvil tells Annina that her mistress has not long to live –
the consumption has taken its toll. Alone, Violetta rereads a letter from Germont saying that the Baron was only slightly wounded in his duel with Alfredo, that Alfredo has heard the truth and is
coming to beg her pardon. But Violetta realises it is too late. It is carnival time in Paris and, the sounds of the revellers having passed, Annina rushes in to announce Alfredo. The lovers ecstatically plan to leave Paris. Germont enters with the doctor just as Violetta rises from her bed with the last of her strength. Feeling a sudden rush of life, she sways and falls dead at her lover’s feet.

Venue Info

Palazzo Barbarigo Minotto - Venice
Location   Grand Canal

The Palazzo Barbarigo Minotto is a 15th-century palace on the Grand Canal in Venice, northern Italy. Built in the Venetian Gothic style, it was originally two palaces, Palazzo Barbarigo and Palazzo Minotto, later joined together. The Barbarigo palace was owned by the Barbarigo family for several centuries and was the birthplace of Gregorio Barbarigo, who once refused the Papal Crown. It was later owned by the Minotto and Martinengo families.

Three staterooms face the Grand Canal and another three face Rio Zaguri. In the first half of the 18th century frescoes and paintings by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, Francesco Fontebasso and Carpoforo Tencalla were commissioned by Pietro Barbarigo. Its chapel has Louis XIV Style elm flooring inlaid with olive-root marquetry. The palace's doors, are in the same style, banded in walnut with bronze handles shaped as vine leaves. The floors of the staterooms are a blend of terrazzo paving and Venetian "pastellone" paving.

The palace is actually formed by two different buildings, merged in the 17th century. The ancient part, a 15th-century Venetian-Gothic architecture featuring 12th century Byzantine friezes, was originally known as Palazzo Minotto; the newer part, Palazzo Barbarigo, was built in the 17th century.

On the occasion of Gregorio Barbarigo's marriage with the keen and cultured Caterina Sagredo, in 1739, the greatest artists of the time were called to embellish the palace in both its parts, which had been unified by then. Among these the great master Gianbattista Tiepolo, Francesco Fontebasso, Gerolamo Mengozzi Colonna, and Carpoforo Mazzetti.

In 1741 was hired the Ferrarese quadrature Mengozzi Colonna, who painted the domestic chapel located in a recess of the building and hidden by two wooden leaves. Around it a Louis XIV elm flooring inlaid with olive-root and other prized wood marquetry. The following year Mengozzi Colonna intervenes also in the central hall (portato) designing the beautiful Venetian terrazzo pavings.

Gianbattista Tiepolo started his work here in 1741, painting the monochromes and two of the overdoors that frame the central canvas, "The triumph of Virtue and Nobility over Ignorance". The original oil painting is now part of Cà Rezzonico's collection and has been replaced here with a 20th-century copy.

The whole pictorial decoration represents the cultural interests of Gregorio and Caterina, freshly married. Four monochromes represent Sciences: History, Astronomy, Geography, and Astrology. The other four, with mixtilinear framings, represent the Arts: Painting, Sculpture, Music, and Poetry. The frescoes in the overdoors depict Merit and Abundance. This whole cycle is influenced by the neoclassical trend that conquered the whole city during that period, through its ornamental motives, ancient-looking sculptures, sarcophagi, amphorae, and vases, together with the "Olympic grace" of its figures. The parlor is also known as "the room of Wisdom", since it exalts the commissioner's idea of the arts and sciences giving wealth and nobility.

The central oil on canvas was painted by Tiepolo in 1744-1745. Next to the two female figures representing Virtue and Nobility, there is a young page holding a drape of their vest: it is probably a portrait of the painter's son, Giuseppe Maria. Behind him, we notice another figure, supposedly a self-portrait of the artist himself. Ignorance, defeated, falls down dragging with her a winged genie who is holding a bat, allegory of Vice. This celebrative representation, dear to the masters of the house, is also an example of Tiepolo's artistic maturity, highly influenced by Veronese models.

Carpoforo Mazzetti, pupil of another Ticinese artist, Abbondio Stazio, molded the stuccos in the rocaille style alcove. The decorations originate from the central opening where the bed is placed, branching out on both sides to reach the doors, adorned with mirrors. Above them, the crest and its shield-carrying angels overlook the room.

Mazzetti worked also on the dining room's stuccos, where he represented mythological scenes in pale colors and very realistic and colorful animals to adorn the ceiling.

Musica a Palazzo, a cultural association of classical musicians, has leased the piano nobile since 2005 and uses it for small-scale opera productions.

Important Info
Type: Opera
City: Venice, Italy
Starts at: 20:30
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