When acclaimed and Grammy-winning soprano Angel Blue sings the Violetta role for Houston Grand Opera’s season opening production of La Traviata, it will be her eighth time performing the role (in seven different productions). Luckily for her, dying on stage is not hard..
“It’s going to sound morbid, but that’s one of my favorite things to do on stage. When I have a death scene I really like it. Because it’s a part of life,” she says. ” It’s only difficult if I’m not being respectful of what it means.”
La Traviata is the story of the courtesan Violetta who’s in love with Alfredo, a man of good family. She abandons her former life but his father persuades her to give up Alfredo for the good of their family’s reputation. Throughout the opera, Violetta suffers from tuberculosis, which is what she dies of in the final scene. Love, romance, deceit, self-sacrifice and tragedy, all set the Verdi’s memorable score.
Blue says the opera (first performed in 1853) remains popular because of the music — the Drinking Song “Libiamo, ne’ lieti calici” then Violetta’s aria, “É strano Sempre libera” but also because of its story.. “I like to think that the reason people come to see the opera is because of the story. I hope the story moves people and that in some way it inspires them in their lives to be better people To live life to the fullest.”
Exposed to opera at an early age, Blue and her three older sisters and one younger brother grew up in a musical family with a father who was a pastor and gospel singer who studied classical music in Texas. “My grandfather was a big fan of Enrico Caruso,” she says. “I’ve grown up listening to opera. I saw my first big classical production when I was about 4 years old in Cleveland, Ohio.”
Clue and her family often traveled to Texas in the summers, she says, as part of his ministry. Her father was her voice coach from age 6 until she was about 14. She ended up at a special high school for the arts in Los Angeles and eventually went to UCLA for her master’s.. In middle school, high school and college she also did some musical theater, but it was opera that continued to attract her attention.
“What drew me more to opera really was the music, the fact that it was so dramatic and . Opera has every aspect of theater in it. There’s acting and dancing. There’s the singing of course and the great orchestras.”
Over time, her view of Violetta has changed, she says.
“My perception of Violetta was always that she was just a very fun woman. As I’ve gotten older, understood more about opera, more about singing, more about life and myself, becoming a woman and going through different changes what I’ve come to understand of her is she’s a remarkable woman and her story is one I think that is universal. She’s a very selfless woman who gives up true love for the sake of a family.As a woman myself I find that I respect her, I respect her journey, I respect her composure most of all — her ability to control herself and how she reacts tp things.”
This production has the singers in full 19th Century garb — corsets, petticoats, crinolines — which can make it tricky to negotiate on a stage, while actiing and singing at the same time, she says. Thanks to some on-the-job training she got at the Royal Opera House in London in her first stint as Violetta, she’s able to handle it.
“When I first sang this opera I had a walking coach and she was so wonderful. She taught me how to walk with the crinoline, how to sit with the crinoline. Spent nearly two hours just walking around. She was showing me how the women of the time, how they would hold themselves. If I didn’t have that training I’m not sure I’d be able to sing the part in the time period costumes.”
Blue who cites as her favorites Puccini and Verdi (she’d like to sing more Strauss in the future as well) has never tired of singing the Violetta part.
“The music makes me happy. I love the story and I love Verdi. That’s why I keep coming back to it.”
Performances are scheduled for October 21 through November 6 at 7 p.m. Friday, October 21, 7:30 p.m. October 29, November 1 and 4, and 2 p.m. October 23 and November 6 at the Wortham Theater Center, 501 Texas. Sung in Italian with surtitles. For more information, call 713-546-0200 or visit houstongrandopera.org. $26-$250.
This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2022.
