Andrea Baker to Headline Opera Roanoke’s ‘La Traviata’
By David SalazarOpera Roanoke is set to open its 51st season with a new production of Verdi’s “La Traviata.”
Running Sept. 19 and 20 at the Jefferson Center in Roanoke, the production is directed by the company’s new Producing Director, Stefanos Koroneos, and conducted by Mathias Elmer. Andrea Baker sings Violetta, with Eric Botto as Alfredo and Levi Hernandez as Giorgio Germont. The cast also includes Peyton Wheeler as Flora, Ava Knight as Annina, Ye Lynn Han as Gastone, Bobby Buchanan as the Marchese, and Josiah Worsley as Dottore Grenvil.
“Marie Duplessis was a real woman who died at 23, and Verdi never let us forget that,” said Koroneos, per an official press release. “This production strips everything away, an almost empty stage, bodies, light, and shadow, because I believe, like the great Italian neorealist filmmakers, that austerity is not a limitation but a moral position. Color appears only where Violetta’s inner world demands it, and when it disappears, she is already gone.”
Pianist and Virginia Tech faculty member Richard Masters will lead a free Pre-Curtain Talk from 1:30 to 2:00 p.m. before both performances.
Both performances commence at 2:30 p.m. local time.
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