Tehran stages Islamic Traviata
OperaFrom the Tehran Times today:
TEHRAN-The musical play “Violetta” directed by Neda Shahrokhi will be staged at the Art Palace in Tehran on Tuesday.
It is an adaptation of “La Traviata” (The Fallen Woman), an opera in three acts by the Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi, Mehr reported.
Ali Paknahal has translated the opera and Yasaman Khajei serves as the dramaturge in the 90-minute play. Sahar Anzali and Hasmik Karapetyan accompany the performance as vocal coaches.
The opera was originally titled “Violetta,” after the main character. It was first performed in 1853 in Venice, Italy.
“La Traviata” is a tragic tale about Parisian courtesan, Violetta, who attempts to leave the life she knows behind to try and finally find true love. When she meets romantic, Alfredo, the hypocrisy of upper-class society threatens their love – and someone must pay the ultimate price.
The play echoes the notion of the “fall from Eden” a metaphor for loss of innocence and moral failure. The “fallen woman” is a particular notion too. In both cases the woman, being feeble in the ethical sense, is being tasked with receiving the projections of moral weakness.
The cast includes Darya Razavi, Hanita Delfani, Gandom Honarvar, Noura Mahmoudi, Ehsan Tajik, Majid Yazdani, Delsa Karimzadeh, Benyamin Biglari, Saman Rahmani, Anahita Talebi, Behnaz Amini, Farshad Bahrami, Romina Mohsenifar, Sara Hoseini, Anahita Parsa, and Pegah Hashemi among others.
My fly on the wall informs me that the main adaptations of the story are:
1) Violetta is ‘fallen’ not because of being a sex worker, but because of refusing to accept the husband her parents have found for her
2) She protests by locking herself up in her room and taking-off the hijab
3) The local imam promises to marry Alfredo to Violetta if he can convince her to wear the burka
4) Violetta flatly refuses to wrap herself up in black, kills herself with the bread knife, being tearfully wept-over by both families and the imam
5) Concluding soliloquy by the local Moral Police Guard about the happy ending of the proceedings
I only accept this version if it’s meant to be a jab at the regime.
Taking off her hijab, Violetta is hung from a crane. Verdi is spinning.
Beyond depressing. I hope it staged by one of today’s great ‘stage directors’: Annina arrested for revealing her hair… A homoerotic vibe between Alfredo and Gastone… The offstage chorus in the final scene breaks into Violetta’s bedroom and take her hostage … I agree with Karajan that La Traviata is a ‘stupid’ opera, but surely we could improve it once and for all in Tehran???!!!
Maybe this will elate all those operagoers who detest ‘traditional’ stagings (i.e. those by second-rate, boring directors such as Zeffirelli, Everding, Strehler). Hopefully the great opera minds of Tehran can give us something new and exciting to equal the thrill we received when seeing Violetta wearing a red dress at the MET… a RED DRESS!!! And I’m so excited seeing that cast listing of all of the glamorous Iranian singers who lead the world in this repertoire.
In certain quarters in Iran, a story like La La Traviata would have a lot of meaning, just it did when it was first presented in the 1850’s. Many could identify with Germont in his desire to protect his daughter for a desirable marriage, and that Alfrado was just a wayward son.
The blurb doesn’t sound promising but who knows—there’s no lack of conceptual vision in Tehran’s artistic milieu. See, “Pari,” Darius Mehrjui’s 1995 take on Salinger’s “Franny and Zooey.”
I wonder if they start with a drinking song.