Reviews

La Traviata
Fort Worth Opera

Photo: Brenda Harris as Violetta

Brenda Harris came on like a whirlwind of proflegacy, and not an entirely loveable one. But that take on the tragic heroine by Harris and director David Gately worked magnificently building a character who ultimately chooses generosity over pride and pleasure.

The best vocal and emotional fireworks of the evening came in the contest of wills between Harris's Violetta and the elder Germont portrayed by baritone Kelly Anderson.

Gately brought a further edge of urbanity and dissipation with humorous, almost sarcastic staging of the ballet. There was no mistaking these dissipated party-goers for responsible citizens.

— Fort Worth Star-Telegram

La Traviata
Vancouver Opera

Photo: Darina Takova as Violetta

David Gately, the best producer of comic opera to work with the company in memory, showed coniderable flair too in deftly defining the character interplay at the very heart of this eternally moving opera.

— Opera Magazine


Vancouver Opera's La Traviata has a lot going for it, especially in the realms of stage direction. Although this production showed him to be sensitive to the nuances of tragedy, director David Gately's lively style was at its heady best in the comedic sections. Crowd scenes were particularly effective: the Rabelaisian carousing of Violetta's party guests as the curtain rises instantly sweeps the audience into the action.

— Westender


La Traviata was a winner in every respect, one of the company's best-integrated productions in recent years.

All of this was abetted by the chorus that had never had a livelier time in a VO production, thanks to the direction of David Gately, who brought his familiar ebullient skill in comic works to effective play with two of the livelist party scenes in local operatic memory.

— Opera Canada