Verdi wows arts center opera fans > `La Traviata’ crowds could skip the story

It’s the sure-fire event of the year. People take time off from work to attend. They give away season tickets to basketball games. They stop whatever they are doing to go to the one professional opera of the year at the Maine Center for the Arts. In the 10-year history of the performing arts center, this has always been true: Opera is boss.

And it was true again last night when the New York City Opera National Company brought its touring production of Giuseppe Verdi’s “La Traviata” to the Maine Center. The house was packed, and the audience got its yearly dose of professional opera.

It’s not the story, of course, that draws droves of fans to these music-heavy plays. The tale of Violetta Valery, an ailing courtesan with uncommon honor, and her doomed love affair with Alfredo Germont is not terribly interesting. In fact, by 1990s standards, it may seem that the lovers might manage better — and certainly with more time economy — with less singing and more get-down-to-it talking.

But it’s not proper opera etiquette to think that way. The only way to think about opera is to think about the music, that wondrous combination of orchestral score with the human voice fulfilling its most sophisticated potential. Some might even be tempted to close their eyes at a performance, to take in the live music and nothing else.

This certainly wasn’t possible at the Maine Center last night because traffic held up a good portion of the audience, which consequently arrived sporadically throughout the first act of the show. But it also wasn’t advisable to shut out everything but the music because, for a traveling show, City Opera put on a luxurious presentation with cascading floral draperies, billowing white curtains, blossoming plants and magnificent gowns. Scenery by Peter Dean Beck, costumes by Joseph A. Citarella and lighting by Jeff Davis brought utterly rich texture to this beloved music production.

The singers, however, were the thing. And although there was no single knockout performance, Oksana Krovytska, as Violetta, proved herself a powerful vocalist. Her match in quality was Charles Robert Stephens, as Alfredo’s father. Eduardo Valdes, as Alfredo, was a disappointment. It’s not that he wasn’t a capable singer. But he lacked the charm and finesse of the character.

In the end, what counted was the effect of the music. And here, “La Traviata” was, in a word, boss.