La Traviata is being exceptionally well served in the UK at present. This version by Scottish Opera follows Jonathan Miller's severe production for English National Opera, and offers an equally powerful experience.
The staging is a reworking by Peter Watson of Nuria Espert's 1989 production, and much of Espert's inherently feminist vision remains. In contrast to Miller's clinical focus on cultural preoccupations with pathological morbidity, Watson lays fierce emphasis on the male-created social and moral forces that constrain female sexuality.
The atmosphere is oppressive. Ezio Frigerio's sets have a menacing opulence that crushes the characters. Even in Violetta's country retreat - a cage of slatted Venetian blinds, through which she and Alfredo can be observed by those outside - there's a sense of entrapment. The world of high-class prostitution in which she moves is shown as having its own code of behaviour, which she struggles to flout. The Spanish "entertainers" at Flora's party are clearly hookers looking for clients. Violetta plays dangerous games at her own party by flirting with every man in sight, in an attempt to assert her independence from the Baron.
The relationship between Violetta and Germont is seen as being the kernel of the work, helped here by two exceptional performances from Claire Rutter and Andrzej Dobber respectively. Rutter's tangy voice has gained weight without losing any of its agility; her coloratura has a febrile accuracy and there's a dazzlingly interpolated high E flat at the end of act one. She makes up for an occasional lack of fragility with powerfully emotive singing, facing Germont with tragic dignity and unleashing a torrent of harrowing emotion in the final scenes.
Dobber's transition from authoritarianism to moral awareness is deeply poignant as his voice, dark and steely to begin with, softens throughout the work. Evan Bowers's Alfredo is a gawky creature, sung with handsome athleticism. The conductor, Stephen Clarke, emphasises a weighty orchestral darkness in the score that some interpreters prefer to ignore. A very fine evening, well worth catching when it returns later this year.
• Ends Saturday. Box office: 0131-529 6000.
