Singapore Lyric Opera celebrates Verdi's bientennial with La Traviata

Singapore Lyric Opera staged a familiar opera La Traviata at the Esplanade Theatre recently (September).  Director Stephen Barlow has chosen a contemporary treatment to this opera to good effect. The set design is clean and did not cause "congestion" to the cast and chorus experienced in the recent "Madama Butterfly".

Act I seemed to be warm-up act for the cast.  Nancy Yuen, as Violetta, was not audible initially.  Things got better as the scenes went on and overall Nancy Yuen did a good job. I also like Kota Murakami as Alfredo and Song Kee Chang as Alfredo's father Giorgio.  To me, Song Kee Chang sang the best last Friday evening.

It was a good evening out at the opera, and let's hope that SLO would put on more challenging works in the coming year.