Entertainment

Vivid view of Verdi in ‘Becoming Traviata’

There are warhorses, and then there are 10-ton granite monuments like “La Traviata,” Giuseppe Verdi’s 1852 opera about courtesan Violetta’s doomed love for a young man of the upper crust. Faced with an opera so famous that millions who’ve never seen a production can hum its tunes, stage director Jean-François Sivadier reset it in a sparsely decorated post-punk universe.

So far, so normal, but Philippe Béziat’s documentary focuses on how Sivadier and his Violetta, the French soprano Natalie Dessay, fuse acting with the music. It’s an incredible view of artists at work.

Dessay’s voice isn’t a huge one, and she often seems to hold some of her singing firepower in reserve. When Sivadier refers to a high note as “orgasmic,” she retorts, “Yes, for everyone but the girl singing it.”

This ensemble is nothing like opera’s temperamental image. Sivadier begins corrections with “That’s great, Natalie. Perhaps . . .” The sole hint of exasperation is the look in his eyes when he’s trying to get the gypsy chorus to shape up.

While the spotlight is on Dessay, the movie covers the whole show. Stagehands raise backdrops in rhythmic unison, the costumier fits Dessay’s dress on a mannequin, and there’s a delightful shot of the timpanist rehearsing in a T-shirt reading “Sam’s Anchor Cafe.”

“The music is so transcendent,” says one woman, “that when it flows over you, you become part of its madness.” Sivadier and Dessay take the familiar and make it tragic once more.