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Article: `LA TRAVIATA' NEEDS A BIT MORE HEAT.(L.A. LIFE) (theater review)
- Article from:
- Daily News (Los Angeles, CA)
- Article date:
- February 16, 1999
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1999 Daily News. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Byline: Reed Johnson Daily News Staff Writer
No control-freak Hollywood director ever has been more obsessively precise in picking a leading lady than Giuseppe Verdi. And in the case of ``La Traviata,'' the composer's behind-the-scenes plotting to get the tragic heroine of his dreams was practically Hitchcockian.
The lady in question, Verdi spelled out in frequent letters to his sponsors, should be a first-rate prima donna with ``looks, soul and a good stage presence.'' Not the toughest bill of goods, you'd think, but Verdi apparently found a lady of the, ah, proper proportions only in two or three top sopranos of his day.
Southern California ...