Shared Experience

Generations of great sopranos have savored the opportunity to sink their teeth into the role of Violetta in La Traviata. This spring, two of today’s most compelling singing actresses—Rosa Feola and Ermonela Jaho—offer up their own interpretations of Verdi’s tragic heroine, alternating in Michael Mayer’s sumptuous production through June 6. Ahead of their performances, the pair spoke to the Met’s Christopher Browner about finding strength in Violetta’s pain and shared the musical moments that remain with them long after the final curtain falls.

Thank you for speaking with me. How well do you know each other?

ROSA FEOLA: Ermonela is one of my idols. We actually sang together in Il Trittico in 2017. I was always watching her in rehearsals, so I could learn from her. And then when she sang Violetta at the Met a few years ago, I came to a performance. You were amazing!

ERMONELA JAHO: Thank you so much, sweetheart. Even if we haven’t performed together many times, it feels like we’ve known each other for such a long time. I’m so happy that we are sharing this wonderful soul of Violetta. I think every woman who portrays her brings something special based on her own different perspective.

RF: You’re right. One thing I think that makes Violetta so special is that you can find something in her that connects to your life. I think every soprano singing Violetta probably has a favorite line inspired by her own life experience.

Ermonela, you’ve been singing Violetta for nearly two decades. What makes this role particularly meaningful for you?

EJ: La Traviata was the first opera I saw growing up in Albania. From that moment, I swore I would become an opera singer and that I would sing this character at least once in my life. And now, it’s actually my most performed role. I’ve sung Violetta more than 300 times, and it still gets me. It’s so demanding, technically and emotionally, but it has also helped me keep the lightness and flexibility in my voice, even as I take on heavier verismo roles.

Ermonela Jaho as Violetta, alongside Ismael Jordi, 2023

Rosa, how did you know that you were ready to take on the challenges of Violetta?

RF: I had the wonderful opportunity to study this role with my teacher, the great Renata Scotto. We spent a lot of time preparing the role vocally and also as an actress. She told me that any new Violetta needs to wait for the right moment to be born because you need both the right vocal experience and the right life experience. Unless you are mature enough as a woman, you will never understand how to recreate these feelings on stage.

With a role as rich as Violetta, what aspects of her character do you want to emphasize?

EJ: I start with a line from Dumas’s La Dame aux Camélias, which inspired La Traviata. The heroine says that she has loved sincerely, but she has never been loved in return. Even though we see her living this luxurious life in these beautiful dresses, underneath there’s a tortured soul. We see her vulnerability from the beginning, and even when she sings all of this coloratura, I think it’s a kind of coloratura that shows there’s turmoil inside her.

RF: For me, what stands out is a sense of melancholy—she knows from the beginning that she’s sick. The most important phrase for me to understand her personality is in Act II when she says “L’uomo implacabile per lei sarà,” which basically means that men will show no mercy. She realizes that society will never accept her, and she sacrifices her happiness to protect her lover, Alfredo. So there’s this melancholy that I think you should always see in her eyes, even when she’s not singing.

EJ: When you speak about her illness, it reminds me of the time I sang Violetta in 2020. I had Covid, but I didn’t know. We didn’t have tests then. When I reached the last act, I actually couldn’t breathe. Every single note, every single dynamic that Verdi wrote was what I was experiencing. Even the accents in “Addio, del passato”—they’re opposite of what you would expect musically, but they perfectly describe the struggle to breathe.

 Rosa Feola as Countess Olga Sukarev in Giordano’s Fedora, 2022

In a score full of musical highlights, are there any moments that stand out as favorites?

EJ: I love the duet in the second act with Germont. We see Violetta’s pain, her illness, but also her strength. When she sings “Non sapete quale affetto vivo, immenso m’arda in petto” (“Don’t you see the great feeling that burns in my breast”), it’s as if her soul is screaming, “I’m sacrificing so much, and yet you are asking more and more and more from me.” That really gets me every time. And then, of course, “Amami, Alfredo” later in the act is just a beautiful moment par excellence.

RF: The duet with Germont is my favorite part as well. She screams at him almost the whole time because she’s fighting for herself. Even in her sacrifice, she faces him with strength. The other part I can’t wait to sing on the Met stage is “Gran Dio! Morir sì giovine” (“Great God! To die so young”) in Act III. You understand how strong her will to live is in that moment, and you really need to show that in your voice, even singing with chest voice. It feels so natural, as if it’s almost speaking. It’s so realistic.

Speaking of realism, do you see any similarities between La Traviata and the verismo operas you’ve previously sung at the Met?

EJ: Absolutely, especially in the third act, where, like Rosa said, you need these dramatic colors. In places, Verdi wrote in the score that he wants screaming or crying, and sometimes as singers we’re afraid to go that far. But it’s theater. Someone who’s dying and fighting to the last breath won’t necessarily sound beautiful. And if we don’t make it believable, even with the most beautiful voice in the world, the audience will be bored after ten minutes.

RF: You’re right. With this role, it’s so easy for me to believe every phrase. I think that comes from Verdi’s empathy for Violetta. He understood her experience so well and put it into music perfectly. That’s why it’s so easy to feel it in yourself.

EJ: I really can’t wait to see you sing this role. Look out, I’m going to be backstage watching you!

RF: Don’t make me blush!