MARIA DUARTE picks the best and worst of a crowded year of films
Passions fail to ignite
Bask in the gorgeous music and the beautiful arias, just do not expect to see top-drawer acting, is DAVID NICHOLSON'S verdict
FABULOUS SINGING: Stacey Alleaume as Violetta and David Junghoon Kim as Alfredo
[Julian-Guidera]
JOSEPHINE BARBARO welcomes a diverse anthology of experiences by autistic women that amounts to a resounding chorus, demanding to be heard
PAUL BUHLE recommends an eminently useful book that examines the political opportunities for popular anti-fascist intervention
PETER MASON is entertained by the autobiography of Charlie Harper, one of punk’s most enduring figures
JAMIE BRITTON reaches for the sick bucket as he is forced to engorge detail after detail of the Royal Family’s wealth
STEVE JOHNSON picks his favourites from the many memorable albums of the year, and one stunning new festival
La Traviata
Millennium Centre, Cardiff Bay
IT IS five years since the Welsh National Opera has performed Verdi’s La Traviata and it has dusted down the Italian maestro’s perennial favourite but with an ending that fails to bring the usual tears.
Stacey Alleaume is a feisty Violetta and has a ravishing voice to go with her acting skills. But it is David Junghoon Kim who is an uncertain Alfredo, despite his fabulous singing.
Both Alleaume and Kim will no doubt have stellar careers in the opera world, but in an opera where the two lead characters fall madly in love they both fail to convey that chemistry.
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