LSU Opera taking gamble on La Traviata

• By ROBIN MILLER
• Arts writer
• Published: Mar 30, 2008 - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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Tiffany Bostic’s husband is also Violetta’s prospective father-in-law. Trouble is, Tiffany and Violetta are one in the same.
But does Alfredo know?

Tune in Friday night, when the LSU Opera presents La Traviata, Guiseppe Verdi’s tale of love found and lost, happiness and sorrow and, well, gambling.

That’s how Dugg McDonough sees it, anyway. It’s why he asked scenic designer G. Alan Rusnak to transform center stage into a giant roulette wheel — one that tilts.

“It’s called a rake stage, and it represents so many things in this production,” McDonough said.

“See, Violetta is a gambler. She’s gambling on her happiness, and there is a time in the second act when she is truly happy. But then she gives up this happiness for the sake of another, so you could say that she gambles and loses.”

McDonough gazes at what will be the roulette wheel from among empty audience seats in LSU’s Union Theater. This will be where La Traviata will be performed Friday and Sunday, April 4 and 6.

McDonough is the director, and his cast is trying out the stage, the wheel, for the first time on this day. That is, after the dust clears.
For somewhere beneath the flawless gray exterior is a stage surface, along with the red and black of the wheel.

“Can you believe it?” McDonough asked. “They’re doing construction work on the Union, but they didn’t put a curtain up between the stage and where they’re working. So, everything is covered with dust.”

Which doesn’t fare well for opera singers. Breathe in dust, and suddenly there’s no voice.

“And I’m not sure I can do this today,” Terrance Brown said.

He says this after warming up his rich, baritone voice backstage.

Bostic stands next to him, rolling her eyes.

“He said that early this morning, too,” she said.