LAKELAND Opera presented a thoroughly enjoyable performance of Verdi's La Traviata, at the Coronation Hall, Ulverston. The production was excellent, using a strong-voiced and well-disciplined chorus to illustrate the social background against which this tragic story is told.

But the success of the opera hangs on the performance of the three principal characters of Violetta, Alfredo and Giordio. Lurelle Alefounder was a most attractive Violetta. As Alfredo, Andrew Morris combined a fine operatic voice with a commanding stage presence, and John Brice's Giorgio was outstanding in that every word from his fine baritone voice could be clearly heard.

Conductor Anthea Bremner held the singers and the large orchestra together well, and kept a good balance between pit and stage.

There are, of course, the great moments when the famous arias are heard, but in the two scenes when, in Act 2, Giorgio persuades Violetta to leave Alfredo, and in the last act, when the two lovers meet and are reconciled in tragic circumstances, the operatic tension was splendidly held by the singing of all three principals.

An imaginative production: fine singing, lovely costumes, good chorus and a strong cast.

Alan Bolt