Alexandre Dumas' 1852 novel The Lady of the Camellias has been adapted at least nine times on film - including an eroticized Italian version directed by Radley Metzger and an Oscar-nominated film starring the elusive Greta Garbo - and a number of times on stage. 
Two of the most memorable reworkings, though, are Giuseppe Verdi's stunning opera La Traviata and a 1921 film called Camille starring Rudolph Valentino and Alla Nazimova. Continuing in their tradition of putting together unusual stagings of operas, Opera Theater Oregon is combining these two as Camille/Traviata - using a condensed version of Verdi's opera as a live musical accompaniment to the silent film. OTO will be performing this multimedia extravaganza over the next two weekends, starting tonight, at Someday Lounge, with a special Valentine's Day performance at Clinton St. Theater.
OTO has also made efforts to give Someday Lounge the vibe of a 1920s movie house, complete with newsreels and cartoons playing before the main feature, a gramophone playing era-appropriate 78s and a cigarette girl hawking candy cigarettes and bubble gum cigars.
I was able to attend a preview/dress rehearsal of Camille/Traviata recently and found performance to also have a bit of a speakeasy vibe to it. The principal singers and the chorus were all in their best flapper finery and the music - which maestro Erica Melton and artistic director Katie Taylor had reduced and edited down for string quartet and piano - had a charming wobbliness to it. The performances of the vocalists, however, were breathtaking. Soprano Natasha Risotto, especially, gave a powerful reading of Violetta/Camille that resonated throughout the Lounge's sometimes-unforgiving brick and steel interior.
What stood out most of all though was the sheer joy and love of this experience that everyone involved is putting into this little production. Sure, there were flubbed notes and a little bit of shakiness to the overall performance but that was easily overlooked when you see the glint in the eyes of each player. I've listened to my fair share of opera recordings and have been to one large production by Portland Opera, all of which have been great and probably close to perfect. But I'll take this level of enthusiasm over sheer perfection any day of the week.
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