Gutsy & vivid: Verdi’s La traviata at St Paul’s Opera imaginatively reinvents the work as parable of punk London

Verdi: La traviata – Christian Joel, Isobel Hughes, Ted Day – St Paul’s Opera (Photo: Julian Guidera)

Verdi: La traviata; Lizzie Ryder, Christian Joel, Owain Gwynfryn, director: Edwina Strobl, music director: Adrian Salinero, St Paul’s Opera; St Paul’s Church, Clapham
Reviewed 4 July 2026

A varied and vivid incarnation of Violetta’s demi-monde as punk with an upfront, take-no-prisoners account of the title role from Lizzie Ryder

The problem for any production of Verdi’s La traviata is not so much that we no longer have a demi-monde but that its denizens, in the modern world, have changed radically from the 1850s. Period productions generally hide this culture clash behind nice frocks and few stagings manage to evoke the outrage that surrounded the first London performance of the work in 1856. Yet changes in attitudes mean that simply moving the setting to modern day rarely works, the culture clash just is not compelling enough.

In her production of Verdi’s La traviata for St Paul’s Opera, director Edwina Strobl‘s decision to choose a punk setting for Violetta’s milieu might have had a big element of budgetary necessity (punk outfits come cheaper than big frocks), but it works in terms of dramaturgy and emotional journey.

We caught the final of St Paul’s Opera’s performances of Verdi’s La traviata at St Paul’s Church in Clapham on Saturday 4 July 2026. Directed by Edwina Strobl and designed by Pin Chen with choreography by Agur Arrien, the work featured Lizzie Ryder as Violetta, Christian Joel as Alfredo, Owain Gwynfryn as Germont, Salome Siu as Flora and Rebecca Hart as Annina. Music director Adrian Salinerno directed a small instrumental ensemble.

Verdi: La traviata – Christian Joel, Ted Day, Lizzie Ryder, Salome Siu – St Paul’s Opera (Photo: Julian Guidera)

Designer Pin Chen’s abstract set did admirable duty for all the opera’s locations and having Violetta’s bed raised up towards the rear of the stage in the final scene worked well. The set also successfully disguised the fact that we weren’t actually in a theatre but a church. The costumes for the punks – effectively everyone but Alfredo (Christian Joel) and Germont (Owain Gwynfryn) – were varied and vividly imaginative with two or three having direct reference to Vivienne Westwood (later a Clapham resident), Malcolm McLaren and their circle.

The production set the action within the context of Violetta’s funeral during the prelude, and throughout the opera Strobl’s production used a great deal of the space including the church’s Angelus bell.

There is no doubt that the whole company addressed the punk concept with engaging enthusiasm and wholesale vigour, but what made it work was Strobl’s real eye for detail. Throughout, she made sure of her dramaturgy whether it be in the moment between the Barone (Ted Day) and Violetta (Lizzie Ryder) just before the Brindisi, or the way the entire scene between Germont (Owain Gwynfryn) and Violetta demonstrated the ever-present gulf between the two with no risk of getting mired in an added layer of sentimentality.

Verdi: La traviata – Lizzie Ryder, Owain Gwynfryn – St Paul’s Opera (Photo: Julian Guidera)

Lizzie Ryder (who sang Donna Anna in Hurn Court Opera’s Don Giovanni in 2024, see our review) made a gutsy Violetta. This was an admirably upfront, take-no-prisoners performance that chimed in with Violetta’s punk origins. Ryder’s voice has an element of spinto metal to it and in the tricky church acoustic she could have afforded not to push quite so much. The coloratura in Act One, particularly the final scene, was admirable though it felt more ‘fuck you’ than implying any incipient hysteria. But it felt as if Act Two was Ryder’s preferred home, the long final scenes working well. In Act Three her death was moving yet not sentimental. Perhaps she has not quite learned to pace this tricky scene and this Violetta took her time to die.

There was a formality and stiffness to Christian Joel’s Alfredo that worked well in terms of the character and the setting, but I wanted him to have a moment when I felt the singer really set go. Joel’s voice combined fluidity with a dry edge that gave his Alfredo a remarkable intensity. Anger came easily, this Alfredo was clearly tightly wound up and his outburst to his father at the end of Act Two, Scene One was very vivid. Ardency perhaps less so, but then this Alfredo was very much a fish out of water. Even in the opening scene of Act Two it was clear that Violetta’s country residence was somewhat ramshackle, her ‘servants’ still her beloved punks, not exactly Alfredo’s scene. But in the opera’s closing scenes he did finally let rip.

We first saw Owain Gwynfryn as Sid in St Paul’s Opera’s 2022 production of Britten’s Albert Herring (see my review). His Germont was an impressive creation. A tweed-wearing, stick-using country gentleman, the gulf between him and Violetta’s punk demi-monde was never so obvious. Both Gwynfryn and Ryder ensured that this gulf was present throughout their scene. No matter how moving the music, these two characters remained either side of a significant divide. And for once, Germont’s appearance and mode of dress at Flora’s party was not dramatically risible. This Germont never quite relaxed or relented, the barrier between his country world and Violetta’s punk demi-monde remained just too great. And that was what Verdi intended, wasn’t it?

The supporting roles were all vividly taken, with the characters moving in and out of the wider ensemble, creating an engaging backdrop for the action.

Verdi: La traviata – end of Act Two – St Paul’s Opera (Photo: Julian Guidera)

Salome Siu made the most of Flora. Vocally the role is underdone but Siu leveraged everything to dramatic effect. Rebecca Hart was a gutsy Annina, taking no prisoners. Naveen Kanamarlapudi was a vocally distinguished Gastone if somewhat dramatically reticent. Ted Day made the Barone into a real piece of work and clearly had much fun doing it, whilst Thomas Rayner pulled Dr Grenvil’s various appearances together into a dramatic whole. Isabel Hughes, Megan Artemova-Thomas and Llewllyn St David made strong work of the various servants.

The chorus (technically there were only three chorenes, the rest made up of the ensemble of eight) produced a vivid and gutsy sound. All concerned clearly had fund with the visuals and the characterisation. There were moments when it was a bit much in the church acoustic but what the hell! It was fun. Interestingly, in this highly coloured setting the entertainment at Flora’s party became much less of a set piece and simply part of the action, which was probably how Verdi intended the scene.

Adrian Salinero directed the instrumental ensemble from the piano. The orchestral reduction by Emanuele Mazzola / Musical Beam worked well enough but the instrumental line-up – two violins, viola, cello, clarinet, flute – was a little top-heavy and the sound only really came together when Salinero added piano. We could have done with two or three more middle and lower instruments (double bass, bassoon, horn), though on a tight budget every note counts.

Verdi: La traviata – end of Act Three – St Paul’s Opera (Photo: Julian Guidera)

This wasn’t the perfect La traviata by any means. But the production successfully reinvented the work in a way that captured the imagination. And in this gusty and vivid performance we were involved from the word go.