This performance was recorded in July 2008 at the Opernfestspiele St. Margarethen in Austria. The outdoor setting is stunning–it is a massive Roman quarry with mountains visible in the near and far distance–and apparently this Traviata is the first opera they’ve done without wild animals in residence (Nabucco, Aida, and Carmen have been shown in recent years). The sets are lavish enough to make Franco Zeffirelli blush. Designer Manfred Waba has placed the action in a reproduction of the Paris Opera, complete with stage boxes inhabited by patrons in their fanciest clothing who watch along with us. There is more gold than anyone would know what to do with.

Set in Venice during the Renaissance, the drama centres on Bassanio, a young nobleman who would like to court the beautiful Portia but doesn‘t have the money to travel to her country estate, so he asks the merchant Antonio for help. Antonio‘s wealth is tied up in maritime trade but he offers to procure the sum Bassanio needs from the Jewish money lender Shylock. Shylock hates Antonio for being so contemptuous in his treatment of Jews, and therefore stipulates that if the debt is not repaid within three months, the penalty will be a pound of Antonio‘s own flesh...