Most opera performances offer audiences a similar surface experience: Patrons enter the theater, sit down, watch the show, clap at appropriate intervals, and go home. And when MassOpera began to plan auditions in spring 2020 for a production of Verdi’s “La Traviata” the team assumed they’d do just that. Then COVID-19 shut down live performances, and the venture got pushed forward. And pushed forward again.
But thanks to some ingenuity, and a cold call by co-artistic director Daniel Ryan, the tragic story of the noble courtesan will come to life in the parlors and corridors of Milton’s historic Eustis Estate, from Oct. 17-24, via an immersive production stage directed by Katy Early and presented in collaboration with Historic New England.
Early, a Boxborough native, originally thought she’d be directing in a black box theater, but her vision evolved as the production’s circumstances changed. “We weren’t sure when we’d be back in theaters and how safe it would be, so we decided to do a site-specific thing,” explained executive director William Neely in a phone interview.
The audience for each showing of MassOpera’s 90-minute “Traviata” is limited to 25, and patrons will follow the characters from scene to scene around and outside the stately 1878 house. (The production is fully wheelchair accessible.) Ryan adapted the score for small ensembles; a string quartet for the first two scenes, a trio of clarinet, piano, and drum set for a tense party scene, and a solo violin for the final scene where the heroine succumbs to tuberculosis.
“Travel is a piece of the [production’s] immersive nature,” Early said in a phone interview. “It’s not just going to be one room in the round. We’re going to be traveling from a main great hall to a living room, to a portico, then to a small house on another location on the property.” Guests should feel like they’re “with the performers, not watching them.”
That said, this “Traviata” isn’t immersive á la Punchdrunk’s famous “Sleep No More,” the noir reimagining of Macbeth where performers often physically pull audience members into the action. “As exciting and mysterious as that type of immersive performance is, that’s not COVID safe, nor is it what we have time to rehearse safely for the emotional well-being of the performers,” Early said.
But there will be eye contact with the audience, she said. “The proverbial fourth wall will evaporate, and everyone in the room will have to confront that they are real, live human beings sharing a space together. . . . I think that’s what we’re all learning how to do again, post-lockdowns and Zoom screens.”
For the safety of the cast and crew, proof of COVID-19 vaccination is required for entry, and mask wearing is mandatory. After so many postponements, cancellations, and adjustments amid the ever-changing circumstances of the pandemic, everything feels precarious, but MassOpera is taking precautions and operating as if the show will go on. “All we can do is take into account all the best practices we can, and check in with each performer because their boundaries will change person to person,” Early said.
The cast for each individual performance is small, but with three casts in play, this makes for many moving parts. What’s more, the starring role of Violetta is split among six sopranos, who take center stage in three performances each. This not only allows MassOpera to employ more singers, explained Neely; it also falls in line with the company’s mission to close the gender gap in casting.
“It’s funny, because Violetta is a huge role. But there’s definitely more male roles in ‘Traviata’ than female, even if the stage time ends up being equal,” he said.
MassOpera plans to mount the 90-minute show three times per night throughout the run, with 18 total performances scheduled — when one Violetta is dying in the outbuilding, the next might be quaffing champagne and singing “Sempre libera” in the main house. That house’s existing historic furniture provides ample set dressing for many scenes — “those couches are incredible,” Early gushed — but the room for Violetta’s death scene is usually bare. For that, the production leaned on a board member who works for furniture chain Ethan Allen. “We’re going to have to make [Ethan Allen] look a little worse for wear, which will be interesting,” Neely said.
LA TRAVIATA
At Eustis Estate, Milton. Oct. 17-24. Presented by MassOpera and Historic New England. massopera.org
A.Z. Madonna can be reached at az.madonna@globe.com. Follow her @knitandlisten.