Welsh National Opera's la traviata and the curious case of the sympathetic coughers

By Catherine Jones on Oct 22, 09 03:38 PM

Verdi's celebrated La Traviata tells the tragic tale of the doomed love affair between the boyish Alfredo and the consumptive courtesan Violetta.
But who would have thought so many members of the audience at the Empire last night would have come out in sympathy with the 'dying' heroine?

We saw the pair's love bloom in the opening act, and watched it come under unbearable pressure in the second - all with merely the odd rustle of sweet papers (the Werthers Original overture I call it) and an annoyingly errant mobile phone ring.
But as soon as the curtain rose at the start of act three and the audience saw Violetta prostrate on her death bed, complete delicate consumtive coughs (you don't want to make your throat sore when you have that many final arias to sing), they broke out in hacking sympathy.
It was most odd - and slightly unnerving to hear the coughing chorus strike up around me in the stalls. Goodness only knows what was going on in the circle.
Maybe they should offer free cough sweets on the confectionary counter, the way they do up the hill at the RLPO? Or would that take all the vim out of Verdi?