In Hershey Felder’s latest musical film “The Verdi Traviata,” 19th-century Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi talks about how his middle-period work “La traviata” became so famous in his day that at one time it was being performed every night of the year somewhere in the world.
San Diego Rep was one of 12 U.S. theaters that co-presented “The Verdi Traviata” on Sunday. It’s still available for on-demand streaming atFelder wrote, co-directed and stars in the film as Verdi, both as an old man three years before his 1901 death and as a younger man, when he was rehearsing the premiere of “La traviata” a half-century before.
Much of the movie was filmed at Verdi’s own family home in Busseto, where Felder, walking the leafy grounds with a cane and huge white beard, bears a remarkable resemblance to the older Verdi.