Lucie Kaňková returns to her favourite role of Violetta Valéry, this time in Fribourg, Switzerland. The premiere of a new production of Giuseppe Verdi’s La traviata will take place here on 28 December. The Italian tenor Anicio Zorzi Giustiniani as Alfredo and the French-Canadian baritone Jean-Kristof Bouton as Germont will perform under the baton of the well-known to the Czech audience Enrico Dovico, with Tamara Heimbrock directing. All performances are already sold out, including a special New Year’s Eve performance. Fribourg, also Freiburg in German, is one of the French-German bilingual cities with the best cultural tradition. The local opera house is also known by two names: Nouvel Opéra Fribourg or Neue Oper Freiburg. “My colleagues are, in a word, great, we clicked humanly and musically on the first day and it’s a pleasure to work with inspiring professionals,” says Lucie Kaňková. The rehearsals are very intense and the direction requires the presence of Violetta Valéry – i.e. Lucie Kaňková – on stage throughout the opera. In addition, there is only one intermission instead of the usual two. “The staging concept is unconventional. The whole opera takes place in my mind and is a memory of my past. I have a dedicated personal space on the platform, where none of my colleagues can see me, and I enter the scene or, on the contrary, remain as an observer as needed. I am accompanied by the angel of death and a little girl who represents my childhood.”