Competence is easy, greatness elusive.
One issue is finding a Violetta with the flexibility to handle the lighthearted fireworks Verdi gives her in Act 1 and the dramatic heft to cope with the later music, heavy with sacrifice and death. There are other vexing challenges, too. And the plot is static, composed of two parties, two key duets and a death scene. In these conditions, issues of balance, chemistry, consistency and proportion all become italicized. It is riddled with aural and dramatic imperfections, none of them fatal but all of them naggingly familiar.