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GREENSBORO - Giuseppe Verdi's "La Traviata" ranks among the most frequently performed and popular operas in North America.

Greensboro Opera has staged it before, too. But not quite like this.

Friday's performance at War Memorial Auditorium will offer its audience a new and unconventional view of the operatic story of the doomed love affair between a Parisian courtesan and a young nobleman.

"It will be very different from any Greensboro Opera production they have ever seen," company executive director Barbara A. Peters says.

When finances got tight in the economic downturn, the nonprofit organization looked for creative ways to stage its annual fall production at lower costs -- without hurting quality.

"We wanted to stay within our means and yet still present an artistic product worth listening to," Peters said.

So, it scaled back on rented scenery and costumes -- and decided to present one performance, instead of the typical two.

That cut the "La Traviata" budget by half, to $75,000, Peters said.

Although Verdi set his three-act opera in Paris in the 1840s, stage director Vernon Hartman sets this production in the early 1900s.

Costumer Patricia Mueller will dress the women in period costumes that she created for past productions elsewhere and in formal attire.

Men will wear adorned tuxedos and business suits.

The scene will be set with projected images, lighting, decoration, furniture and props, rather than with three-dimensional or drop sets.

So, instead of focusing on scenery and costumes, the production will focus on the singers, the poignant story and its soaring music, played by 38 Greensboro Symphony Orchestra musicians.

"It is going to be different," artistic director and conductor Valéry Ryvkin says, "but it is going to be quite wonderful in its own way."

Ryvkin conducted a similar production of "Don Giovanni" at Opera Santa Barbara in California, where he also serves as artistic director.

"The effect was incredible," he says.

He and the opera board planned to put both the orchestra and performers on stage, separated by a final mesh "scrim" to bring the theatrical action closer to the audience. But last week, they opted to return the orchestra to the pit to enhance communication among Ryvkin, the orchestra and singers.

Metropolitan Opera soprano Jennifer Black will debut in the role of tragic heroine Violetta Valéry, the pleasure-seeking courtesan conflicted by falling in love with Alfredo Germont.

In 2007, a critic described Black's voice as "gleaming and glorious, with wonderful nuances of light and shade and complete dynamic control." Met live broadcast fans will recognize her as Lisa in this year's "La Sonnambula."

New York tenor Chad A. Johnson will sing the role of Alfredo. Fayetteville baritone Mark Walters plays Alfredo's father, Giorgio Germont. Both have won critical praise for performing the roles with other opera companies.

"We have a terrific trio," Ryvkin says.

They lead a cast that includes regional professionals and a 15-member chorus led by Welborn Young. "All are very fine talents who are living here and teaching and performing," Peters says.

Although the opera is sung in Italian, audiences can follow the words and action through supertitles projected in English above the stage.

"La Traviata," translated as "The Fallen Woman," is based on the play "La Dame aux Camélias" by Alexandre Dumas, which in turn is based on his semi-autobiographical novel. Dumas loved Marie Duplessis, a famed courtesan who died of tuberculosis in 1847.

Verdi set the opera to a libretto, or text, by Francesco Maria Piave. Its first performance in 1853 was deemed a failure. But after Verdi made revisions and replaced the cast, it gradually became a beloved masterpiece.

In the movie "Pretty Woman," Richard Gere whisks Julia Roberts away to see "La Traviata." The 2001 film "Moulin Rouge!" bases its plot partly on the opera.

"La Traviata" holds special significance for Greensboro Opera. It was its first production in 1981. June Anderson, the famous coloratura soprano, sang the role of Violetta.

Black began preparing the role two years ago, while in the Met's prestigious Lindemann Young Artist Development Program.

"It's a shared opinion that it takes three different voices to do that role, because every act is so different," Black says.

She had not sung a lot of coloratura, with its running passages, staccati and trills. Because she is more of a lyric soprano, she had to perfect her coloratura technique for Violetta's famous Act I aria, "Sempre Libera" ("Always Free").

"I have been working to get the Act I aria to a place where I feel it is presentable and where I am comfortable presenting it," Black says.

Last week, the chorus applauded when she rehearsed it with the orchestra.

Black also had to understand the character of Violetta, who, in today's vernacular, would have been called a high-class call girl.

"Violetta is fundamentally simple in what she desires," Black says. "She is just going to enjoy herself. But she opts for giving in to this fantasy that she has had of loving somebody and being loved, and it ends terribly."

She and Johnson, as Alfredo, sing the familiar duet, "Brindisi: Libiamo" ("Let's Toast").

Both Johnson and Walters, who sings Germont, have famous arias. Alfredo sings "Dei Miei Bollenti Spiriti" ("Of My Passionate Emotions").

Germont's aria, "Di Provenza il Mar" ("In Provence, the Sea"), "is one of the baritonal national anthems," Hartman says.

As they put final touches on "La Traviata," they hope a large audience turns out for Friday's performance. Not only do ticket sales help to offset costs, but "an artist wants to see a full theater," Peters says. "It's just a boost, a lift."

It's a particularly difficult time financially for opera companies, as it is for other arts groups.

Baltimore Opera Company, Orlando Opera Company and Opera Pacific in California have closed within the last year. Even City Opera of New York cut back on productions this year.

Greensboro Opera didn't want to overspend on "La Traviata," then have to start from scratch to raise money for its next production, Peters says. It wants to be around for its 30th anniversary in 2011 -- and beyond.

"We have to continue to think long term, keeping money in the till to plan for more elaborate productions down the road," Peters says.

Contact Dawn DeCwikiel-Kane at 373-5204 or dawn.kane@news-record.com