Andrea Garritano (foreground) sings to Matt Haney during rehearsal for La

Mark Ferrell jokes that this production of “La Traviata” takes the “grand” out of “grand opera.” Ferrell is the musical director for the KU Opera production, which opened Thursday in the Robert Baustian Theatre, a small black box theater in Kansas University’s Murphy Hall. The tragic Verdi opera is scaled down to focus on the classic love story that deals with issues of labels and social classes. The production is the focus of this week’s Pulse Podcast. Shows continue at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Tuesday, Thursday and Feb. 2.