"The Traviata"

About this event

The La Traviata belongs to Verdi's famous trilogy, which also includes Rigoletto and The Troubadour. Chronologically, it is Verdi's eighteenth composition and perhaps the one that most clearly foreshadows his mature years, when he wrote operas such as Don Carlos, Aida, Otello and Falstaff. The libretto of "La Traviata" was written based on the famous novel "The Lady with the Camellias" by Alexandre Dumas - son. It is known that the plot of the novel was based on the author's personal drama, the story of his love for the famous courtesan Marie Duplessis. The daughter of poor peasants, Marie was sent to Paris by her parents as a very young girl to find work. Extremely beautiful and elegant, she became one of the most attractive women of the time in Parisian society. Dumas-son meets her and is captivated by her charm at the very first meeting. Their love union did not last very long, as it was destroyed by the intervention of the father - the famous novelist Alexandre Dumas, author of famous novels such as "The Three Musketeers" and "The Count of Monte Cristo". An interesting fact is that actually the prototype of Georges Germont is the famous writer Alexandre Dumas - father. And in the novel "The Lady with the Camellias" he is presented by the author - his son - as much more cruel and much less noble than in the opera work. Verdi commissioned his constant collaborator Francesco Maria Piave (1810 – 1876) to write the libretto after he saw in Paris in 1852 the dramatization of Dumas's novel Son. The contents have been amended and abridged, and the names have been changed from the original. Margarita becomes Violetta, Armand becomes Alfred, and the title becomes "La Traviata". The premiere of "La Traviata" took place on March 6, 1853 in Venice. At first it was received cautiously, the evaluations are contradictory. But very soon "La Traviata" gained the fame of one of the most popular and staged operas in the world, which is still the case today. Proof of the immortality of this work are the words spoken by Alexandre Dumas - son. After hearing Verdi's opera, the writer exclaimed: "In fifty years no one will remember my Lady with the Camellias, but Verdi immortalized it."