Giuseppe Verdi: LA TRAVIATA

Giuseppe Verdi's most performed opera is a scathing critique of 19th-century Parisian gentility, in which the glitzy world of parties battles with harsh social realities. The protagonist, Violetta Valéry, although a much-loved courtesan and the centre of attention, remains in reality a tragic outsider. Although society seeks her out for her entertainment and her beauty, it also sees her as a moral threat who cannot be accepted among 'decent' people.

Her personal tragedy culminates in a conflict with her lover Alfredo's father, Giorgio Germont, who embodies the cold hypocrisy of the bourgeoisie. He asks her to give up her one true love in the name of saving her family's reputation. Violetta, though despised by society, displays more nobility and capacity for sacrifice than those who judge her. Her death in seclusion and illness is the result not only of tuberculosis, but also of emotional destruction by a world that privileges external decorum over human emotion.

Giuseppe Verdi was looking for just such a provocative story when he came across the novel La Dame aux Camélias by Alexandre Dumas the Younger. In the spring of 1852 he saw the play La Dame aux Camélias adapted by the author himself at the Théâtre du Vaudeville in Paris. The impression it made on him strengthened his decision to use the story for his next opera; the story gave him the opportunity to formulate his great theme: love defeated by a hypocritical society.

Venue.