About the opera
- Run time: 3hrs
- Sung in: Italian
- Surtitles: English
- Opera house: Teatro La Fenice, Venice
La Traviata’s beautiful melodies and poignant depiction of the fragility of love have made the work a favorite of generations of opera-goers. Rosa Feola and Claudia Pavone star as the self-sacrificing courtesan Violetta, the “fallen woman” of the opera’s title, who knows that the tuberculosis she suffers from will take her life. But then she meets the young and idealistic Alfredo (Piero Pretti, Giulio Pelligra), who offers her true love—with tragic consequences. Gabriele Viviani and Luca Grassi alternate as Giorgio Germont, Alfredo’s stern father, and Stefano Ranzani leads the La Fenice Orchestra & Choir.
Ticket information
- Select a date an book
- E-Ticket (Print@home)
Teatro La Fenice, Venice
Address:
Campo San Fantin, 1965, 30124 Venice
How to get there:
from Tronchetto: line 2 direction/via Rialto bridge, St Mark, Lido
from Piazzale Roma, Ferrovia: line 1 or 2 direction/via Rialto bridge, St Mark Lido
Stops: Line 1 - Rialto bridge, St Angel, St Samuel or St Mark (Vallaresso)
Line 2 - Rialto bridge or St Mark (Vallaresso)
World premiere: Teatro la Fenice, Venice, 1853. Verdi's La Traviata survived a notoriously unsuccessful premiere to become one of the most beloved operas in the repertoire. After the large-scale dramas of Rigoletto and Il Trovatore, its intimate scope and subject matter inspired some of the composer's most profound and heartfelt music. The title role of the "fallen woman" has captured the imagination of audiences and performers alike with its inexhaustible vocal and dramatic possibilities - and challenges. Violetta is considered one of the peaks of the soprano repertoire.
In a remarkable career spanning six decades of theater, Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901) composed 26 operas, at least half of which are central to the current repertoire. Francesco Maria Piave (1810-76) was Verdi's librettist during his productive middle period and also worked with him on Ernani, Macbeth, Rigoletto and La Forza del Destino, among others. Alexandre Dumas fils (1824-95) was the son of the author of The Three Musketeers. The play La Dame aux Camélias is based on his own semi-autobiographical novel of the same name.
With La Traviata, Verdi and Piave fashioned an opera from a play set in contemporary times - an exception in the composer's long career. Dumas' La Dame aux Camélias is a meditation on the author's youthful affair with the notorious prostitute Marie Duplessis, known as a sophisticated and cultured woman whose charms and tact far exceeded her station. The play is still performed today in its original form and exists in several film incarnations, including Greta Garbo's Camille (1936).
