La Traviata. Premiere 2nd October 2022

»La traviata«–directly translated as »the one who has lost her way«–is, of course, the Parisian courtesan Violetta Valéry. Already dying from an incurable lung disease, she falls in love with Alfredo Germont. Yet her feelings are in conflict with her way of life and all sense of reason; ultimately, her quest for freedom and happiness is defeated by the moral strictures of bourgeois society. When first performed in Venice in 1853, this story was considered scandalous: an opera about a courtesan who dies of tuberculosis and is also modelled on a real-life woman in Parisian society was an outrageous inno-vation for the time. Focusing on the complex relationship between Violetta, her lover Alfredo and his father Giorgio, Giuseppe Verdi created a captivating and fully-rounded character, expressed through music that shifts between lyrical bel canto passages and powerful musico-dramatic outbursts. Director Barbora Horáková places »La traviata« in the dazzling world of 19th-century vaudeville. Juanjo Arques brings the choreography in a fresh burlesque style.

Credits