»La Traviata «–directly translated as »the one who has lost her way«–is the Parisian courtesan Violetta Valéry. Already dying from an incurable lung disease, she falls in love with Alfredo Germont. Yet her feelings 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 modeled on a real-life woman in Parisian society was an outrageous innovation 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 music-dramatic outbursts. Juanjo Arqués makes this opera's choreography under Barbora Horáková Joly's artistic direction in the dazzling world of 19th-century vaudeville.

Conductor Stefano Ranzani Stage direction Barbora Horáková Choreography Juanjo Arqués Set Design Eva-Maria van Acker Costume Design Annemarie Bulla Light Design Fabio Antoci Video Sarah Derendinger Dramaturgy Juliane Schunke Choir André Kellinghaus