La traviata

La traviata, opera in three acts by Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi (libretto in Italian by Francesco Maria Piave) that premiered in Venice at La Fenice opera house on March 6, 1853. Based upon the 1852 play by Alexandre Dumas fils (La Dame aux camélias), the opera marked a large step forward for Verdi in his quest to express dramatic ideas in music. La traviata means “the fallen woman” or “the one who goes astray” and refers to the main character, Violetta Valéry, a courtesan. The opera features some of the most challenging and revered music in the entire soprano repertoire; the aria “Sempre libera” at the end of Act I is especially well known.

Background and context

Dumas, in his novel of 1848 and the play based on it, recalls an actual “lady of pleasure” (the scandalous Marie Duplessis) whom he had known and adored. Like Violetta in the opera, Duplessis had conquered Parisian society with her wit, charm, and beauty, but her reign was a brief one—she died of tuberculosis in 1847 at age 23. Verdi attended the play in 1852 in Paris, where he was spending the winter. The composer had already read the novel and had begun to conceive of an opera based on the story. La Fenice had been clamouring for a new work; although the theatre would supply funding and performers, Verdi was afraid its singers would not do the opera justice. He was right. Of the primary cast members, only the soprano who played Violetta (Fanny Salvini-Donatelli) was adequate as a singer. Unfortunately, she was 38 years old and overweight. When La traviata premiered, audience members openly mocked the idea that she could possibly be a desirable courtesan, let alone one wasting away from tuberculosis. Verdi called the night a fiasco, yet he did not allow himself to be overly distressed, writing to a conductor friend, “I do not think that the last word on La traviata was uttered last night.” Within two months he was vindicated: the revival that opened May 6, 1853, at the Teatro San Benedetto in Venice, with more suitable singers and a few small revisions in the score, was an unqualified success.

La traviata’s subject and setting were novel for opera in the middle of the 19th century. The scale is intimate and bourgeois, not heroic or noble. The heroine is a fallen woman who earns redemption through sacrifice—a notion that was somewhat risqué at the time—although not forbidden by censors. Verdi was adamant that the opera be set in the present day (that is, the 1850s), with modern costumes. Opera companies would not comply, insisting on setting the story in the early 18th century. (The first performance set in the period Verdi specified took place in 1906, after Verdi’s death and well after the setting could be called contemporary.)

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More than other Italian opera composers of the time, Verdi unified the music and underscored the drama through the use of techniques such as repeated phrases (Violetta’s “Ah, fors’è lui” echoes Alfredo’s declaration of love and continues as a love theme), instrumentation (high violins underscore Violetta’s character from the overture onward), coloratura ornamentation that reflects Violetta’s agitation (thus justifying what otherwise can seem empty virtuosity), and musical continuity (through blurring the line between recitative and aria).

During Verdi’s lifetime La traviata was one of the most frequently performed of all operas, and it has continued to be through to the present. The story feels immediate, and the melodies are beautiful. Practically speaking, the demands on orchestra and singers do not overburden the resources of even modest opera companies.

Cast and vocal parts

• Violetta Valéry, a courtesan (soprano)
• Alfredo Germont, her young lover (tenor)
• Giorgio Germont, his father (baritone)
• Baron Douphol, Violetta’s former lover (bass)
• Flora Bervoix, Violetta’s friend (mezzo-soprano)
• Marquis d’Obigny, Flora’s lover (bass)
• Gastone de Letorières, Violetta’s friend (tenor)
• Doctor Grenvil, Violetta’s physician (bass)
• Giuseppe, Violetta’s servant (tenor)
• Annina, Violetta’s maid (soprano)
• Party guests, servants, dancers

Setting and story summary

La traviata takes place in and around Paris, about 1850.

Act I

Violetta’s salon in Paris.

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Violetta, a Parisian demimondaine, is hosting a party. A number of young men arrive in the wake of Flora, another courtesan, and Flora’s lover, the Marquis d’Obigny. Violetta’s friend, the Viscount Gastone, introduces young Alfredo Germont to her. Gastone tells her that during her recent illness, Alfredo had inquired after her daily. Violetta, amused, cannot understand why and teases her lover, Baron Douphol, that he did not do the same. The Baron explains that he has known her only a year, but she retorts that Alfredo has known her only a few minutes. Flora tells the annoyed Baron that it would have been better for him to have kept silent. Gastone, meanwhile, urges the shy Alfredo to speak; Violetta pours him a glass of champagne as encouragement. Gastone asks the Baron to propose a toast; the Baron refuses, so Gastone turns to Alfredo, who hesitates until Violetta assures him that it would please her. He then leads everyone in a lively drinking song (“Libiamo”), and the attraction between the two becomes clear.

Violetta invites everyone to go to the ballroom for dancing but is stricken with dizziness. Her friends try to help her, but she insists that she will be fine and sends them all into the ballroom. Alone, she looks at herself in the mirror and is shocked to see how pale she is. Alfredo comes up behind her to ask if she is feeling better. She tells him that she is, but he replies that she must take better care of herself; he says that if she were his, he would always watch over her. When she brushes this off, saying that no one takes care of her, he answers that no one loves her but he. Now Violetta laughs at him, and he chides her for being heartless. When she replies that perhaps she does have a heart, he responds that if she did, she would not make fun of him, for he has loved her deeply for a year. But she can offer him only friendship and urges him to forget her (duet: “Un dì felice”). Gastone drops in from the ballroom to see what is going on, and Violetta assures him there is nothing. Alone once more, Violetta makes Alfredo promise not to speak of love again. He is about to leave in a huff when, taking pity on him, Violetta gives him one of her camellias and asks him to bring it back when it has faded. Alfredo is thrilled, but Violetta still cannot believe that he really loves her. They say their goodbyes just as the guests come crowding into the salon to make their own farewells.

Left alone, Violetta wonders if she could ever truly be in love and if it was Alfredo who awakened that unaccustomed feeling in her (“Ah, fors’è lui”). But she casts aside the thought as foolishness. For her, love is an illusion, and she must simply live free and for pleasure alone (“Sempre libera”)—even though Alfredo’s declaration of love still rings in her ears.