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Why did audiences mock Fanny Salvini-Donatelli in the first performance of La traviata?
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La traviata
Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi was known for compositions such as the Requiem Mass (1874).
At the premiere of La traviata, audiences mocked the soprano Fanny Salvini-Donatelli because of her physical appearance. Although she was a capable singer, she was 38 years old and overweight, which led spectators to openly ridicule the idea that she could portray a desirable courtesan who was wasting away from tuberculosis.1