La traviata

All his life Giuseppe Verdi has relentlessly searched for new, daring and interesting stories which could be transformed into opera librettos. Thus, the novel The Lady of the Camellias by Alexandre Dumas, fils, published in 1848, attracts Verdi’s attention and becomes a point of discussion in wide range of social circles… Five years later, he becomes impressed with a stage version of the novel in the Theatre Vaudeville, and then he and Piave, a librettist, write the central points of the plot. It took only about forty days to compose the opera! The first premiere took place in the La Fenice Opera House in Venice…