La traviata by Verdi, Mon 04 Nov 2019, From (2019/2020), Directed by Stanislav Gaudasinsky,, Conductor Andrey Petrenko, Valentin Bogdanov, Mikhailovsky Theater, Saint Petersburg, Russia

It is no exaggeration to say that La traviata is the best known and most loved opera in the world. A connoisseur of human emotion, Verdi’s music so precisely conveys the many shades of emotion, that the feelings seep unimpeded into the heart of the listener, forcing one to live through the story along with the heroine. La traviata is based on the famous novel The Lady of the Camellias by Alexandre Dumas, fils. Contemporaries claimed that the novel was a fictionalized account of the real story of the author’s relationship with Marie Duplessis. With her intelligence and beauty, the young courtesan conquered Parisian high society as well as the young Dumas himself, who was drawn to her for her sincerity and the beauty of her soul. And though the word ‘traviata’ means, in translation from the Italian, ‘fallen woman’, the opera La traviata is a story about how a person is elevated by love. This contrast serves as a foothold in the whirlpool of feelings which immerses the audience in this wonderful performance.