La traviata by Verdi, Τετ 09 Ιουλ 2014, Aπό (2014/2014), Σκηνοθετημένο από Peter Konwitschny, αγωγός Sian Edwards, Theater an der Wien, Vienna, Austria

Never before the world premiere of La traviata in 1853 had such a topical, scandalous subject hit the opera stage: the courtesan Marie Duplessis had only died of consumption in Paris in 1847 - her lover Alexandre Dumas the Younger made her the heroine of his novel The Lady of the Camellia in 1848 , In 1852 he turned her fate into a drama. At the time, Giuseppe Verdi was looking for material for a new opera for the Teatro La Fenice in Venice. When he read The Lady of the Camellias in October 1852 , he rejected all previous plans: That was the story in which he was able to convey his ideas of human dignity and love in a moving way. The courtesan Violetta Valéry suffers from consumption. The Demimonde Society follows their waning. Then Alfredo, a young man from a good family, falls in love with her. He wants to save her and persuades her to turn away from her previous way of life. The two move to the country. Alfredo's bourgeois father disgusts his son's relationship with a “fallen woman”. In Alfredo's absence, he speaks to Violetta, referring to his daughter, who no one wants to marry if her brother lives with a courtesan. Does Violetta want to spoil the innocent young woman's life? Violetta leaves Alfredo and resumes her old job. Offended and jealous, he publicly humiliates Violetta. When Violetta is dying, Alfredo returns to her. In the meantime his father has confessed to him why Violetta left. But it's too late, Violetta dies in Alfredo's arms. Verdi originally wanted to name the opera Amore e morte (love and death) . From the beginning his music points to Violetta's death, Verdi gives this figure an almost mystical grandeur. However, the censors did not agree with a work that elevated a courtesan to a saint. The title had to be changed to La traviata (The Lost Way) and the action moved to the year 1700 in order to at least weaken the decoupling of the bourgeois double standard. That couldn't stop the success of Verdi's masterpiece: to this day, Verdi's La traviata continues to challenge new interpretations.