Giuseppe Verdi's intimate drama "La Traviata" is a beloved mainstay of the repertory. It returns to the Met's season under Tony Award–winning director Michael Mayer. Saturday, we'll hear conductor Antonello Manacorda leading a cast that includes Lisette Oropesa (Violetta Valéry), Piotr Buszewski (Alfredo Germont), and Luca Salsi (Giorgio Germont).
Heard for the first time in Venice in 1853. "La Traviata" suffered a notoriously unsuccessful opening night. Following the larger-scale dramas of "Rigoletto" and "Il Trovatore," its intimate scope and subject matter inspired the composer to create some of his most profound and heartfelt music. The title role of the “fallen woman” has captured the imaginations of audiences and performers alike with its inexhaustible vocal and dramatic possibilities—and challenges. Violetta is considered a pinnacle of the soprano repertoire.
The opera comes from a play set in contemporary times—an exception in the composer’s long career. Dumas’s La Dame aux Camélias was a meditation on the author’s youthful affair with the celebrated prostitute Marie Duplessis, known as a sophisticated and well-read woman whose charms and tact far surpassed her station. The play is still staged today in its original form and exists in several film incarnations, most notably Greta Garbo’s Camille (1936).
Join us for "La Traviata" - Saturday at 1 p.m. here on Blue Lake Public Radio.
