La Traviata at Theater an der Wien

Never before the world premiere of La traviata 1853 had been a scandal-prone, so current fabric on the Opera stage: until 1847 the courtesan of Marie Duplessis in Paris had died of tuberculosis.
her lover Alexandre Dumas the younger made them already in 1848 to the heroine of his novel the Lady of the Camellias, 1852 he worked to their fate even in a drama. Giuseppe Verdi was to this
Time looking for a fabric 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 could represent his ideas on human dignity and love moving.

The courtesan Violetta Valéry suffers from tuberculosis. The Demimonde society pursues its malaise. Da Alfredo, a young man from a good home, it fell. He wants to save them and persuaded them to turn away from their previous way of life. The two move to the country. The ratio of his son with a "fallen" is contrary to the bourgeois father of Alfredo. He speaks in Alfredo's absence with Violetta,
refers to his daughter, who marry none when her brother with a courtesan living together. Want to spoil Violetta of the innocent young woman her life? Violetta leaves Alfredo and resume their old activity. Offended and jealous he publicly humiliates Violetta. Violetta is dying, as Alfredo returns to her. His father has now granted him why Violetta is gone. But it is to
late, Violetta dies in Alfredo's arms.

Originally wanted to Verdi Opera amore e morte (love and death) call. His music indicate from the outset Violettas death, Verdi almost mystical size gives this figure. However, the censorship was
with a work that elevates a courtesan to the Saints, did not agree at all. The title had to be in La traviata (the by the way lost) changed and the plot moved in the year 1700, to achieve at least a certain weakening of the Decouvrierung of the middle-class hypocrisy. It could not stop the success of Verdi's masterpiece: today Verdi's La traviata again challenges to new interpretations.