La Dame aux Camélias at Opéra national de Paris - Opéra Bastille

Franz Liszt confessed that he was unable to think of Marie Duplessis, the muse of Alexandre Dumas who inspired his Dame aux camélias, without shedding a tear. Giuseppe Verdi gave her the name of Violetta Valéry and made the Traviata—or fallen woman—one of the most touching and most modern heroines in the history of opera. Now, in turn, John Neumeier explores this urban legend and and is moved by so much love, despair and solitude. Rarely has a choreographer had a more human vision of his characters or strived for and found a truer expression of their emotions. Inspired by the music of Chopin, the ballet opens with the death of Marguerite Gautier and carries us back on the wings of time: to her encounter with Armand at the Théâtre des Variétés, where both are witnesses to the tragic fate of Manon Lescaut and yet both fail to heed fate’s inherent warning that heralds love, sacrifice, separation and ultimate decline.