La traviata at Den Norske Opera & Ballett

Giuseppe Verdi's La traviata, about the free-spirited Violetta Valéry, is beloved of audiences worldwide. Our production of the world's most frequently performed opera is directed by Tatjana Gürbaca, fêted as Director of the Year in 2013 by Opernwelt (Opera World) magazine.

The story is based on Alexandre Dumas's novel and play, La Dame aux camélias, which in turn was based on a true story. In real life, Violetta was Marie Duplessis, a famous courtesan in Parisian society. The name of Alfredo Germont, her lover, masks Alexandre Dumas's own story. In summer 1845 he was living happily in the countryside outside Paris with the beautiful Marie, who was only 23 when she died of consumption. Their story has since been told time after time: in ballet form, and in films such as Pretty Woman (1990) and Moulin Rouge! (2001), as well as in countless productions of Verdi's opera.
Homage to freedom

La traviata put the diseases and problems of the 1850s centre-stage and dressed them up with music. Light strings, sounding almost as if they were the ones gasping for air, are set against the party music and Violetta's triumphant aria on freedom: "Sempre libera!" At the same time, we are uncertain how free she really is – a doubt echoing the question of how much autonomy we have over our own lives.

This question, still relevant today, is highlighted in Tatjana Gürbaca's production. Violetta is a public figure, a celebrity in a world that is all about money, competition and sensation. She depends on a voyeuristic society which is slowly suffocating her. She wants to create and define her own life – and death. Looked at in this way, Verdi's La traviata is an attack on hypocrisy. But it is also a life-affirming celebration of human dignity, compassion and creativity.