La Traviata 2014

Giuseppe Verdi

La traviata

The woman led astray
November 1, 2014

Libretto by Francesco Maria Piave
Opera in three acts based on La Dame aux Camélias by Alexander Dumas
Premiere 6th March 1853, Teatro La Fenice, Venice, Italy
Sung in Italian with English supertitles projected above the stage

Poster Design by Melanie Fabrizius
Graphic Designer Billings Gazette

Photos by Amanda Lackman

Dress Rehearsal Photos by Dennis Kern

Community comes together to produce classy 'La Traviata'

Violetta Valéry, La Traviata’s “fallen woman” may be the most heart-wrenching character in all of opera: a high-spirited but deceptively delicate woman who unexpectedly finds, and then selflessly gives up, the love of her brief life. Rousing, soaring, heartbreaking melodies so familiar you will need to restrain yourself from humming along. Sung in the original Italian.

Cast

Violetta: Lynell Kruckeberg

Alfredo: Christopher Bengochea

Annina: Carolyn Coefield

Giorgio Germont: Cory Neal Schantz

Flora Bervoix: Michelle Berger

Dottore Grenvil: William Mouat

Gastone: Jacob Scharbrough

Conductor: Barbara Day Turner

Stage Director: Matt Haney

Chorus Master: Janie Sutton

Orchestra Manager: Richele Sitton

Choreographer: Krista Marshall

Stage Manager: Dodie Rife

Costume Director: Loretta Wittmer

Quick Facts

The opera was first performed in Venice on March 6, 1853. The first audience laughed all the way through the last act. Verdi wrote "(it) was a fiasco; it is useless to ask why, it is a fiasco and that is that."

The first successful performance was a year later. Since then La Traviata has become one of the most performed and popular operas ever.

On May 25, 1858, three different opera companies performed it at the same time, in three different theaters in London--Her Majesty's, Covent Garden, and Drury Lane.

"La Traviata" means "the woman who has been led astray."

The opera is based on the play La Dame aux camelias (1852) by Alexander Dumas the younger, which he adapted from his autobiographical novel of the same name (1848).

The real-life original of Violetta Valery was Marie Duplessis, who died aged twenty-three. In Dumas's novel and play, she is called Marguerite Gautier.

Verdi wanted the opera in contemporary dress, but because this was considered too shocking it was originally set in the era of Louis XIV (1638-1715). The first 'modern' production (i.e. set in the 1850's) was not until 1906.

Verdi himself was not disturbed by sex outside marriage. He was with Guiseppina Strepponi for twelve years before he married her in 1859. She already had two children by another partner.

Tuberculosis (also called consumption) is still one of the world's most serious diseases even though an antibiotic (streptomycin) was developed in 1944. In England and Wales in 1988 there were 5164 cases, and 478 deaths.

Synopsis