La Traviata

La Traviata is an opera in three acts by composer, Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901), and set to an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave.

The original text

Originally titled Violetta after the opera’s main character, La Traviata was based on Alexandre Dumas’s play, La Dame aux Camélias (1852), which he adapted from his own novel of the same name (1848).

La Traviata is a tragic tale about Parisian courtesan, Violetta, who attempts to leave the life she knows behind to try and finally find true love. When she meets romantic, Alfredo, the hypocrisy of upper-class society threatens their love – and someone must pay the ultimate price.

Translations and adaptations

Performance history in South Africa

1945: Presented by African Consolidated Theatres, conducted by William Pickerill.

1956: Presented by the EOAN Group at the Cape Town City Hall, conducted by Joseph Manca.

1958: Presented in English by the South African Opera Federation.

1960: Presented by the EOAN Group.

1961: Presented by the South African Opera Federation.

1966: Presented by the EOAN Group.

1968: Presented by PACT Opera.

1969: Presented by PACT Opera.

1971: Presented in English by PACT Opera, with Nellie du Toit as Violetta, produced by Neels Hansen, conducted by Franco Ferraris.

1975: Presented by the EOAN Group.

1985: Presented by CAPAB Opera (6 April – 1 May)

1989: Presented by CAPAB Opera (4–29 September)

1994: Presented by CAPAB Opera (19 May – 3 June)

1997: Presented by CAPAB Opera (16–27 August)

2000: Presented by Cape Town Opera (13–24 April)

2003: Presented by Cape Town Opera (19–28 February)

2004: Presented by Cape Town Opera (22–30 April, 11–18 September)

2011: Presented by Cape Town Opera (11–22 October)

2015: Presented by Cape Town Opera (30 April – 9 May)

Sources

'Discover: La traviata'. ENO. https://www.eno.org/operas/la-traviata/

Wayne Muller. 2018. A reception history of opera in Cape Town: Tracing the development of a distinctly South African operatic aesthetic (1985–2015). Unpublished PhD thesis.

Sjoerd Alkema. 2012. "Conductors of the Cape Town Municipal Orchestra, 1914-1965: a historical perspective". University of Cape Town. Unpublished PhD thesis.

Alexandra Xenia Sabina Mossolow. 2003. The career of South African soprano Nellie du Toit, born 1929. Unpublished Masters thesis. University of Stellenbosch.