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

1956: 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 Unpublished PhD thesis.