La Traviata, Verdi

La Traviata, Verdi - Week 2

Welcome to Opera-Online!

Welcome students and teachers to Opera Online. This week we will continue to look at theOpera Company of Philadelphia’s production of Giuseppe Verdi’s La traviata.

YouTube Clip of the Week

La Traviata was made into a movie in 1983, directed by Franco Zeffirelli, starring Canadian soprano Teresa Stratas as Violetta Valery and Spanish tenor Placido Domingo as Alfredo. Stratas was famous for her intense acting and moving singing. Here is a clip from the film of Stratas singing Violetta's poignant and sad Act III aria "Addio, del passato."

Addio, del passato

Web Site of the Week

La traviata is based on the book by Alexander Dumas, fils called La Dame aux Camelias (The Lady of the Camellias) which in turn was based on a French courtesan, Rose Alphonsine Plessis. She later changed her name to Marie Duplessis. Dumas had a passionate affair with Marie but because of her lavish lifestyle (she demanded dinner, theater and a bouquet of camellias every day) his patience and pocketbook grew thin and they eventually separated.

Read La Dame aux Camilias, by Alexandre Dumas, fils. Alexandre Dumas father was a very famous writer himself. Do an internet search for Alexandre Dumas père and you may be surprised that you know a few of the novels written by him.

Are you confused by the words père and fils? Père is French for father and fils is French for son. Thus father and son had the same name. You'll see them listed as Alexandre Dumas père and Alexandre Dumas, fils. You may see these two writers listed with these identifiers if you search for them online.

Opera on the Air

On Saturday, April 3rd at 1pm WRTI Radio will broadcast the Metropolitan Opera’s production of Giuseppe Verdi's Aida conducted by Marco Armiliato.The cast includes Hui He as Aida,Dolora Zajick as Amneris, Salvatore Licitra as Radamès, Carlo Guelfi as Amonasro, Carlo Colombara as Ramfis and Stefan Kocán as The King.

Don't forget to invite your friends to sign up to receive these alerts by emailing their name, school, and age to us at outreach@operaphila.org.

Until next week…

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