Washington National Opera - La Traviata

Passion, Drama, Romance. La Traviata has it all.

The Washington National Opera inaugurates their 2018/19 season with the soul-stirring, well known arias and passionate tragedy of Verdi's most popular opera, La Traviata. First performed in Venice in 1853, the work initially failed to make the impact it now has, yet over time it has become one of the world's most performed operatic productions thanks to its memorable melodies, especially its heart-wrenching Brindisi or drinking song.

Despite its depictions of glitz, glamour and gaiety of the mid 1800s, La Traviata is a tragic love story between the courtesan Violetta and a young bourgeois romantic named Alfred. Once the life of every fashionable society party, Violetta's spark and colour starts to fade when her extravagant life catches up with her. When her low social status and their relationship threaten Alfred's family honour, Violetta retreats in an act of self-sacrifice that has dire consequences.