Alfredo notices Violetta at one of her lavish parties. They get to know each other when the hostess suddenly faints, fall in love and decide to start a new life together outside Paris. However, this rural idyll proves illusory. Alfredo’s father is determined that there will be no place for the former courtesan in his family and puts Violetta under such pressure that she eventually renounces Alfredo. Bewildered, he brings her back to her previous life – and is destroyed.
In 1853 Giuseppe Verdi created an Italian opera from a French bestseller about the Parisian demi-monde and in Violetta Valéry he created a new myth of womanhood: a soulful, fascinatingly sensual woman with a magical aura. read less