La traviata

Story of the noble courtesan trying a new life with beloved. Novel La Dame aux camelia was published in Paris in 1848 to become a society sensation. Being aware of the atmosphere of scandal accompaning the transformation of the story of the noble courtesan, Verdi did not hesitate to select the libretto theme. And he was right. Even Aleksandre Dumas allegedly said: Nobody would remember my La Dame aux camelia in half a century. Verdi made it immortal.

La traviata is a story of a fallen woman, a high-class Parisian courtesan and her salvation through a sacrificial offering of love and death. Krzysztof Nazar dispenses with the historical costume and the social context of the plot, focusing instead on the characters’ psychology, emotions and motivations. In his interpretation, Violetta Valéry faces the fact of terminal illness and the inevitability of the end of life. Disillusioned, she decides to enjoy the remaining time to the maximum. But that is exactly when she encounters true love, and with it values that change her vision of the world and people. The production of the Kraków Opera addresses the theme of love tinged with a sense of passing away, it shows the human strength of character and struggle against the fear of death, it tells a tale of sacrifice and loneliness, of the attitudes and choices we face regardless of times or place.

Composer: Giuseppe Verdi
Director: Krzysztof Nazar
Musical direction: Tomasz Tokarczyk