La Traviata at Paris Palais Garnier

“Libiamo, libiamo ne’ lieti calci…” I’m sure you know this opera tune; it’s one of Giuseppe Verdi’s major works, La Traviata. A masterful work that Opéra Garnier offers to classic music enthusiasts including a new direction by Simon Stone, performed from September 12 to October 16, 2019.

An opera based on Alexandre Dumas fils “Camille” (aka “La Dame aux Camélias”) that is a piece inspired itself by Manon Lescaut by Abbé Prévost. And a story that quickly met success: beginning his opera with a prelude for strings of unprecedented economy of means, Giuseppe Verdi bets on defying conventions and norms. And it works! La Traviata “implacably strips bare the violence of a society that promotes worldly pleasures” leading to “sacrificing an innocent woman on the altar of bourgeois morality”.

A production by Simon Stone who aims at being more intimate, “grappling with major works of the repertoire”. And an opera revisited with some modernity, while remaining loyal to the original version. Note that the Opéra Bastille also provides in 2020, Manon by Jules Massenet directly based on Manon Lescaut and similar to the themes approached in La Traviata.
Let’s open up to opera, friends, shall we?