STORIES OF THE OPERAS TRAVIATA, LA

(The Lost One) Composer: GIUSEPPE VERDI Book by Francesco Maria PiaveE, from Alexandre Dumas’ La Dame aux Camélias First performance: Teatro la Fenice, Venice, March 6, 1853 3 acts. ALFREDO GERMONT has fallen in love with Violetta Valéry (Camille),.a beautiful courtesan who has only a short time to live and wishes to make the most of it. She refuses Alfredo’s offer of marriage because she wants to spend the short months remaining to her in gaiety. Finally she goes to live with Alfredo but his father pleads with her to give him up since their liaison is creating a scandal that makes it hard for Alfredo’s sister to marry. Violetta agrees. In a gambling house Alfredo sees her, and suspects in his unhappine that she has left him for an old lover, Baron Douphol. Seizing this as the easiest way out, Violetta lies in admitting it. Alfredo wins at the tables and throws his winnings at her in disgust. His father pleads with him not to behave thus with any woman. In the end as Violetta dies the father has become reconciled, and Alfredo knows that Violetta loved him. III. Synopses of Operas (Stories of the Operas) — T t