Opera

La Traviata

0 upcoming performances in New York

Verdi’s *La Traviata* (1853) is a three-act opera, with a libretto by Francesco Maria Piave, adapted from Alexandre Dumas fils’s story of a Paris courtesan undone by love, illness, and social judgment. It follows Violetta Valéry as private feeling collides with public reputation, and the costs are counted in real time. In New York City, the work has long been a repertory anchor at the Metropolitan Opera, shaping local ideas of what “Italian opera” sounds like. Its most pointed insight is how politely society enforces cruelty.