La Traviata

Cuts are just part of Opera.

Of course, they are also part of La Traviata's historical ...

Italian soprano Fanny Salvini-Donatelli was the first Violetta, ...

As mentioned in a previous article, the first performance of La Traviata was a little 'fiasco'. However, ...

Violetta is one of the dream roles for a soprano.

Almost any major Opera star of the fach ...

Mercedes Capsir

She was the Violetta of the first La Traviata complete recording, ...

Magda Olivero

Olivero was preparing the role with Maestro Gerussi, when Maestro ...

Renata Tebaldi

Many people don't immediately associate Violetta with Tebaldi, ...

Everything we have been saying about Violetta's voice: that she needs a coloratura in ...

Joan Sutherland


Violetta was one the preferred roles for Joan Sutherland, ...

Beverly Sills

Sills was already singing Traviata touring America while still ...

Teresa Stratas


Violetta is a role that, like few others, requires ...

Cheryl Studer

During those years, opera CDs are gradually dying and giving ...

Inva Mula


She is a good Violetta, and very nice looking too. Better ...

5. Musical Analysis

La Traviata – Musical structure

With Rigoletto, Il Trovatore, and La Traviata, Verdi began to break the mold of formula and predictability by merging recitative, aria, and ensemble. He wanted clear dramatic continuity.
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Verdi intended La Traviata to be not only a musical entertainment, but a challenging work of theatre. Going against operatic tradition, he presented a modern-day drama of the Parisian demi-monde, featuring a courtesan who tries to embrace a more conventional life, is thwarted by social stigma, and succumbs to the ravages of tuberculosis.

Nevertheless, despite Verdi's scrupulous intentions, from its very premiere the work has been staged in other than the originally intended setting. Censors, afraid of the work's topicality, caused the first productions to be set in the safe distance of the early 1700s:
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This list of 253 recordings on audio and visual media goes up to 2009 and was generated by CLOR for THE COMPILER and can be found in the Operadis database:
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This article will be for reviews of La Traviata on CD by staff and members of Opera Lively. New reviews will be added as they are written. There is another one for DVDs and blu-rays.
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This article will be for reviews of La Traviata on DVD and blu-ray. Another one for CDs will be created. We'll publish the reviews here as they get written by our staff and members.

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This full review was written by Almaviva:

La Traviata, opera in three acts (1853), music by Giuseppe Verdi, libretto by Francesco Maria Piave
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[Note from the Editor - while this is not exactly discography, while we wait for more content under this section with reviews of CDs and DVDs/blu-rays of La Traviata, we'll have the following excellente contribution here, which will allow readers of this thread to listen to the complete opera in a public domain recording of a famous broadcast - thanks, itywltmt.]
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