La Traviata at Houston Grand Opera

Love, sacrifice and redemption: La Traviata’s dazzling heroine embodies all three in one of opera’s most beloved stories.

The story of Violetta Valéry—a Parisian courtesan who makes the fatal mistake of falling in love—has defined romantic tragedy since La dame aux Camélias, the Dumás novel that inspired Verdi, appeared in 1848.

Verdi’s opera paints a picture of a glittering Second Empire Paris, the serenity of Violetta’s country estate and the heroine’s fate on a cold, pre-Lenten morning.