Opera guides
La traviata: synopsis, roles, arias and diction notes
Verdi's La traviata in one page: librettist, premiere, Violetta and Alfredo, act-by-act synopsis, the famous arias with Italian first lines and diction notes.
Diction Desk editors · Checked 19 October 2026 against 5 sources
La traviata is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave, first performed on 6 March 1853 at La Fenice in Venice1. The leads are Violetta Valéry, a soprano, and Alfredo Germont, a tenor1. Its best-known numbers are the Brindisi and Violetta's Act 1 aria Sempre libera4,5.
- Composer
- Giuseppe Verdi1
- Librettist
- Francesco Maria Piave1
- Premiere
- 6 March 1853, La Fenice, Venice1
- Language
- Italian1
- Acts
- 31
- Based on
- La Dame aux camélias (1852), a play by Alexandre Dumas fils1
Contents
La traviata has become immensely popular and is among the most frequently performed of all operas1. It is often ranked highly on annual lists of most performed operas1. This page gives the facts you need before you open the score, one of many guides in the operas section.
At a glance
Giuseppe Verdi set an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave in three acts1. The libretto title page calls it a melodramma in three acts3. It was written in 1853 and premiered at La Fenice in Venice later that year5. The opera is based on La Dame aux camélias (1852), a play by Alexandre Dumas fils1. The place is Paris and its vicinity, and the time is the beginning of the 19th century1.
Verdi’s previous opera, Rigoletto, premiered in Venice in March 18511. Rigoletto has its own page: see the Rigoletto guide.
The opera was originally titled Violetta, after the main character1. The first performance was not a success, but La traviata is now one of Verdi’s best-known works5. The audience jeered at times during the premiere and directed some of their scorn at the casting of soprano Fanny Salvini-Donatelli in the lead role of Violetta1.
Who’s who
| Role | Voice type | Notes | Premiere singer |
|---|---|---|---|
| Violetta Valéry | Soprano | A courtesan; the lead1 | Fanny Salvini-Donatelli1 |
| Alfredo Germont | Tenor | A young bourgeois from a provincial family1 | Lodovico Graziani1 |
| Giorgio Germont | Baritone1 | Alfredo’s father; begs Violetta to end the relationship and sings Di Provenza il mar in Act 21,5,3 | Felice Varesi1 |
Act 1 asks for coloratura effects, but these coloratura effects are not required for the character after the first act1. In Act 3 Verdi sometimes breaks up her vocal line with rests, depicting her struggle to breathe4. Plan your breath and your phrasing around those rests, not through them.
Synopsis
Act 1
Violetta hosts a party at her house, and the act opens with the drinking song Libiamo ne’ lieti calici, a brindisi sung by Alfredo, Violetta and the chorus1. Opera North notes that the Brindisi could be roughly translated as “let’s get drunk”4. Alfredo Germont has been in love with her for over a year, since her illness began5. Violetta’s solo ends the act with Sempre libera (“Always free”)1. Just before it she thinks of Alfredo in Ah, forse è lui che l’anima3.
Act 2
Three months later, Alfredo and Violetta are living together in a peaceful country house outside Paris1. Giorgio Germont comes to Violetta and begs her to end their relationship5. His aria Di Provenza il mar, il suol chi dal cor ti cancellò? belongs to this act3.
Act 3
Alone in her room, Violetta sings Addio, del passato bei sogni ridenti1,3. When Alfredo returns, he suggests that they leave Paris, and they sing Parigi, o cara, noi lasceremo1. Violetta knows her death approaches and sings Gran Dio!…morir sì giovane1.
The famous arias
| Number | First line (Italian) | Role | Act |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brindisi | Libiamo ne’ lieti calici1 | Alfredo, Violetta and chorus1 | 1 |
| Sempre libera | Sempre libera degg’io3 | Violetta | 1 |
| Di Provenza il mar | Di Provenza il mar, il suol3 | Giorgio Germont | 2 |
| Duet | Parigi, o cara, noi lasceremo1 | Alfredo and Violetta | 3 |
| Addio, del passato | Addio, del passato bei sogni ridenti3 | Violetta | 3 |
English National Opera calls Sempre libera Violetta’s powerful Act I aria and one of the most famous pieces from the opera5. Opera North describes it as a showstopper full of vocal fireworks, mirroring her whirlwind of a life4. Opera North also calls the Brindisi one of opera’s most famous tunes, sung in Act I4.
Lines to study
Piave died in 1876, so his libretto is in the public domain2. These are short passages from the librettidopera.it text. The translations are our own and literal.
| Original | Our translation |
|---|---|
| Libiamo; amor fra i calici più caldi baci avrà.3 | Let us drink; love among the cups will have warmer kisses. |
| Sempre libera degg’io3 | I must always be free |
| Ah, forse è lui che l’anima3 | Ah, perhaps it is he whom the soul |
| Addio, del passato bei sogni ridenti3 | Farewell, beautiful smiling dreams of the past |
| Parigi, o cara noi lasceremo3 | Paris, my dear, we will leave |
Language and diction notes
The libretto is in Italian, so the rules in Italian diction for singers apply from the first bar. Read each line aloud as speech before you sing it. In Libiamo ne’ lieti calici and Libiamo; amor fra i calici, mark the stressed syllables and keep the doubled consonants of the Italian long. In Addio, del passato, keep the vowels pure on the long phrase endings, and let the vowels carry the line when your breath is short.
Study from a vocal score with the Italian text under the notes, and check your edition’s key and cuts with your coach before you start learning.
Background: the story and the censors
Verdi always looked for strong subjects featuring relatable, human characters, often breaking with convention4. A courtesan suffering from tuberculosis, a disease that was rampant at the time, is the perfect example4. In 1852, Verdi saw a play adaptation of Dumas fils’s scandalous 1848 novel The Lady of the Camellias4.
Violetta was inspired by Marie Duplessis, a Parisian courtesan who died of tuberculosis at 235. In one Opera North production, Violetta is modelled on two notable courtesans of the period, La Belle Otero and Liane de Pougy4.
Strict censorship in Venice threw a spanner in the works4. The censors insisted that the opera be set 100 years earlier, in case the immorality leapt into the auditorium4. Verdi’s wish that the opera be in contemporary dress was several steps too far4. The authorities at La Fenice insisted that it be set in the past1.
Piave and Verdi worked together on ten operas between 1844 and 18622. Piave (18 May 1810 to 5 March 1876) was an Italian opera librettist2.
Where to go next
Read the Italian text of La bohème, for another Italian opera, and read the Rigoletto guide for the opera Verdi wrote two years earlier1.
