The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo Thomas-Alexandre Davy de la Pailleterie, was born in Jérémie, Saint-Domingue (Haiti) in 1762, the son of the Marquis and Marie-Cessette Dumas, his Haitian slave. In addition to being the father of French novelist Alexandre Dumas, he was the grandfather of playwright Alexandre Dumas, known for "La Dame aux Camélias", the source for Giuseppe Verdi's "La traviata". Dumas was born the son of a renegade French nobleman and his black slave in 1762 in the French sugar colony of Saint Domingue (the future Haiti); at the time of his birth, his father was living on the run from the royal authorities
Teatro Lirico Giuseppe Verdi to solve the problem, which was accomplished by incorporating elements of Milan's La Scala opera house. The "Nuovo" became a mixture of La Fenice on the inside and La Scala on the exterior. Several name changes have occurred during the theatre's lifetime, the first in 1821 when it became the "Teatro Grande" and it was under this name that the theatre was the site of two Verdi opera premieres: "Il corsaro" in 1848 (featuring the soprano Giuseppina Strepponi, who Verdi married in 1859, in the leading role) and "Stiffelio", a production which Verdi supervised - not without controversy - in