Alexandre Dumas fils Alexandre Dumas fils Alexandre Dumas (; 27 July 1824 – 27 November 1895) was a French author and playwright, best known for the romantic novel "La Dame aux Camélias" ("The Lady of the Camellias"), published in 1848, which was adapted into Giuseppe Verdi's opera "La traviata" ("The Fallen Woman"), as well as numerous stage and film productions, usually titled "Camille" in English-language versions. Dumas (French for 'son') was the son of Alexandre Dumas ('father'), also a well-known playwright and author of classic works such as "The Three Musketeers". Dumas was admitted to the (French Academy) in 1874 and awarded the
La descente d'Orphée aux enfers the myth of Orpheus as told by Ovid in Book 10 of the "Metamorphoses". It is debatable whether the opera as it survives in the manuscript is complete or not. The musicologist H. Wiley Hitchcock believes Charpentier may have planned (and composed) a third, concluding act. The opera is not to be confused with an earlier work by Charpentier, "Orphée descendant aux enfers", which is a cantata for three male voices. Orphée (Orpheus) is celebrating his marriage to Euridice (Eurydice) in a beautiful, pastoral landscape. Euridice and her nymph companions gather flowers, but Euridice steps on a snake, is stung