La traviata Felice Varesi and the tenor Lodovico Graziani. The next day, Verdi wrote to his friend Emanuele Muzio in what has now become perhaps his most famous letter: ""La traviata" last night a failure. Was the fault mine or the singers'? Time will tell." Coincidentally, as Philips-Matz points out, an Italian translation of the play "La Dame aux camélias" was being presented just a short distance from La Fenice. While there were demands for productions from impresarios in various Italian cities, Verdi was loath to allow them unless he could be sure of the strength of the singers, and in spite
Notre Dame (opera) Notre Dame (opera) Notre Dame is a romantic opera by Franz Schmidt, to a libretto by himself and Leopold Wilk (1876-1944), a professional chemist and amateur poet. It is based loosely on the novel "The Hunchback of Notre-Dame" by Victor Hugo. The opera was written between 1904 and 1906. Schmidt approached the opera by writing the orchestral parts of the score first, adding the vocal parts in later. He incorporated some material from an unfinished fantasia for piano and orchestra. "Notre Dame" was first performed in Vienna on 1 April 1914. The principal female role of Esmeralda was created by