La traviata La traviata La traviata (, "The Fallen Woman") is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi set to an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave. It is based on "La Dame aux Camélias" (1852), a play adapted from the novel by Alexandre Dumas "fils". The opera was originally titled "Violetta", after the main character. It was first performed on 6 March 1853 at the La Fenice opera house in Venice. Piave and Verdi wanted to follow Dumas in giving the opera a contemporary setting, but the authorities at La Fenice insisted that it be set in the past, "c.
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