Édouard Viénot L. D. R..." and "Portrait de Monsieur A. L..." (both at the Paris Salon 1870). Viénot also painted Marie Duplessis (reproduced in the Royal Opera's programme for Verdi's "La Traviata" at the Royal Albert Hall in May 1998). Marie Duplessis was the real-life actress and courtesane on whom Dumas modelled the heroine in "La Dame aux Camélias", on which "La Traviata" is based. Viénot's portrait of the Emperor Pedro II of Brazil is in the Imperial Museum in Brazil (housed in what was formerly his summer palace). Also in Brazil is his "Retrato de Menina" [a portrait of a young
Giuseppe Verdi and Strepponi left Paris in July 1849, the immediate cause being an outbreak of cholera, and Verdi went directly to Busseto to continue work on completing his latest opera, "Luisa Miller", for a production in Naples later in the year. Verdi was committed to the publisher Giovanni Ricordi for an opera—which became "Stiffelio"—for Trieste in the Spring of 1850; and, subsequently, following negotiations with La Fenice, developed a libretto with Piave and wrote the music for "Rigoletto" (based on Victor Hugo's "Le roi s'amuse") for Venice in March 1851. This was the first of a sequence of three operas (followed