La traviata

Violetta Valéry sells her time and body to clients both near and far. Her life as a Parisian courtesan provides her with every luxury. But when she is diagnosed with a terminal illness, her world is shattered in an instant… With La Traviata, or ‘the one who’s gone astray’, Nicola Raab reimagines Giuseppe Verdi’s classic about love and suffering as the escape of a modern woman who loses herself in dreamscapes and phantasms—until she is forced to confront the inevitable. In a complex layering of associations and motifs, the lonely protagonist drifts between reality and escapist fantasy, between love and despair. ‘A deeply moving Traviata.’ [MÄRKISCHE ODERZEITUNG]Act 2 Violetta and Alfredo lead a happy and secluded life in their own world. Violetta loses herself in dreams. Then suddenly a man appears who introduces himself as Giorgio Germont, Alfredo’s father. He disapproves of his son’s association with Violetta and demands that she leave him for good. Violetta is scared of losing control over her own life and even contemplates suicide as a way out. She is in conflict with herself, with her love, her fantasies and her fear. She banishes Alfredo’s father from her mind – but to no avail. Finally she collapses under the strain of being humiliated and spurned by that society of phantoms. Act 3 Violetta is alone. Only her confidante Annina has remained at her side. Violetta knows she is going to die and decides to end her life by her own hand … Suddenly there he is again, the man of her dreams: Alfredo! Followed by his father Germont. Alfredo wants Violetta back and begins to rhapsodize about their future together. But reality bursts in upon Violetta’s fantasies – and she dies. Read more Show less