Alphonsine Plessis was a poor girl from Normandy, from a background full of abuse, alcoholism, and sex trafficking. The myth of the consumptive courtesan who falls in love originated, as do many myths, with real life. Marie Duplessis, the original Violetta (Courtesy of Metropolitan Opera Archives) Camellias, Daisies, and Violets Alfredo comes to visit her in the hope of conjuring up one final illusion of their love, but he is too late. When Alfredo discovers that Violetta has abandoned him, he is devastated and seeks revenge. Violetta agrees to comply with Germont’s wishes and returns to the brutal society she left behind. Violetta’s new perspective is shattered when Giorgio Germont, Alfredo’s solid, middle-class father, confronts her. She tries to dismiss his ideas as naïve and impractical, but reassesses her life, renounces her lifestyle, and moves to the country with Alfredo. But he lectures the prostitute, telling her that she should lead a respectable life in which love reigns supreme. The crowd foists a new admirer on her: a young, socially awkward bookworm named Alfredo Germont.

Violetta is dying, and the cruel voyeurs are eager to witness Violetta’s demise.

At a society event, guests await the arrival of Violetta Valéry, the city’s most sophisticated high-society prostitute.

Verdi opera life and death