Louis Langrée conductor
Natalie Dessay Violetta Valéry (6, 9, 12, 16, 20 and 24 July)
Irina Lungu Violetta Valéry (8, 14, 18 and 22 July)
Ludovic Tézier Giorgio Germont
Charles Castronovo Alfredo Germont (6, 9, 12, 14, 16, 20, 22 and 24 July)
Fabrizio Mercurio Alfredo Germont (8 and 18 July)
Adelina Scarabelli Annina
Silvia de La Muela Flora Bervoix
Manuel Nunez Camelino Gastone de Letorière
Kostas Smoriginas Barone Douphol
Andrea Mastroni Marchese d'Obigny
Maurizio Lo Piccolo Dottor Grenvil
Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir
London Symphony Orchestra

Jean-François Sivadier stage director
Alexandre de Dardel set design
Virginie Gervaise costumes
Philippe Berthomé lighting

Performance dates:
Wednesday 6 July 9.30pm
Friday 8 July 9.30pm
Saturday 9 July 9.30pm
Tuesday 12 July 9.30pm
Thursday 14 July 10pm
Saturday 16 July 9.30pm
Monday 18 July 9.30pm
Wednesday 20 July 9.30pm
Friday 22 July 2011 9.30pm
Sunday 24 July 2011 9.30pm

From Marie Duplessis to Marguerite Gautier and then Violetta Valéry lies the rift that separates the real life from the work of art, the news story from the myth. The rift originates with a pseudonym (Marie Duplessis was in fact named Alphonsine Pessis), grows with a nickname (the famous “Lady of the Camellias”) and produces a noun, a word as melodic as it is cutting: la Traviata. Literally “the fallen women”, the word denotes the woman who has left the path of social convention and bourgeois hypocrisy, the figure of the courtesan who incited both fear and desire in the Nineteenth Century. Using the word as the title for an opera based on the novel by Alexander Dumas fils, Verdi and his librettist Piave produced the quintessential melodrama, that of a courtesan who is the victim of true love. The courtesan’s tragic destiny is rendered through a score replete with irresistibly vacillating emotions, carefree toasts, heart-rending duos and lyrical elegies.

Tickets: 240, 190, 110, 55, 30 €
Youth tickets: 15 €

For more information and to buy tickets please visit the Aix-en-Provence Festival website