Template:POTD/2018-01-07
The cover of a c. 1855 vocal score for La traviata, an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi set to a libretto in Italian by Francesco Maria Piave. Based on La Dame aux Camélias (1852), a play adapted from the novel by Alexandre Dumas, fils, it follows the ill-fated romance of Violetta, a courtesan, and Alfredo, a young bourgeois man. It premiered in 1853 at La Fenice in Venice, and has become one of the world's most frequently performed operas.Illustration: Leopoldo Ratt; restoration: Adam Cuerden