Violetta — La traviata

Violetta Valéry, Verdi's consumptive courtesan, became in Maria Callas's hands the very model of what opera could be when singing and acting are one.

She first sang the role in Florence in 1951 and carried it across Italy and the Americas. But it is the La Scala production of May 1955 that entered legend: staged by Luchino Visconti, conducted by Carlo Maria Giulini, it stripped the opera of its varnish and made Violetta's sacrifice unbearable to watch — a thin, luminous woman giving everything away, down to her voice. Singers and directors have measured themselves against that production ever since.

Callas sang her final Violettas in Dallas in 1958. Of no other role did she say so much in so few notes: the letter scene of the last act — "Addio, del passato" — remains among the most devastating things she left on record.

In the Foundation's collection

Photographs and documents of Callas's Traviatas — including the Visconti years at La Scala — are preserved in the Foundation's collection. Explore the collection · Licensing

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