Trivia / La Traviata

• All-Star Cast: As Violetta, Alfredo, and Germont...
  • Audio Recordings:
    • 1935, conducted by Ettore Panizza (live from the Old Metropolitan Opera House, New York): Rosa Ponselle, Frederick Jagel, Lawrence Tibbett
    • 1949, conducted by Giuseppe Antonicelli (live from the Old Metropolitan Opera House, New York): Eleanor Steber, Giuseppe Di Stefano, Robert Merrill
    • 1955, conducted by Carlo Maria Giulini: Maria Callas, Giuseppe Di Stefano, Ettore Bastianini.
    • 1958, conducted by Franco Ghione: Maria Callas, Alfredo Kraus, Mario Sereni
    • 1960, conducted by Fernando Previtali: Anna Moffo, Richard Tucker, Robert Merrill
    • 1962, conducted by John Pritchard: Joan Sutherland, Carlo Bergonzi, Robert Merrill
    • 1967, conducted by Georges Prêtre: Montserrat Caballé, Carlo Bergonzi, Sherrill Milnes
    • 1971, conducted by Aldo Ceccato: Beverly Sills, Nicolai Gedda, Rolando Panerai
    • 1976, conducted by Carlos Kleiber: Ileana Cotrubas, Plácido Domingo, Sherrill Milnes
    • 1979, conducted by Richard Bonynge: Joan Sutherland, Luciano Pavarotti, Matteo Manuguerra
    • 1980, conducted by Riccardo Muti: Renata Scotto, Alfredo Kraus, Renato Bruson
    • 1992, conducted by Zubin Mehta: Kiri Te Kanawa, Alfredo Kraus, Dmitri Hvorostovsky
    • 1994, conducted by Georg Solti: Angela Gheorghiu, Frank Lopardo, Leo Nucci
    • 2004, conducted by Valery Gergiev: Renée Fleming, Ramón Vargas, Dmitri Hvorostovsky
    • 2019, conducted by Michael Balke: Marina Rebeka, Charles Castronovo, George Petean.
  • Productions/Films:
    • Franco Zeffirelli's 1983 film: Teresa Stratas, Plácido Domingo, Cornell MacNeil.
    • 2005, conducted by Carlo Rizzi at the Salzburg Festival: Anna Netrebko, Rolando Villazón, Thomas Hampson
    • 2009, conducted by Antonio Pappano at the Royal Opera House: Renée Fleming, Joseph Calleja, Thomas Hampson
    • 2011, conducted by Louis Langrée at the Aix-en-Provence Festival: Natalie Dessay, Charles Castronovo, Ludovic Tézier
    • 2018, conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin at the Met Opera: Diana Damrau, Juan Diego Flórez, Quinn Kelsey.
• Referenced by...:
  • Twilight Of A Womans Soul: Vera is seen around at the ending performing La Traviata at an opera.
  • Famously, this opera is referenced in Pretty Woman, when businessman Edward Lewis takes hooker Vivian Ward out on a date to the opera. This also doubles as Genius Bonus, when you take the similarities between the plot of La traviata and the plot of the film into account.
  • During the car chase in the James Bond film Spectre, the unlucky Italian driver who gets caught in the chase between Bond and Hinx was listening to the brindisi from La Traviata, performed by Joan Sutherland and Luciano Pavarotti.
  • Canadian figure skater Corey Circelli performed to La traviata for his short program during the 2018-2019 competitive season.
• Maria Callas◊, a Greek soprano whose beauty and dramatic sense were as legendary as her peculiar voice, used to give this a shock ending. At the very end, Violetta feels much better^note it's called spes phthisica, and thinks she's recovering, moments before her death. Callas would sing her last line "O gioi—" and not even finish it, just freeze in her chair (or standing), eyes open. It took the audience a minute to realize what they'd seen. Pure Nightmare Fuel. And people think opera is dull.

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