“Poor Mariette Duplessis is dead... the first woman I ever loved, and now she's in goodness knows which cemetery, abandoned to the maggots of the sepulchre! It's as she said to me fifteen months ago: “I won’t live: I’m a strange girl and I won’t be able to keep living a life I don’t know how to lead and that I don’t know how to bear either. Take me, lead me wherever you want; I won’t bother you, I sleep all day. In the evening, you’ll let me go to the theatre and at night you’ll do with me as you wish!” I’ve never told you of the singular attachment I felt for that charming creature. And now she's dead... And I don’t know what strange old elegy echoes in my heart at her memory.” Thus spoke Franz Liszt of Marie d’Agoult, the unforgettable ghost of the woman who would become the Dame aux camélias.

Opera in three acts (1853) - Music by Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901)

Libretto by Francesco Maria Piave

Based on Alexandre Dumas fils's play "La Dame aux camélias"

Creation: March 6, 1853; La Fenice Theater, Venice

Conductor: Francesco Ivan Ciampa

Stage Director: Benoît Jacquot

Sets: Sylvain Chauvelot

Costumes: Christian Gasc

Lighting: André Diot

Choruses master: Alessandro Di Stefano

Featuring: Diana Damrau as Violetta Valéry, Anna Pennisi as Flora Bervoix, Cornela Oncioiu as Annina, Francesco Demuro as Alfredo Germont, Ludovic Tézier as Giorgio Germont, Kevin Amiel as Gastone, Fabio Previati as Il Barone Douphol, Igor Gnidii as Il Marchese d’Obigny, and Nicolas Testé as Dottore Grenvil. Presented by Alain Duault Production by Louise Narboni and Benoît Jacquot

Running time: 2H47 with two 20min intervals

Entrance : Normal Admission : $25 | AFT Members : $20 | AFT Members -25 / Seniors : $20