Hutton Honors College

HHC Evening at the Opera: Verdi's La Traviata
Featuring a Pre-performance Talk by World-renowned Soprano
Carol Vaness

Saturday, Oct. 4, 2008 * 6:30 p.m. Pre-performance Talk * 8 p.m. Performance
Musical Arts Center, 101 N. Jordan Ave. * SIGN-UP REQUIRED * Balcony Tickets: $10

Join the HHC for one of the most popular operas of all time, Verdi's La Traviata (1853), and a pre-performance conversation with world-renowned soprano Carol Vaness!

The HHC evening at the opera will begin with the special opportunity to meet and talk with Carol Vaness, a performer who lives up to the meaning of "diva": glamorous, divine. A professor of voice at IU, Vaness has sung at many of the major opera houses of the world, including the Metropolitan Opera, the Paris Opera, Teatro alla Scalla, the Royal Opera House, the Chicago Lyric Opera, and the New York City Opera. She is particularly famous for her interpretations of Mozart's heroines.

Giuseppe Verdi wrote of his La Traviata's debut: "Last night, fiasco. Is it my fault or the fault of the singers?" Even that first performance won rave reviews, despite Verdi's own view of it; and time has shown La Traviata to be a masterpiece and audience favorite, even being incorporated into the 1990 film Pretty Woman. Based upon Alexandre Dumas's novel La Dame aux Camélias (1848)—which, in turn, was based upon Dumas's own romantic history—La Traviata tells the story of Parisian courtesan Violetta, who discovers unexpected love with her bourgeois admirer Alfredo; yet life conspires to overturn their happiness as personal sacrifice, misunderstandings, and illness make their demands on the couple. We don't want to give too much away, so to find out what happens to Violetta and Alfredo, you'll have to come along! This is the quintessential Romantic opera, with "passionate melodies and glittering coloratura fireworks," so whether you're a seasoned opera buff or someone new to the opera scene, this production, presented in the original Italian with English supertitles, should prove an enjoyable time for all.

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