0:00:07 > 0:00:10Violetta Valery is a heroine like no other.
0:00:10 > 0:00:12When she made her debut,
0:00:12 > 0:00:16a dangerous female blazed into life on the operatic stage.
0:00:16 > 0:00:20A courtesan, a fallen woman, La Traviata.
0:00:20 > 0:00:22# Oh Dio
0:00:22 > 0:00:23# Oh Dio
0:00:23 > 0:00:30# Oh... #
0:00:35 > 0:00:38Today La Traviata is the most performed
0:00:38 > 0:00:42and arguably best-loved opera in the world.
0:00:42 > 0:00:45But it was a very different story following its London
0:00:45 > 0:00:47premiere in 1856.
0:00:49 > 0:00:53Presenting a fallen woman as a tragic heroine caused a very
0:00:53 > 0:00:55British scandal.
0:00:55 > 0:00:59SHE SINGS
0:00:59 > 0:01:05"An exhibition of harlotry - upon the public stage!"
0:01:05 > 0:01:10"This demoniacal stimulus to jaded sensibilities."
0:01:10 > 0:01:13"It is the poetry of the brothel."
0:01:15 > 0:01:18The story of this unconventional heroine will take us
0:01:18 > 0:01:21from the glitter of the Parisienne demimonde,
0:01:21 > 0:01:25where courtesans reigned as queens of debauchery.
0:01:25 > 0:01:27That is one hell of a bed.
0:01:28 > 0:01:32To the modern Babylon of Victorian London, where respectable
0:01:32 > 0:01:35and disreputable jostled in the teeming streets.
0:01:37 > 0:01:42Here is our poor fallen woman, fallen so very low.
0:01:44 > 0:01:47It will take us from a composer struggling to reinvent
0:01:47 > 0:01:49opera for the modern day.
0:01:49 > 0:01:53Verdi said he wanted poetry but with big balls.
0:01:54 > 0:01:58To the canny calculations of a London impresario who courted
0:01:58 > 0:02:01scandal, hoping to make a killing.
0:02:01 > 0:02:05But would the British public pay good money to see a prostitute die
0:02:05 > 0:02:07onstage?
0:02:12 > 0:02:15Violetta's London debut was seismic.
0:02:17 > 0:02:21The gilded walls of the Opera House were shaken by the sordid
0:02:21 > 0:02:25realities of bourgeois society and modern love.
0:02:26 > 0:02:30It was a night of high drama and high emotions, applause
0:02:30 > 0:02:34and abuse, success and scandal.
0:02:34 > 0:02:38And it produced one of those revelatory moments when life
0:02:38 > 0:02:40and art collide.
0:02:40 > 0:02:43A night at the opera that no-one would ever forget.
0:02:47 > 0:02:51SHE SINGS
0:02:56 > 0:02:59APPLAUSE
0:03:19 > 0:03:22The London to which Violetta came was a society without
0:03:22 > 0:03:23safety nets.
0:03:23 > 0:03:28If you fell there was little to break your fall except cold
0:03:28 > 0:03:34hard flagstones and the rank waters of the river.
0:03:34 > 0:03:36It was the engine of the most economically advanced
0:03:36 > 0:03:40country on the planet, but it was being built over a chasm
0:03:40 > 0:03:43separating rich and poor, damned and saved.
0:03:46 > 0:03:50Though she sprang from the most hidebound of places,
0:03:50 > 0:03:52the Opera House, Violetta was a radical
0:03:52 > 0:03:57and when she made her debut here in the spring of 1856,
0:03:57 > 0:04:00she dragged malignant hypocrisy into the limelight.
0:04:07 > 0:04:10But she was heard first, not in London,
0:04:10 > 0:04:14but in another city hundreds of miles and a world away.
0:04:16 > 0:04:17We're off to the opera.
0:04:17 > 0:04:20A performance of La Traviata, of course,
0:04:20 > 0:04:24but this one is being given at La Felice in Venice.
0:04:24 > 0:04:27The theatre where the opera received is very first
0:04:27 > 0:04:31performance in the spring of 1853.
0:04:33 > 0:04:36So, La Felice.
0:04:38 > 0:04:42- It's unbelievably, exquisitely pretty, isn't it?- It is.
0:04:42 > 0:04:45The glowing pinkness of it all,
0:04:45 > 0:04:48it's sort of opera as imagined by Barbara Cartland, isn't it?
0:04:48 > 0:04:50- It's so lovely. - TOM LAUGHS
0:04:53 > 0:04:58Tom, I know the music, but I have never ever seen La Traviata.
0:04:58 > 0:05:01What's it going to tell me that's new about love?
0:05:01 > 0:05:04Really, it's summed up by the title Verdi first
0:05:04 > 0:05:08thought of for La Traviata, which was Love And Death.
0:05:08 > 0:05:10That's what the piece has at its absolute core.
0:05:10 > 0:05:13Through a very intimate story that's told through three characters,
0:05:13 > 0:05:17Violetta, the courtesan, Alfredo, her young lover,
0:05:17 > 0:05:19and his father, Germont.
0:05:21 > 0:05:25Alfredo believes in the power of love to transform the world
0:05:25 > 0:05:29and fatefully, when he falls in love with a young courtesan,
0:05:29 > 0:05:31he persuades her to believe it too.
0:05:34 > 0:05:38She is Violetta Valery, La Traviata, a fallen woman.
0:05:38 > 0:05:42She has never known what true love is.
0:05:42 > 0:05:47Her motto is live for the moment, "sempre libera" - always free.
0:05:49 > 0:05:52Enter Alfredo's father - Giorgio Germont,
0:05:52 > 0:05:57determined to put an end to this foolish infatuation.
0:05:57 > 0:05:59The battle lines between love
0:05:59 > 0:06:01and conventional morality are starkly drawn.
0:06:05 > 0:06:08But it's also a battle between love and death.
0:06:08 > 0:06:11Because Violetta knows from the start of this opera she's
0:06:11 > 0:06:12dying of consumption.
0:06:12 > 0:06:15She's got a brief amount of time to try and find this other kind of
0:06:15 > 0:06:18connection with a human being, which she's never had.
0:06:18 > 0:06:20Have you brought me a hankie?
0:06:20 > 0:06:23I have, but it won't be enough because if this piece does not rend
0:06:23 > 0:06:26your heart in twain, then nothing will.
0:06:35 > 0:06:38APPLAUSE
0:06:46 > 0:06:49ORCHESTRA PLAYS OVERTURE
0:06:49 > 0:06:53Seeing La Traviata for first time was a revelation.
0:06:53 > 0:06:57I anticipated tragic love, camellias and crinolines,
0:06:57 > 0:07:01but its frankness about the trade of the courtesan and its forensic
0:07:01 > 0:07:04examination of the female predicament
0:07:04 > 0:07:05came as a stunning surprise.
0:07:08 > 0:07:10The power of this ground-breaking opera
0:07:10 > 0:07:13draws its strength from the lives of real people.
0:07:13 > 0:07:17To find out about them, Amanda and I went our separate ways,
0:07:17 > 0:07:21the plan to rendezvous back in London for that scandalous first night.
0:07:21 > 0:07:25APPLAUSE CONTINUES
0:07:27 > 0:07:30MUSIC: The Drinking Song from La Traviata
0:07:32 > 0:07:36Every pearl has a small piece of grit as its seed.
0:07:36 > 0:07:40For La Traviata the grit was supplied by the short life
0:07:40 > 0:07:44and tragic death of Rose Alphonsine Plessis.
0:07:44 > 0:07:48Her childhood in Normandy was abysmal, deserted by her mother,
0:07:48 > 0:07:53raped by her own father and then pimped out by him to an old roue.
0:07:53 > 0:07:59In 1838, aged 15, she was sent to Paris to fend for herself.
0:07:59 > 0:08:02And yet within a few years, this abused, abandoned child had
0:08:02 > 0:08:07reinvented herself as Marie Duplessis, La Dame Aux Camelias.
0:08:07 > 0:08:12A dazzling star of the Parisienne demimonde, a courtesan who traded
0:08:12 > 0:08:17her pale body for independence, possessions and status.
0:08:20 > 0:08:24This charming watercolour purports
0:08:24 > 0:08:29to be of the courtesan Marie Duplessis at the theatre.
0:08:29 > 0:08:32She's got a lovely oval face,
0:08:32 > 0:08:35and big, doe-like brown eyes,
0:08:35 > 0:08:40and marked black eyebrows, and her hair is parted very demurely,
0:08:40 > 0:08:45quite unlike the two fashionable ladies above her who have
0:08:45 > 0:08:50elaborate ringlets and ribbons of the period.
0:08:50 > 0:08:53If she's selling her wares, then I think the niche she's
0:08:53 > 0:08:58going for is that of the innocent country maid.
0:08:59 > 0:09:07So, it is a very knowing portrait of a woman's allure...
0:09:07 > 0:09:08and market value.
0:09:12 > 0:09:17Courtesans were dubbed the "lionesses of the demimonde".
0:09:17 > 0:09:19Supported by rich and powerful clients,
0:09:19 > 0:09:23in a manner to which they very soon became accustomed.
0:09:23 > 0:09:27They lived in palaces, literally bathed in champagne and when it
0:09:27 > 0:09:31came to the sleeping arrangements, well, just see for yourself...
0:09:34 > 0:09:37That is one hell of a bed.
0:09:39 > 0:09:44This spectacular sage green number belonged to a courtesan,
0:09:44 > 0:09:49who styled herself "Voltesse" - meaning Her Majesty.
0:09:49 > 0:09:54She's even had a V embroidered on her pillow cases
0:09:54 > 0:09:58and she proudly bequeathed it to the nation.
0:09:58 > 0:10:01MUSIC: La Marseillaise
0:10:06 > 0:10:09The other thing that's interesting about these beds is,
0:10:09 > 0:10:15often in prostitutes' apartments, it's not where they did the deed.
0:10:15 > 0:10:20The bed was for show to make a statement about their status
0:10:20 > 0:10:22and what a classy piece she might be.
0:10:22 > 0:10:27They often got down to business on a couch.
0:10:29 > 0:10:31And business it was.
0:10:31 > 0:10:36Though their male clientele connected them to good society,
0:10:36 > 0:10:39courtesans remained in the half shadow between the salon
0:10:39 > 0:10:43and the street, and just like the saddest streetwalker,
0:10:43 > 0:10:49Marie Duplessis and her fellow lionesses had to put out to get on.
0:10:50 > 0:10:54The raw commerce of it all is brought home by the fact that
0:10:54 > 0:10:59seven members of the Paris Jockey Club combined in a syndicate
0:10:59 > 0:11:03so they could all afford part shares in her body.
0:11:03 > 0:11:05To mark the occasion,
0:11:05 > 0:11:09they even bought her a dressing table with seven drawers in it,
0:11:09 > 0:11:13presumably so that each of them could keep their shaving tackle
0:11:13 > 0:11:16and a spare shirt on site.
0:11:16 > 0:11:19The man drawer marked their territory
0:11:19 > 0:11:22and symbolised their possession.
0:11:25 > 0:11:30And so the courtesan found her niche in Parisian society, admired,
0:11:30 > 0:11:32desired, owned.
0:11:34 > 0:11:38Sometimes a customer might even fall in love with her,
0:11:38 > 0:11:42but as Violetta explains to Alfredo in Act One,
0:11:42 > 0:11:47love is the one luxury the courtesan cannot afford.
0:11:47 > 0:11:50THEY SING IN ITALIAN
0:14:38 > 0:14:41To undercover Violetta's musical roots,
0:14:41 > 0:14:44I've come to the hamlet of Roncole, just outside Busseto,
0:14:44 > 0:14:50a small town in northern Italy where Giuseppe Verdi was born in 1813.
0:14:52 > 0:14:55The offspring of innkeepers and farmers, Verdi's first
0:14:55 > 0:14:59exposure to music would have been in the local parish churches.
0:14:59 > 0:15:02By the age of eight, he was playing the organ himself
0:15:02 > 0:15:08and before long Busseto realised it had a musical prodigy on its hands.
0:15:08 > 0:15:15That was a big deal because everybody in Busseto was and is music mad.
0:15:15 > 0:15:18MUSIC: The Drinking Song from La Traviata
0:15:37 > 0:15:39There was a local amateur orchestra in Busseto,
0:15:39 > 0:15:42many of whose members were freethinkers.
0:15:42 > 0:15:47For them, the young and brilliant Giuseppe Verdi became a symbol
0:15:47 > 0:15:48and a cause.
0:15:48 > 0:15:50They stepped in financially to save him
0:15:50 > 0:15:53from the clutches of the priests and also steered him
0:15:53 > 0:15:57away from sacred music and towards secular music.
0:15:57 > 0:16:01Secular music in Italy in the 19th century meant one
0:16:01 > 0:16:04thing above all others, Opera!
0:16:09 > 0:16:13Aged 18, Giuseppe Verdi came to Milan hoping to win
0:16:13 > 0:16:17a place at the prestigious Conservatorio di Musica,
0:16:17 > 0:16:21but they turned him down because his piano playing was not up to it.
0:16:23 > 0:16:26The Conservatorio today bears his name.
0:16:26 > 0:16:30But this initial failure is a reminder that success and
0:16:30 > 0:16:34failure were by no means a foregone conclusions for Verdi.
0:16:34 > 0:16:37To establish himself in the cut-throat world of Italian
0:16:37 > 0:16:42opera took armour-plated ambition and nerves of steel.
0:16:43 > 0:16:46Nabucco was Verdi's breakthrough opera.
0:16:46 > 0:16:49Nabucco marked the start of what Verdi would call
0:16:49 > 0:16:53his galley slave years, when he was really churning operas out.
0:16:53 > 0:16:58Between 1842 and 1849 he wrote 12 new operas.
0:16:58 > 0:17:00You're never bored in an early Verdi opera,
0:17:00 > 0:17:03the music is always pushing forward relentlessly.
0:17:03 > 0:17:07The way the scene changes are done and is more like the jump cuts of
0:17:07 > 0:17:10cinema than the conventions of early 19th-century opera.
0:17:10 > 0:17:12Verdi put all this distillation
0:17:12 > 0:17:15and compression better than anybody else.
0:17:15 > 0:17:22He said he wanted "poesia coi testicoli grossi, grossi, grossi" -
0:17:22 > 0:17:26poetry with big, big, big balls.
0:17:32 > 0:17:37The soprano who took the lead role in Nabucco was Giuseppina Strepponi,
0:17:37 > 0:17:42a star of La Scala, a primadonna with an international reputation.
0:17:42 > 0:17:47If Marie Duplessis the grit that produced La Traviata's pearl,
0:17:47 > 0:17:50Strepponi is the ghost that haunts its score.
0:17:54 > 0:17:58Verdi and Strepponi first met in Milan.
0:17:58 > 0:18:01At that time, Verdi was struggling to come to terms
0:18:01 > 0:18:05with the tragic loss of his young wife Margherita and their two
0:18:05 > 0:18:11young children, all dead from disease within the space of just a few years.
0:18:13 > 0:18:16Giuseppina Strepponi helped him through this dark period, first
0:18:16 > 0:18:21by falling in love with the work and then by falling in love with a man.
0:18:24 > 0:18:27Success on the operatic stage had given Strepponi financial
0:18:27 > 0:18:30independence that was rare for a woman in those days.
0:18:30 > 0:18:34But as Verdi biographer Susan Rutherford explains success
0:18:34 > 0:18:37brought with it heavy responsibilities.
0:18:37 > 0:18:44She's the person who's keeping her mother and her siblings...
0:18:45 > 0:18:47..in food.
0:18:47 > 0:18:51She's supporting the whole family.
0:18:51 > 0:18:55So the only way to earn enough money, because singers often
0:18:55 > 0:18:57had quite short careers,
0:18:57 > 0:19:01was to do quite crazy work schedule.
0:19:01 > 0:19:08So you sang much, much more in that period than modern singers do.
0:19:08 > 0:19:10And much earlier as well,
0:19:10 > 0:19:13she'd have been younger taking on roles that now people say,
0:19:13 > 0:19:15"You mustn't do that because it will ruin your voice."
0:19:15 > 0:19:18So she was effectually throwing everything she could,
0:19:18 > 0:19:21- wringing all she could out of her instrument...- Yes. Exactly.
0:19:21 > 0:19:23..in order to support her family and
0:19:23 > 0:19:25- be the person she needed to be in public.- Exactly.
0:19:25 > 0:19:30Whatever her public persona, her private life was a mess.
0:19:30 > 0:19:34With three, possibly four illegitimate children
0:19:34 > 0:19:35from various lovers.
0:19:36 > 0:19:39If not fallen, Giuseppina was certainly falling,
0:19:39 > 0:19:42when Verdi came into her life.
0:19:42 > 0:19:46But he stayed loyal to her despite the vindictive whispers of local
0:19:46 > 0:19:50gossips and cold shouldering in his hometown of Busseto.
0:19:52 > 0:19:56She describes him in letters in the early 1850s.
0:19:57 > 0:19:59She calls him her redeemer.
0:19:59 > 0:20:02She obviously feels that
0:20:02 > 0:20:06their relationship has given her a life that, perhaps,
0:20:06 > 0:20:08would have been very difficult
0:20:08 > 0:20:12without Verdi taking that chance on the relationship.
0:22:51 > 0:22:54Marie Duplessis' reign as queen of the demimonde
0:22:54 > 0:22:57was as fleeting as spring blossom.
0:22:57 > 0:22:59In February 1847,
0:22:59 > 0:23:02less than nine years after her arrival in Paris,
0:23:02 > 0:23:06she was dead from consumption, tuberculosis,
0:23:06 > 0:23:08aged 23.
0:23:08 > 0:23:11She was buried here in the cemetery of Montmartre.
0:23:16 > 0:23:20And this is where the story of Marie Duplessis might have ended,
0:23:20 > 0:23:24if it wasn't for a man who would also eventually find his way
0:23:24 > 0:23:27into Montmartre's cemetery.
0:23:27 > 0:23:31This is the tomb of author Alexander Dumas Junior.
0:23:32 > 0:23:35Within 18 months of Marie's death,
0:23:35 > 0:23:38he published a frank and thinly fictionalised account
0:23:38 > 0:23:41of a brief liaison he had with her.
0:23:41 > 0:23:45La Dame Aux Camelias was a publishing sensation,
0:23:45 > 0:23:49which Dumas quickly adapted into a scandalous, seductive melodrama.
0:23:51 > 0:23:55Two Italian tourists in Paris at the time were especially moved.
0:23:57 > 0:24:00Giuseppe Verdi and Guiseppina Strepponi.
0:24:01 > 0:24:06Within days of the premiere, Verdi sent off for a copy of the novel
0:24:06 > 0:24:09and began work on a new opera, La Traviata.
0:24:14 > 0:24:18When Verdi took on the life of Marie Duplessis,
0:24:18 > 0:24:21he knew he was flying in the face of social convention
0:24:21 > 0:24:23and operatic convention.
0:24:27 > 0:24:30While his exact contemporary Richard Wagner
0:24:30 > 0:24:33recruited gods and heroes to reinvent the opera,
0:24:33 > 0:24:37Verdi sought out antiheroes and outcasts,
0:24:37 > 0:24:39characters whose psychological reality
0:24:39 > 0:24:41would give him what he wanted -
0:24:41 > 0:24:43poetry with balls.
0:24:47 > 0:24:51In Rigoletto, the leading role had been written for a hunchback jester.
0:24:51 > 0:24:54But now Verdi would go further,
0:24:54 > 0:24:56putting the ultimate outsider -
0:24:56 > 0:24:59the fallen woman - centre stage,
0:24:59 > 0:25:01from where she could reflect back on the audience
0:25:01 > 0:25:03some uncomfortable home truths.
0:25:05 > 0:25:09Verdi was particularly irritated by hypocrisy.
0:25:11 > 0:25:15And the 19th century was, if nothing else,
0:25:15 > 0:25:18the age of hypocrisy.
0:25:18 > 0:25:20And sometimes, I think,
0:25:20 > 0:25:23we get a little caught up in this particular narrative
0:25:23 > 0:25:26as if Traviata is all about sex,
0:25:26 > 0:25:29as if it is about the role of a courtesan.
0:25:29 > 0:25:32In many respects, it is about love...
0:25:33 > 0:25:39..which was at least as contentious an idea
0:25:39 > 0:25:41in the 19th-century,
0:25:41 > 0:25:45because it is about the right for women and men
0:25:45 > 0:25:48to choose their own partners.
0:25:48 > 0:25:53So it is a profoundly important topic at the time.
0:26:01 > 0:26:04Violetta may have been born in Venice,
0:26:04 > 0:26:07but she would come of age in London.
0:26:07 > 0:26:10The world premiere of La Traviata at La Fenice
0:26:10 > 0:26:12had been a purely musical affair.
0:26:12 > 0:26:14But three years later in London,
0:26:14 > 0:26:18the opera fell like a spark in a tinder-dry forest.
0:26:19 > 0:26:22Britain's artists had prepared the ground.
0:26:22 > 0:26:26They were fixated on our very own home-grown traviatas,
0:26:26 > 0:26:29from adulterous wives and kept women,
0:26:29 > 0:26:32to common prostitutes who sold themselves
0:26:32 > 0:26:35day and night on the city's streets.
0:26:39 > 0:26:41But first the ideal.
0:26:41 > 0:26:44This, according to George Elgar Hicks,
0:26:44 > 0:26:47is how a woman was expected to behave.
0:26:47 > 0:26:49Loyal companion to man,
0:26:49 > 0:26:53a domestic rock in good times and bad.
0:26:54 > 0:26:58It couldn't be a more legible statement of Victorian values
0:26:58 > 0:27:00if it tried.
0:27:00 > 0:27:04A pure woman is the foundation of a strong family.
0:27:07 > 0:27:11But what happens when the domestic foundation gives way?
0:27:11 > 0:27:15This group of three pictures by Augustus Leopold Egg
0:27:15 > 0:27:17is known as Past and Present
0:27:17 > 0:27:21and it shows in three graphic scenes the catastrophe that ensues.
0:27:26 > 0:27:32Scene one, we come in at a climactic moment.
0:27:32 > 0:27:37The very second when the edifice of the Victorian family
0:27:37 > 0:27:40is about to crumble.
0:27:40 > 0:27:43The husband has received a letter
0:27:43 > 0:27:46betraying his wife's infidelity.
0:27:47 > 0:27:50In despair at exposure...
0:27:51 > 0:27:53..the woman has collapsed on the floor.
0:27:53 > 0:27:55She is literally a fallen woman.
0:27:56 > 0:27:58The little girl's watching...
0:27:59 > 0:28:03..playing with a house of cards, which is now collapsing.
0:28:05 > 0:28:09The consequences for this little family play out
0:28:09 > 0:28:11in the next two scenes.
0:28:14 > 0:28:16It's a few years later...
0:28:16 > 0:28:19On a moonlight night somewhere in London,
0:28:19 > 0:28:21the two little girls, grown-up now,
0:28:21 > 0:28:24are lost to despair.
0:28:24 > 0:28:26Their father, we deduce, is dead.
0:28:26 > 0:28:29His picture hangs on the wall of their lonely room,
0:28:29 > 0:28:32but their mother's fate is even worse.
0:28:34 > 0:28:37Here is our poor fallen woman,
0:28:37 > 0:28:39fallen so very low.
0:28:41 > 0:28:44She's under the arches of the Adelphi,
0:28:44 > 0:28:48which is a known haunt of prostitutes.
0:28:48 > 0:28:53But here, look, there's two little baby's feet sticking out.
0:28:55 > 0:28:58The consequences of sin.
0:28:58 > 0:29:02And in case you'd missed the point,
0:29:02 > 0:29:05up here there are posters on the wall.
0:29:05 > 0:29:08"Pleasure excursions to Paris."
0:29:15 > 0:29:19Given the prevailing winds of Britain's moral climate,
0:29:19 > 0:29:20how could Violetta,
0:29:20 > 0:29:24with her roots deep in the mire of sinful Paris,
0:29:24 > 0:29:26get a fair hearing in London?
0:29:29 > 0:29:31Professor Francesco Izzo,
0:29:31 > 0:29:34general editor of The Complete Works Of Verdi,
0:29:34 > 0:29:35is the man to ask.
0:29:39 > 0:29:42I think Verdi really wanted Violetta to be a human being
0:29:42 > 0:29:46and one with whom we can not only sympathise, but actually empathise.
0:29:47 > 0:29:49And so the character gets pulled away gradually,
0:29:49 > 0:29:52but inexorably, from real life
0:29:52 > 0:29:55and, you know, becomes idealised
0:29:55 > 0:29:57and, ultimately, almost sanctified.
0:29:59 > 0:30:02This transformation takes place before our eyes and ears
0:30:02 > 0:30:05at the climax of Act One.
0:30:05 > 0:30:07It's a thrilling operatic journey,
0:30:07 > 0:30:10from almost childlike simplicity
0:30:10 > 0:30:13to passages of tortured complexity.
0:30:13 > 0:30:16These so-called coloratura passages
0:30:16 > 0:30:18were a hallmark of Italian opera,
0:30:18 > 0:30:20crowd-pleasing vocal athletics
0:30:20 > 0:30:23designed to bring the house down in mid-act.
0:30:24 > 0:30:26But in La Traviata,
0:30:26 > 0:30:29coloratura is meant to be heart-stopping
0:30:29 > 0:30:30as well as show-stopping.
0:30:32 > 0:30:34Alfredo's declaration of love,
0:30:34 > 0:30:36which Violetta initially rejected,
0:30:36 > 0:30:39has left her struggling with a dilemma -
0:30:39 > 0:30:42to stick with her life of pleasure
0:30:42 > 0:30:43or to take a chance on love...
0:30:45 > 0:30:47It's really after everyone's left,
0:30:47 > 0:30:50this is the end of the party,
0:30:50 > 0:30:53it's the crack of dawn and Violetta is left alone.
0:30:53 > 0:30:55This is where her mood changes radically.
0:30:55 > 0:30:57So you get the vocal vortex, right?
0:31:01 > 0:31:04Just very difficult to play and even harder to sing.
0:31:26 > 0:31:28It's an amazing coloratura display,
0:31:28 > 0:31:32but it's coloratura as psychology, not as virtuosity almost.
0:31:32 > 0:31:34And the more pyrotechnic it gets,
0:31:34 > 0:31:37the more full of pleasure the music seems to get,
0:31:37 > 0:31:38the more desperate she becomes.
0:31:38 > 0:31:41It's like she's trying to hang on to something which is crumbling,
0:31:41 > 0:31:42it doesn't exist any more.
0:31:42 > 0:31:44It has a mania, this music, this joy, in a way.
0:31:44 > 0:31:47She's torn apart at the end of Act One, actually.
0:31:47 > 0:31:48That's what we hear.
0:33:28 > 0:33:32Prostitution haunted the imagination of Victorian England
0:33:32 > 0:33:36as you can tell, from the surprisingly large number of books
0:33:36 > 0:33:39and pamphlets dedicated to the subject.
0:33:41 > 0:33:42Men on the prowl...
0:33:42 > 0:33:44for women on the game
0:33:44 > 0:33:47could turn to the Swell's Night Guide,
0:33:47 > 0:33:52a prototype Trip Advisor for the novice sex tourist.
0:33:52 > 0:33:55Some of the richest hunting grounds, it turns out,
0:33:55 > 0:33:59were backstage at London's theatres, including her Majesty's,
0:33:59 > 0:34:02where La Traviata would receive its premiere.
0:34:04 > 0:34:06According to the Night Guide,
0:34:06 > 0:34:08an occasional trifle was all it took
0:34:08 > 0:34:12to get to the chorus girls and ballerinas backstage.
0:34:14 > 0:34:16But alongside the titillating trash
0:34:16 > 0:34:19were weighty surveys and polemical reports
0:34:19 > 0:34:23by muckraking journalists and evangelical reformers
0:34:23 > 0:34:28for whom prostitution was the great social evil of the age,
0:34:28 > 0:34:31to be measured, controlled,
0:34:31 > 0:34:33but, most important of all,
0:34:33 > 0:34:37to be acknowledged as a human tragedy on an industrial scale.
0:34:39 > 0:34:41Artist historian Lynda Nead
0:34:41 > 0:34:45has studied the appetites and anxieties of this Victorian Babylon
0:34:45 > 0:34:50where the figure of the fallen woman looms so large.
0:34:50 > 0:34:54Lynda, it's a Victorian obsession, isn't it? The great social evil.
0:34:54 > 0:34:59There's definitely a fascination with prostitution...
0:35:00 > 0:35:03..just as much as there's a kind of revulsion.
0:35:03 > 0:35:08It's almost as if they can't stop talking about it.
0:35:09 > 0:35:12They'll compare a group of prostitutes
0:35:12 > 0:35:14to a heap of rubbish
0:35:14 > 0:35:16that's fermenting and rotting.
0:35:16 > 0:35:20And, of course, what that will create is a kind of miasma
0:35:20 > 0:35:25and miasma was a theory of the spread of disease in the air,
0:35:25 > 0:35:29invisible, that can, you know, cross social boundaries,
0:35:29 > 0:35:32geographical boundaries
0:35:32 > 0:35:35and spread into the respectable population.
0:35:35 > 0:35:39But its ramifications go far beyond
0:35:39 > 0:35:41the streets of London.
0:35:41 > 0:35:44It's almost as if the disease
0:35:44 > 0:35:47that's embodied in the figure of the prostitute
0:35:47 > 0:35:51can spread beyond the city, beyond the nation
0:35:51 > 0:35:53and even into the Empire.
0:35:53 > 0:35:58It's almost as if the stability of the whole British system
0:35:58 > 0:36:00rests on a notion of moral purity
0:36:00 > 0:36:02and the family.
0:36:06 > 0:36:10The lengths to which respectable society will go
0:36:10 > 0:36:15to protect its morality are laid bare in Act Two of La Traviata.
0:36:15 > 0:36:19In an extended duet between Violetta and Alfredo's father,
0:36:19 > 0:36:20Germont Senior.
0:36:22 > 0:36:26Three months have passed since the party in Act One.
0:36:26 > 0:36:29Violetta and Alfredo are together and, for the sake of her health,
0:36:29 > 0:36:32have left the bright lights of Paris for the country.
0:36:34 > 0:36:36Then Alfredo's father appears.
0:36:36 > 0:36:39His son's disastrous liaison, he claims,
0:36:39 > 0:36:42has blighted the Germont family.
0:36:42 > 0:36:45His angelic daughter's forthcoming marriage has been jeopardised
0:36:45 > 0:36:47and all for what?
0:36:47 > 0:36:50An infatuation that will one day pass.
0:37:22 > 0:37:26The great British soprano Dame Josephine Barstow
0:37:26 > 0:37:28has played Violetta many times.
0:37:28 > 0:37:32For her, the scene is more of a duel then a duet...
0:37:32 > 0:37:34and not just between the characters,
0:37:34 > 0:37:37but between the singers and the audience.
0:37:37 > 0:37:40I never felt that I had succeeded
0:37:40 > 0:37:43if the audience applauded at the end of a section.
0:37:43 > 0:37:50Our job is not to entertain them and to make them go away thinking,
0:37:50 > 0:37:52"Oh, that was really good, I quite enjoyed it."
0:37:52 > 0:37:56Our job is to pull them up on to the stage and say,
0:37:56 > 0:38:00"Listen, this is about...this is about life,
0:38:00 > 0:38:03"this is about the lives that we share."
0:38:48 > 0:38:50She is about love.
0:38:50 > 0:38:53She just does everything she does because of this...
0:38:54 > 0:38:57Something beyond herself, not just for Alfredo.
0:40:06 > 0:40:10You feel the whole feminist movement has moved everybody forward,
0:40:10 > 0:40:14so they think to themselves, "Well, you know, she's an idiot.
0:40:14 > 0:40:18"Why would she take any notice of what Papa Germont is saying?"
0:40:18 > 0:40:22But when you're playing it, you're thinking as Violetta,
0:40:22 > 0:40:26so this wonderful woman finds the strength in herself,
0:40:26 > 0:40:28knowing the implications,
0:40:28 > 0:40:32knowing that she will die as a result of what she's doing,
0:40:32 > 0:40:34to give up her life.
0:40:35 > 0:40:38You might call that a victim, I think that's a triumph.
0:40:38 > 0:40:41I think it's a moral triumph within her own terms.
0:41:15 > 0:41:19For operatic heroines, death is an occupational hazard.
0:41:19 > 0:41:22Suicide, beheading, immolation,
0:41:22 > 0:41:25tumbling off castle walls,
0:41:25 > 0:41:29but Violetta would die as most of us will die -
0:41:29 > 0:41:30of disease.
0:41:31 > 0:41:35And this disease was all too familiar,
0:41:35 > 0:41:37consumption or tuberculosis,
0:41:37 > 0:41:40the number one killer in Victorian England.
0:41:45 > 0:41:48Frighteningly mysterious in its causes,
0:41:48 > 0:41:50the "White Death," as it was known,
0:41:50 > 0:41:53claimed victims of all ages and backgrounds
0:41:53 > 0:41:54as this specimen,
0:41:54 > 0:41:58the lungs of an eight-month-old baby riddled with tumours,
0:41:58 > 0:42:00makes poignantly clear.
0:42:02 > 0:42:06Despite all the evidence that consumption struck down
0:42:06 > 0:42:09the innocent and the worldly indiscriminately,
0:42:09 > 0:42:12the condition became associated with the louche lifestyle
0:42:12 > 0:42:15typical of the courtesan.
0:42:15 > 0:42:18Unlike a lot of diseases, it wasn't especially disfiguring
0:42:18 > 0:42:23and the symptoms - weight loss, pallor, bright eyes -
0:42:23 > 0:42:24were seen as attractive.
0:42:24 > 0:42:29So consumption became an aesthetic disease,
0:42:29 > 0:42:32irresistible to artists,
0:42:32 > 0:42:36a plot device allowing them to give full rein
0:42:36 > 0:42:39to their reflections on erotic love
0:42:39 > 0:42:40and death.
0:42:44 > 0:42:47So who on earth would have the audacity to put on an opera
0:42:47 > 0:42:51dealing with the two great waking nightmares of the day?
0:42:51 > 0:42:54Prostitution and consumption.
0:42:54 > 0:42:57His name was Benjamin Lumley,
0:42:57 > 0:43:00impresario and manager of Her Majesty's Theatre on Haymarket.
0:43:01 > 0:43:04Lumley enjoyed many triumphs in his career.
0:43:04 > 0:43:07He also had his share of disasters.
0:43:07 > 0:43:10The worst, by far, being when his star singers mutinied
0:43:10 > 0:43:13and set up a rival opera house in Drury Lane.
0:43:15 > 0:43:18Disaster struck again when a legal dispute with his landlord
0:43:18 > 0:43:22forced the closure of his theatre for three long dark seasons.
0:43:24 > 0:43:28But then, the wheel of fortune turned again.
0:43:28 > 0:43:31In March 1856, the rival house went up
0:43:31 > 0:43:34in a spectacular bonfire of the vanities
0:43:34 > 0:43:38at the end of a louche masked ball.
0:43:38 > 0:43:41The gods of the theatre were smiling on Benjamin Lumley once again.
0:43:43 > 0:43:45Lumley seized his opportunity
0:43:45 > 0:43:47and in the space of just a few months,
0:43:47 > 0:43:50with help from his aristocratic backers,
0:43:50 > 0:43:52he'd swept aside his legal difficulties,
0:43:52 > 0:43:55hired singers and dancers, put together a programme
0:43:55 > 0:43:57and brought Her Majesty's back to life.
0:43:57 > 0:44:00It was an astonishing feat of organisation,
0:44:00 > 0:44:02energy and sheer chutzpah.
0:44:02 > 0:44:05And yet, there was more that Lumley needed
0:44:05 > 0:44:08to seal the success of his comeback season -
0:44:08 > 0:44:12a moneyspinning, blockbusting box office sensation.
0:44:16 > 0:44:18And that's where La Traviata came in.
0:44:18 > 0:44:21For Lumley, it ticked a lot of boxes.
0:44:22 > 0:44:25Verdi, though recognised as a rising star,
0:44:25 > 0:44:28was still a novelty on the English opera scene.
0:44:28 > 0:44:31The London premiere of his latest daring work
0:44:31 > 0:44:35would be a must-see for aficionados.
0:44:35 > 0:44:38Everyone knew that it was based on Dumas's risque play
0:44:38 > 0:44:42which had only recently been banned from the London stage.
0:44:42 > 0:44:45But Lumley reckoned the censors would be kinder to the opera.
0:44:45 > 0:44:47After all, it was in Italian,
0:44:47 > 0:44:50so hardly anyone would understand it anyway!
0:44:50 > 0:44:54All that was needed to complete the package was a Violetta
0:44:54 > 0:44:57and Lumley was prepared to pay over the odds
0:44:57 > 0:45:00to secure the Italian soprano Marietta Piccolomini.
0:45:01 > 0:45:04She was just 22 years old,
0:45:04 > 0:45:06but what she lacked in experience,
0:45:06 > 0:45:09she made up for with a flair for dramatic acting
0:45:09 > 0:45:12and a personal story guaranteed to grab the headlines.
0:45:14 > 0:45:18She is from an aristocratic family.
0:45:18 > 0:45:20So for the London audience,
0:45:20 > 0:45:22she's very, very interesting
0:45:22 > 0:45:25because this aspect of her upbringing
0:45:25 > 0:45:28is sold as part of the publicity.
0:45:28 > 0:45:31This is an aristocrat playing a courtesan.
0:45:36 > 0:45:40Saturday, May 24th, 1856.
0:45:40 > 0:45:43The scenery had been painted, the costumes selected,
0:45:43 > 0:45:47the orchestra had been rehearsed, the posters printed.
0:45:48 > 0:45:51Lumley had done everything he could
0:45:51 > 0:45:54to make the London premiere of La Traviata a night to remember.
0:45:57 > 0:45:59But opera lovers, as Lumley knew,
0:45:59 > 0:46:03could be passionate haters when crossed or disappointed.
0:46:03 > 0:46:06And waiting in the wings were chauvinistic music critics,
0:46:06 > 0:46:09for whom every Italian composer was, in the end,
0:46:09 > 0:46:11a mere organ grinder.
0:46:12 > 0:46:14And circling behind them,
0:46:14 > 0:46:16were the big beasts of the leader page
0:46:16 > 0:46:18and the thundering editorial,
0:46:18 > 0:46:21self-appointed guardians of British morality,
0:46:21 > 0:46:26nostrils already twitching with the scent of Parisian vice.
0:46:27 > 0:46:31But for Benjamin Lumley, there was a more important issue,
0:46:31 > 0:46:33really quite a simple question.
0:46:33 > 0:46:36Would the great British public pay good money
0:46:36 > 0:46:39to see a prostitute die on stage?
0:46:44 > 0:46:48If you had a ticket that night, you'd be one of the fortunate.
0:46:48 > 0:46:52Her Majesty's Theatre was one of the hubs of London society
0:46:52 > 0:46:54and the first night of a new opera,
0:46:54 > 0:46:57one of the high points of the season.
0:46:57 > 0:47:00An opportunity for the female elite to see and be seen.
0:47:03 > 0:47:07The opera had long been the chic-est entertainment in London
0:47:07 > 0:47:11and few theatres were as prestigious as Her Majesty's,
0:47:11 > 0:47:15with Queen Victoria's box in pride of place.
0:47:15 > 0:47:18Aristocratic ladies liked to preen themselves
0:47:18 > 0:47:20in the boxes on either side.
0:47:20 > 0:47:23The cultured and comfortable middle classes swelled the stalls
0:47:23 > 0:47:26in increasing numbers.
0:47:26 > 0:47:29Shop girls and medical students settle for the cheap seats
0:47:29 > 0:47:31in the gallery.
0:47:31 > 0:47:34It was a true cross-section of London society.
0:47:36 > 0:47:38And then, of course,
0:47:38 > 0:47:42there were the OTHER women for whom the theatre acted as a magnet.
0:47:42 > 0:47:46The dress lodgers, the dolly mops, the gay ladies of Haymarket,
0:47:46 > 0:47:51who plied their trade on the very steps of Her Majesty's Theatre.
0:47:51 > 0:47:54From respectable to disreputable,
0:47:54 > 0:47:57all the women of London were represented
0:47:57 > 0:47:59the night that Violetta made her debut.
0:48:05 > 0:48:10And so the stage is set for the tragic climax of La Traviata.
0:48:12 > 0:48:16Persuaded by Germont's arguments, Violetta has given up Alfredo
0:48:16 > 0:48:19and returned to Paris.
0:48:19 > 0:48:22Ignorant of the sacrifice she had made,
0:48:22 > 0:48:25Alfredo insults her publicly at a party,
0:48:25 > 0:48:27flinging money at her, branding her a whore.
0:48:29 > 0:48:32She is left alone, in poverty, close to death.
0:49:23 > 0:49:25Violetta has taught me how to love.
0:49:26 > 0:49:28I think you could say that.
0:50:37 > 0:50:40Addio Del Passato is a prayer.
0:50:40 > 0:50:43There is the awareness that we all have,
0:50:43 > 0:50:45including Violetta herself,
0:50:45 > 0:50:47that death is approaching.
0:50:47 > 0:50:50Verdi actually writes the word "Traviata" at this point
0:50:50 > 0:50:52with an upper case T.
0:50:52 > 0:50:56So she's not just a fallen woman, but she's THE fallen woman,
0:50:56 > 0:51:00almost as if she's, you know, asking for universal forgiveness.
0:52:27 > 0:52:30So, did Lumley's gamble pay off?
0:52:30 > 0:52:34Did La Traviata soar or did it bomb?
0:52:37 > 0:52:40"The performances at Her Majesty's Theatre on Saturday night
0:52:40 > 0:52:41"were interesting on two accounts,
0:52:41 > 0:52:45"one, being the first production in this country of Verdi's Traviata,
0:52:45 > 0:52:50"the other, the debut of Mademoiselle Marietta Piccolomini.
0:52:50 > 0:52:55"The claims of the Traviata as a musical work are poor indeed.
0:52:55 > 0:52:58"It required something extraordinary in the way of representation
0:52:58 > 0:53:02"to lift it from the oblivion to which it was evidently doomed."
0:53:05 > 0:53:06On the other hand,
0:53:06 > 0:53:09the soprano obviously melted this critic's heart.
0:53:09 > 0:53:14"That Marietta Piccolomini painted these scenes with great talent
0:53:14 > 0:53:17"no-one for a moment disputed.
0:53:17 > 0:53:20"The effect upon the audience was universal."
0:53:23 > 0:53:26Marietta Piccolomini was the big sensation that night.
0:53:26 > 0:53:30Others had sung the role before her, but she embodied it.
0:53:30 > 0:53:35Her performance turned notes on the page into flesh and blood.
0:53:36 > 0:53:38And that's where the trouble began.
0:53:38 > 0:53:44By putting a face and a voice to the great social evil, Piccolomini
0:53:44 > 0:53:50created a somebody who demanded sympathy, even admiration.
0:53:50 > 0:53:52Cue moral backlash.
0:53:54 > 0:53:59"By the fascination with which Mademoiselle Piccolomini throws
0:53:59 > 0:54:04"around the character and the poetry she infuses into it,
0:54:04 > 0:54:09"the moral sense is deadened and our perceptions of right
0:54:09 > 0:54:15"and wrong are in danger of becoming misty and confused."
0:54:15 > 0:54:20"It is for her that pity is asked. And it is to her that pity is given."
0:54:20 > 0:54:22Obviously a huge problem.
0:54:22 > 0:54:27"Now, we say that morally speaking, this is most hideous and abominable."
0:54:29 > 0:54:31Well, The Times clearly got up on its hind legs.
0:54:31 > 0:54:36"An exhibition of harlotry... upon the public stage.
0:54:36 > 0:54:38"It is the poetry of the brothel."
0:54:42 > 0:54:45It's infuriated them, hasn't it? And needled them.
0:54:47 > 0:54:50But it was the appeal of La Traviata
0:54:50 > 0:54:54to female audiences that really spooked the critics.
0:54:54 > 0:54:57As the season progressed, they were aghast at the large number
0:54:57 > 0:55:03of women who flocked to see it and their swooning embrace of Violetta.
0:55:04 > 0:55:07What on earth had got into the ladies?!
0:55:13 > 0:55:18Actually, Tom, I think it's obvious why the ladies of England were
0:55:18 > 0:55:22so attracted to La Traviata.
0:55:22 > 0:55:26It's her tale, absolutely, from beginning to end.
0:55:26 > 0:55:29The men don't get a look in. They're mere accessories.
0:55:29 > 0:55:35It's her suffering, her predicament, her gallantry, and her redemption.
0:55:35 > 0:55:40So I don't think that the women in the audience fantasised about being
0:55:40 > 0:55:45courtesans, I think they wanted to be the centre of attention.
0:55:45 > 0:55:49It's about female megalomania. No wonder they lapped it up.
0:55:51 > 0:55:53SINGING
0:55:56 > 0:55:59'But in the end, as Benjamin Lumley put it,
0:55:59 > 0:56:02'the public was not to be lectured out of its treat.
0:56:02 > 0:56:07'While the newspapers thundered, the punters fought for tickets.
0:56:07 > 0:56:12'And Violetta herself was invited into the most respectable Victorian
0:56:12 > 0:56:16'homes in the form of sheet music.
0:56:16 > 0:56:20'And so it was that Libiamo, that great anthem of live for today
0:56:20 > 0:56:25'and to hell with tomorrow, was sung by dainty misses,
0:56:25 > 0:56:27'and by others less dainty!'
0:56:27 > 0:56:30# Tis best to take what fortune sends
0:56:30 > 0:56:34# And smile at future sorrows
0:56:34 > 0:56:38# Why should we fear the morrow
0:56:38 > 0:56:42# When joy today attends... #
0:56:43 > 0:56:46And the chorus of approval grew even louder.
0:56:46 > 0:56:49Within a year of the first night,
0:56:49 > 0:56:54there were three Violettas vying for applause on London stages.
0:56:54 > 0:56:59Queen Victoria herself opened a state ball by dancing to
0:56:59 > 0:57:01the La Traviata Quadrille.
0:57:01 > 0:57:05Against the odds, the courtesan had achieved respectability
0:57:05 > 0:57:07and immortality,
0:57:07 > 0:57:13established for ever as an iconic role in the operatic repertoire.
0:57:13 > 0:57:17Violetta still speaks to us
0:57:17 > 0:57:22as an individual who defied society's definitions of her.
0:57:22 > 0:57:26A fallen woman who became the hero of her own life.
0:57:26 > 0:57:31After Violetta, operatic heroines would never be quite the same again.
0:57:31 > 0:57:37Carmen, Mimi, Tosca, Salome, they all owe a debt to Violetta
0:57:37 > 0:57:40and that's because she had shown it was possible to be bad,
0:57:40 > 0:57:45but also to be good, to be beyond the pale but also to be centre stage.
0:57:45 > 0:57:48Just as long as you died in the final act.
0:57:50 > 0:57:52SHE SINGS IN ITALIAN
0:58:28 > 0:58:30BOTH MEN: # O cielo! Muor!
0:58:30 > 0:58:31# Violetta!
0:58:31 > 0:58:32# Oh Dio, soccorrasi!
0:58:36 > 0:58:38BOTH: # Oh mio dolor! #
0:58:44 > 0:58:47ORCHESTRAL FINAL FLOURISH