INSIGHT SERIES | Stories Behind La Traviata

Stories Behind La Traviata, by Prof. Tom May
Saturday, March 3, at 3:00 p.m. in Maryland Hall room 308

La Traviata is perhaps the most popular of all of Giuseppe Verdi’s works and certainly ranks high among the greatest operas ever written. Where does its story, which so inspired both Verdi and his librettist Francesco Piave, come from? Who are Alfredo and Violetta, his beloved Lady of the Camellias? What prompted Verdi to turn from the larger context of biblical and historical subjects to this domestic drama of love and death, which Verdi called “a subject for our own age?” Does it remain such?—questions that we might well wonder about together.

Tom May has been a tutor for the past 38 years at St. John's College, Annapolis Campus, where he has taught in all parts of its 4-year liberal arts program and has twice been associate dean of its Graduate Institute MALA program.