Chisinau National Opera, Chisinau National Philharmonic Orchestra

La Traviata is Verdi's outstanding interpretation of one of the most popular love stories of the 19th century, La Dame aux Camelias by Alexander Dumas, a tragic tale of searing passion and memorable music. Dumas made no secret of the fact that his book and play were autobiographically based on his own affair with Marie Duplessis, who died in 1847 of tuberculosis at the age of 23.

The clarity of the plot seems matched by a single moral idea – that enduring love can and does survive despite all efforts to corrupt it. In La Traviata it is Alfredo's dogged determination to stand by his fallen woman, against all odds, which brings out a sense of redemption.

Brilliantly, only in death, are Violetta's bourgeois values relinquished, and she is redeemed, ultimately, not as a fallen woman, but a risen one.

Starring Alyona Kistenyova, Ruslan Zinevych and Giorgio Meladze.

Sung in Italian with Engilsh surtitles.