A COMPARISON OF THE COURTESANS’S MISFORTUNE IN THE NOVEL LA DAME AUX CAMELIAS AND THE OPERA LA TRAVIATA THROUGH PLOT ANALYSIS
Author :
DOI : 10.29228/JASSS.43506
Year-Number: 2020-Year: 13 - Number: 80
Language : İngilizce
Konu : Sahne Sanatları Ana Sanat Dalı - Opera Sanat Dalı
Abstract
Alexander Dumas fils’in yazdığı Kamelyalı Kadın romanı ve Giuseppe Verdi’nin bestelediği La Traviata operası gerçek aşk ve ölümle karşılaşan elit bir metresin sözde zevk dolu hayatının ve trajik sonunun öyküsünü anlatmaktadır. Ölüm sebebi 19. yüzyıl edebiyatında ve operasında en sık görülen ve romantik olarak kabul edilen, özellikle günahkar kadınların günahlarının kefareti olarak yakalandığı düşünülen verem hastalığıdır. Toplumun Marguerite’nin ve Violetta’nın günahları hakkındaki önyargıları, kadın kahramanların yaptıkları büyük fedakarlıkla silinir: Sevilen erkeğin namusu ve şerefi için terk edilişi. Bu çalışmada, romanın ve operanın kadın karakterleri ve hayata veda edişleri olay örgüsü bağlamında karşılaştırılmıştır. Besteci Violetta için daha huzurlu bir veda seçerek, operadaki karakterlerin ve seyircinin romandakine kıyasla daha az acı çekmesini sağlamıştır. Besteciye kıyasla yazar kelimelerin gücünden daha özgürce faydalanabildiğinden dolayı, düşkün bir kadın olmanın ve yapılan fedakarlığın psikolojik boyutlarını derinlemesine ifade edebilmiştir. Fakat, besteci de müzikal ve teatral unsurların gücünü kullanarak seyirciyi büyüleyebilmiştir ve eserin opera dünyasının vazgeçilmezlerinden biri olmasını sağlamıştır. Yöntemi ne olursa olsun, her iki sanat eseri de seyircisini ve okurunu onurun, saflığın ve aşkın gerçek doğasıyla ilgili sorular sormaya yönlendirir. Elit metreslerin alt sınıf olduklarını düşünmeye meyilli olan yüksek sosyeteye, onların şefkat, anlayış ve sevgiye ihtiyaç duyduklarını gösterir. Hikayenin başarısının altındaki sebep, düşkün bir kadının yürek burkan ölümünün kullanılarak toplumun ön yargılarıyla yüzleştirilmesidir.
Keywords
Abstract
The novel La Dame aux Camelias written by Alexandre Dumas fils and the opera La Traviata composed by Giuseppe Verdi depict the so-called pleasurable life and tragic end of an elite courtesan, who faces true love and death. The reason of death is tuberculosis, a disease which was the most popular and romantic one, accepted to be suitable especially for sinful women as a redemption of their sins in the 19th century literature and opera. The society’s prejudices about Marguerite and Violetta’s sins are erased by the great sacrifice that the heroines do: Leaving the beloved man for their sake of dignity and honor. In this paper, the novel and the opera are compared through the plot analysis and the end of the stories of the heroines. The composer provides the characters in the opera and the audience to suffer less compared to the novel, via choosing a slightly peaceful farewell for Violetta. The author could express the psychological dimensions of being a fallen woman and the sacrifice made more profoundly, since he could use the power of words more freely than the composer. However, the composer could mesmerize the audience via the potential of musical and theatrical elements, thus ensured the work to be one of the legends of the opera world. In any circumstances, both the art works lead the audience and the reader to ask questions about the true nature of dignity, purity and love. They expose the courtesans’ need for compassion, sympathy and tenderness to a higher class society who are prone to think that courtesans are low by class. The success behind this story is making the society face its prejudices through the dramatical death of a fallen woman.
Keywords
- The fiction of the 19th century French courtesans includes expensive, high class and stylishprostitutes. These women were significant figures in the literary imagination of the period. As well asproviding sexual pleasure for men who could afford them, they also served to represent the fears andfantasies of both genders. The fictional courtesans created by male authors are categorized in two parts;of which the most memorable representatives are Nana by Emile Zola, and Marguerite of AlexandreDumas fils. Nana represents monstrosity and narcissism; indifferent to the pains she causes. In contrast,Marguerite is the symbol of the fallen woman who is aware of her betrayal of the feminine ideal; so she sacrifices herself for the goodness of her beloved (Holmes, 2018: 450-452).
- The stage version of La Dame aux Camelias was a great success; the role became as desirable asany of the Shakespearean heroines. The appeal of this sad story to the 19th century audience wasexpected; the romantic heroines of the time, whether she was Anna Karenina, Madame Bovary, Nana orCamille, were doomed and faced inevitable death at last without a happy-ever-after (Gardner, 2003).
- During the time of Dumas fils, having a mistress was relatively acceptable. However, since theythreatened the sanctity and the stability of the family, they were not categorized as natural orempathetic. Society both created and condemned mistresses and courtesans. They were desired as adistraction from life. The “high society” women were both jealous and curious about these sinfulwomen and their wealth. These tendencies were clearly shown during the auction sale of MarieDuplessis’s belongings following her death; it was a “safe” way to explore the impure richness of such a dishonorable woman (Guined, 2014).
- Opposing to the religious or lofty topics of earlier eras, the Romantic period in music and artfocused on the regular person. There was an attraction to emotion, nature and death. One of the mostused themes to draw death was disease. Tuberculosis was a common one during the time (Goldberg,2016). Throughout the history, no other disease had the same cultural impact of tuberculosis. 19thcentury was the height of the tuberculosis disease. One in four individuals died from it at its peak. Incontrast to its high mortality, tuberculosis was associated with delicacy, femininity, or even intelligence.Once it was thought to strengthen sexual desire and beauty, as well as increasing creative genius.(Muto, 2011: 612). In another point of view, tuberculosis was thought to be caused by moral decay orliving too fast. Now it is known that the real reason of the disease is a bacillus thriving in conditions ofpoverty or overcrowding. It is not a pretty illness as described in arts; in contrast, it was a dangerous one on the rise (Gardner, 2003).
- romanticized ideas about the courtesan and the disease. Alexandras Dumas fils wrote his novel La Dameaux Camellias during this cultural confusion period. The consumptive courtesan is both a carrier of thisdisease and an irresistibly beautiful seductress. The potential threat emphasized by drawing a courtesanin consumption shifted the cultural view from spiritual to medical discourse, changing the European culture sociologically (Muto, 2011: 612).
- Feminism refers to the political movement and social theory that came to life in order to endsexual discrimination and oppression, and to promote class equality. According to feminism conceptualbasis, the current society is dominated by a patriarchal system. Feminist political action challengessexual harassment, domestic violence, sexual violence, gender discrimination, educational rights andmany more topics related to inequality between men and women. This inequality is observed inliterature, as the heroines try to win their equality and freedom, dignity, social, gender and politicalpowers via criticizing abnormal social encounters. (Dong, 2017). Each culture’s feminist movementshave their own unique characteristics, raising questions about women in their society. Feminism inAmerican and English literature was proposed and expressed more completely by the French novelistAlexandre Dumas fils. He was originated from the 18th century enlightenment era. The first feministmovement was seen in his novels through the idea of women demanding equal rights with men. Theliterature works Jane Eyre, Heroine Character, Pride and Prejudice, Austin’s Love and Marriage, The Tragic Fate of the Heroine focus profoundly on feminism, under the influence of Dumas fils (Fan, 2017).
- Alexandre Dumas fils was a French author and playwright, being the illegitimate child of adressmaker and the novelist Alexandre Dumas. His father recognized him legally and separated the sonfrom his mother. This situation inspired Dumas fils to write about the tragic stories of female characters,emphasizing the moral purpose of literature. In his play The Illegitimate Son written in 1858, he pointedout that if a man is the father of an illegitimate son, he has to legitimize the child and marry the woman.He witnessed the unhappy ruin brought on his father by illicit love affairs. His play Le Demi-Mondedepicts the sanctity of the marriage and family, dealing with the threat to the institution of marriageposed by prostitutes. Modern readers find Dumas’s drama pleonastic and wordy, in contrast to the late19th century critics who praised his works for their moral seriousness (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2020).His artistic development into his early twenties rooted in the Romanticism ideas of truth in love andnature, based by Goethe’s tradition. Romanticism was understood by Dumas fils and his father as a self-expression revolution instead of self-control and civilization. Dumas started to feel the influence of theRealists in the 1830s. The development of the individual consciousness, how a person was shaped andthe motivations behind one’s behaviors were being explored by fiction (Saunders, 1951: 18). As theRealist ideals continued to root, novelists such as Chares Dickens and George Eliot became dominant.Their works explored social ills plaguing the culture, as well as the human psyche. Dumas felt thetransition period as new attitudes of realism and morality were emerging in fiction (Guined, 2014).Even the conflict between his mother and father represented this paradigm shift. Dumas’s father acted according to Romanticism, while his mother symbolized the ideals of Realism (Saunders, 1951: 14).
- Dumas fils was best known for his novel La Dame aux Camelias. This novel, as well as the operasLa Traviata by Verdi, La Boheme by Puccini and Les Contes d’Hofmann by Offenbach are criticized by somefeminists, because of depicting a victim as a fragile, young, beautiful girl. The artists drawing diseasedheroines in need of protection may be recognized as an anti-female theme. In all these stories, thewomen characters fall in love and have to face disease because of their weaknesses (Goldberg, 2016).THE NOVEL LA DAME AUX CAMELIAS
- The novel La Dame aux Camelias written by Alexandre Dumas fils in 1848 is a prime example ofhow a single text can negotiate the boundaries between fiction and life. While serving the desires of thereaders, it does not offend them to the point of censorship. The novelist’s success did not fade with thetime. In contradiction, the novel was at the focus of the public appeal for more than 150 years. It wasadapted to plays, operas, ballets, films and television productions. Dumas’ fiction was both scandalousand acceptable since he was one of the few novelists who dared to depict the courtesan figure not onlyin an empathetic view, but also in contemporary times, not removing the plot. He decided to change theend of his novel by choosing a more Romantic structure; love conquers all only to be conquered by death in turn (Guined, 2014).
- The novel is a fictionalized description of Dumas’ one-year affair with the real-life courtesan,Marie Duplessis, who died at the age of 23. Her funeral was attended by French aristocratic figures,who shared her body on a nightly basis (Service, 2015). Being the “lady of pleasure”, Duplessisconquered Parisian society with her beauty, charm and wit (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2020). She wasone of the modern world’s first celebrities. As a piece of the throng Charles Dickens declared that thegeneral sadness was so deep; one could have easily believed that Marie was like a national heroine.Adding of “Du” to her surname was a pathetic action in need of an aristocratic status. Her dead bodywas surrounded by wealth, yet in reality her belongings were sold to pay her debts (Gardner, 2003).
- After his relationship with Marie, Dumas transformed himself into Armand Duval of the novel,while transforming Marie into Marguerite Gautier (Gardner, 2003). The story takes place in the mid-19thcentury France between a young bourgeois and a demimondaine suffering from consumption (Lintz,2005: 287-307). The protagonist of the novel is Marguerite, or Camille as byname, referring to thecamellias she carried as a signal of her availability. She wears a red camellia during her menstruation,showing that she is unable for making love. The camellia becomes white when she is able to make lovewith men (Dumas fils, 2010). Being a courtesan does not prevent her from falling in love. Firstintoxicated by the beautiful feelings towards the young man, she does not accept the possibility ofruining his life because of her indecent background. She goes back to her old familiar life style with thereality that she is mortally ill and will die soon (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2020). Instead of passing awayin her beloved’s arms, she dies alone after years of disease and three painful days. This romantic myth is one of the most saddening ones since Rome and Juliette (Gardner, 2003).
- Giuseppe Verdi is the leading Italian opera composer in the 19th century. Some of his very well-known operas are Rigoletto (1851), Il Trovatore (1853), La Traviata (1853), Don Carlos (1867), Aida (1871),Otello (1887) Falstaff (1893) and Requiem Mass (1874). As a son of a small farm owner, he was given thebest education that could be achieved in a tiny village, starting with his very young ages. During hisyouth, Milan was the operatic and intellectual center of Italy, teaching him much about politics, operaand literature. His rising career was disrupted by the tragedy of his children’s and wife’s deaths. Thispersonal grief led him to suffer a severe depression and trauma, forming some of the harsh aspects ofhis character. His great success with Nabucco brought him lasting friendships with educated aristocrats.He became the new hero of Italian music at the age of 28. At some point, he worked so much that heproduced nearly two operas in a year. His best known and loved operas are Rigoletto, Il Trovatore and LaTraviata, with their tunes, drama and characterization being described as better, more exciting and moreoriginal than any opera he had composed before. Rigoletto took its plot from the play Le Roi S’amusewritten by Hugo, including the murder of a king that was politically taboo. Therefore, the opera wascensored by lowering the degree of the king to a duke. La Traviata had to go through the samecensorship, too. Although the first performance costumes were from the 17th century, the present-daysubject was a noticeable risk during that era. Since prima donna was casted as a consumptive heroine,the first performance was a fiasco for Verdi, being a rare one. The lyrical pathos and the intimate moodof La Traviata made it even more contrasting stylistically. His relationship with the singer Strepponimay have affected the character of Violetta, both being radiant and sympathetic (Hussey and Kerman, 2020).
- Verdi’s connection to opera world that he was bound for a whole life span was a love-haterelationship. After his happy retirement, he was a very wealthy man who funded major charities suchas one for aged musicians, still in operation in Milano. His entrance to the operatic scene coincides withthe diminution phase of the Italian bel canto tradition with Rossini, Bellini, and Donizetti. Hetransformed this tradition and dominated Italian opera only himself for 30 years. The period wasconstitutive of a dramatic and musical refinement and constant experimentation. He modified therigidity of bel canto opera step by step, at first without making the audience realize. No other operacomposer has assembled such a rich and vivid portrait gallery: Self-sacrificing courtesan Violetta of LaTraviata; loving father and evil jester Rigoletto; self-destructive Amneris of Aida; or the passionateLeonora of Il Trovatore. His operas have a non-stop, fluent and absolute dramatic rhythm. The role ofthe orchestra was broadened with a newly developed musical vocabulary, in which the role of the voicewas not compromised. The introduced subject matters of his were never used in opera before.Generations of listeners all over the world love Verdi melodies, that serve the drama and depict the characters’ feelings with a directness and warmth (Hussey and Kerman, 2020).
- The opera La Traviata, meaning “the woman gone astray” or “fallen woman” was composed byGiuseppe Verdi in three acts, based on the play La Dame aux Camelias which he saw in 1852’s Paris. TheItalian libretto belongs to Francesco Maria Piave (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2020), whom Verdi forced towrite a provocative and original libretto, not one that includes an ordinary subject that one can find bythe hundreds (Phillips-Matz, 1993: 318). It is Verdi’s only opera that is set entirely indoors (Parker,2020). The name of the opera refers to the heroine Violetta Valery, who is a courtesan earning redemptionthrough sacrifice (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2020). The first Violetta on the stage was 38 years old andoverweight, causing the audience to mock the idea that she could possibly be an attractive courtesanand wasting away from tuberculosis. Verdi did not give up and wrote to a conductor friend that the lastnight’s La Traviata was not the last one on the stage. The performance of it in 1853 at the Teatro la Fenicein Venice was an unqualified success with more suitable singers and a few small changes in the score(Schwarm and Cantoni, 2020). Being one of the most staged operas of Verdi, La Traviata became one of the most well-known operas of theater history (Kimbell, 2001).
- The opera was sharply contrasting to the composer’s earlier operas. The setting was relatively“modern” for its day, so it was difficult for the critics to agree. “Period pieces” were more acceptable bythe critics of that era. Europe was dealing with moral hypocrisy already, when La Traviata was on thestage. The authorities in Rome wanted Verdi to censor and make some changes to the opera in order toappeal to a more conservative public. Verdi did not want to change the story of the courtesan Violettaand declared that a whore must always be a whore. This startling explanation of the composer showedhis radical feelings towards his work. During that time, Verdi gave up with the historical and biblicalstories and exposed his audiences to a social and moral drama. Some of the biggest dilemmas of the19th-century world were prostitution, passion and disease. Verdi succeeded to combine all these issues of love and death at La Traviata (Service, 2015).
- Generally, the novel and the opera have a parallel interpretation. The courtesan’s life ofpleasure and sin, falling in love, escape to the country with the man, the social outrage of the man’sfather, the courtesan’s sacrifice of true love and new life because of the father, and her death fromtuberculosis (Service, 2015), which was the most popular romantic disease for women in the 19th century opera.
- The novel starts with the regret and tears of Armand, looking for the novel Manon Lescautwhich belonged to Marguerite before her death. This specific book serves as a foreshadowing ofMarguerite’s life, since both novels handle a love story and class conflict between an upper-class ordignified man and a lower-class woman. The search for the book makes the reader curious about thestory behind Marguerite, and the drama begins. Armand’s expression of sorrow makes the novel moreintriguing: He confesses that first he thought Marguerite should redeem herself; however, now hethinks that he himself does not deserve to be forgiven. He would exchange ten years of his life withcrying for one hour down at her feet (Dumas, 2010: 29). Therefore, the reader understands that this iscertainly not a happy ending story, and becomes more curious about the great sorrow and saddeningdeath of Marguerite. It is an appealing and clever way of opening the story and grasping the attentionof the reader. Verdi tries to do the same thing with the prelude of the opera, when the music is veryslow and sad, as if calling for a moment of longing and repentance. The repetition of the same melodyin the prelude and the third act takes the audience back to the first scene of the opera strikingly, reminding that this is a sad story of a dying woman from the beginning of it (Çakmak, 2011: 95).
- Nevertheless, Verdi left out a great part of the novel for the sake of every character in the opera:That is the death story of Marguerite, who suffers a lonely death while waiting for Armand in vainduring her last hours of life. Instead of Armand, the obligees come to bleed her white. She writes lettersto Armand before her death, calling in vain his name and expecting to see him one more time. Incontrast with the beautiful melodies of the arias, Marguerite dies with screams and in such a great painthat no other religious victim could have felt (Dumas, 2010: 231). This sorrowful end of the novel makesthe reader pity her more and value her love, since it ripened in the bosom of death (Çakmak, 2011: 95).Deploring Marguerite’s pathetic death, the composer chose to reunite everybody at the last scene. Hesympathized with the mourning and repentant characters of the novel; as a matter of fact, Violetta diesin her beloved’s arms with a more peaceful mood. Her heart-breaking aria “Addio del passato”, sayinggoodbye to the happy dreams of the past in the final act is her last speech. She receives a letter from thefather Giorgio, explaining her that Alfredo learned about the real motive behind her departure, and isgoing back to her. However, she knows that their union is impossible because of her illness. The aria isvery naïve, dignified, simple and does not include vocal acrobatics. At her weakest physical moment,the audience faces her real moral power and true love (Service, 2015). Verdi demonstrates Violetta’spassing to the other side with the passage from D flat major to A major as if A major appeals to the earsas peace descending from the sky, erasing all the problems dealt during the story of the opera (Çakmak,2011: 107). It may be concluded that compared to the opera the novel awakes more pitiful feelings for all the characters especially for Marguerite.
- Verdi underscored the drama of the opera through the usage of repetitive phrases such as “Ahfors’e lui” which is a love theme throughout the work. Also, coloratura ornamentation emphasizingVioletta’s agitation, high violins underscoring Violetta’s character since the beginning of the overtureand musical continuity between the recitatives and arias are the instrumentative touches of Verdi(Encyclopedia Britannica, 2020). Moreover, Verdi went further in his music compared to Dumas in hisstory; the daring and direct attitude of the composer’s music made La Traviata dangerous for thesupposed moral righteousness of the press. His usage of contemporary music of his time, such aswaltzes and polkas that encourage moral corruption, symbolized the libidinous pleasures. The mostfamous of these musical pieces is the drinking song called “Libiamo”, emphasizing enjoying life andgetting drunk, in the first act of La Traviata (Service, 2015). Therefore, the opera provoked more actionsagainst the appealing story of Violetta, while making the story an unforgettable and indispensable one for the theaters all over the world.
- As a matter of fact, the novel’s weapon is its words; the ideas behind these words provoke thereader to think about the issue more extensively and comprehensively. The novel includes Marguerite’sphilosophical approaches to prostitution, guiding the reader to deep thoughts about morality. She tellsher maid Nanine that prostitutes are being feared like a wild animal; they wear down their heart, bodyand beauty slowly. Around the prostitutes, there are people who want to take more than what theygive, and then one day they die like dogs at a corner, having destroyed both themselves and the others(Dumas, 2010: 93). These words and dramatic expression are like foreshadowing to her own death at theend of the story; as if she knows her own future from the very beginning. Just like Marguerite, Armandalso has intriguing and thought-provoking ideas about the relationship between love and prostitution.He explains the pure love’s effect on a prostitute: When God grants love to a high prostitute, first itseems like a forgiveness, but then it turns out to be a penalty for her. There is no purification withoutsuffering. When a woman whose past is taunted suddenly finds herself in a deep, irresistible love, andconfirms this love to her beloved, the lover gains a great control on her. He becomes so powerful to beable to say “You don’t sacrifice more to this love than you do in exchange for payment”. Then the poorwomen don’t know how to react to these words (Dumas, 2010: 101). Therefore, Armand is extremelyaware of Marguerite’s inner world; how she suffers being a prostitute and in love with a noble man. But it doesn’t help him to discover why she left her.
- The novel includes some very noble ideas of the narrator towards Marguerite; such as that thiswoman was a virgin whom nothing can turn into a prostitute, and besides was a prostitute whom evena very trivial emotional intimacy can turn into the most passionate and innocent virgin. Moreover,Marguerite has pride and independence; if these two feelings were hurt, they would have acted likeshame (Dumas, 2010: 71). These grand expressions make the reader believe that Marguerite really has aprecious heart and may be more decent and valuable than most of the incorrupt girls at her time. Thus,this novel collapses the idea that the prostitutes cannot be noble at heart and they do not grasp the ideaof love. Marguerite dies in dignity for saving the future of Armand and his innocent sister’s marriage.She hopes till the very moment of her lonely death that one day the sister will pray for a name ofMarguerite without even knowing the reason why. One more time, the reader is forced to think aboutthe real meaning of nobility; when a courtesan leaves her lover behind to protect his dignity, shebecomes noble or not. As a matter of fact, one of the important conversations between Marguerite andArmand in the novel but not used in the opera is about the world of prostitutes and the men: She lovedArmand because he really cared about her when she was sick; men would be loved more if they knewwhat they would gain with one single tear drop. She complains about men who see prostitutes as an object, not as a human (Dumas, 2010: 130-131).
- Another difference between the novel and the opera is the effect of Prudence, another courtesan,on the love story of Marguerite and Armand, and her efforts to relate everything to the cruel world offinance. She symbolizes the selfish world of the prostitutes: Now old and not as appealing as she usedto be, she is more focused on the monetary side of the world. She warns Marguerite about how to getmore money from men; also informs Armand about the luxury and the egoistic psychology ofprostitutes, interfering with his dreams about Marguerite. She advises Armand to endure the fact thatMarguerite must have more than one lover in order to finance herself. She confronts Armand with thetruth that many men go bankrupt while dealing with a prostitute as beautiful and costly as Marguerite(Dumas, 2010: 108). Furthermore, the reader is informed in the novel about how Armand thinks to givehis money from his mother to Marguerite. The opera slightly tells how Violetta sells her horses and is indebt. The novel is more realistic compared to the opera in the sense of finance and the real world;someone has to make the lovers face with the reality of money, and that every good thing has a price.
- A very naïve approach to love and keeping it to oneself can be found in the novel, whenArmand tells about love being related to nature: He says that he can hide away Marguerite in thecountryside from Paris’ men who might have been a lover to her or will be in the future. He is so jealousof her that he feels safe only in nature, far away from familiar faces who might judge their love (Dumas,2010: 141). The novel is so sincere and dramatic that the reader cannot hold oneself but feel deep sorrow for the couple’s love.
- The casting in the opera is very crucial especially for the case of Violetta. The audience shouldbe convinced that the courtesan they are watching is both seductive and naïve at the same time. It is avery difficult job to be able to stage the ravishing and playful beauty and the dignified, noble andsacrificing woman who is going to die at the end. Anna Netrebko is a very popular example for themarvellous modern Violetta in “Brindisi” with Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by CarloRizzi (Verdi, 2005), compared to a more delicate and less seductive version of it as Renee Fleming.Fleming gives life to a very innocent and pure Violetta throughout the opera, while Netrebko’s style ismore in between the virgin and the prostitute. The staging in La Traviata of Netrebko is very wild andexciting; although the decoration seems very simple, it reflects the modern world of today with itsminimalistic figures. The stage director may have intended to make the stage look simpler in order toemphasize Violetta’s complicated dilemma about love. Netrebko’s performance of her last aria Addio delpassato is also wild even in her white gown, with some of her hair in front of her face. In general, theideal courtesan image of Marguerite can manage to be attractive and to earn her life using her body,although she is always sick and tired. Also she never enjoys fake love-making with other men due toher sincerity. She carries a great heart of dignity, in comparison with wild Violetta of Netrebko.Throughout the novel, the reader can easily sympathize with her because of her honesty and humaneness.
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