A debut by Sergei Semishkur in the opera La traviata

One of the most famous and popular operas in the history of music, La traviata is based on Alexandre Dumas fils’ play La Dame aux camélias, in turn based on his semi-autobiographical novel. It is a novel as well as a romance – the writer was affected by the charms of the opera heroine’s prototype, the renowned Parisian courtesan Marie Duplessis – apropos, like many others of the age, among them the composer Frantz Liszt. Just like Violetta, Marie died from consumption while still very young – nineteen days after her twenty-second birthday.

On 22 November Sergei Semishkur, one of the Mariinsky Opera’s leading soloists, will be appearing as the young and impetuous Alfredo Germont, Mademoiselle Valéry’s admirer, whose love cannot save Violetta from her inevitable death.