b"Program Notescontinuedthematic material from throughout the opera and comes to a close before the curtain rises.The plot describes lovers Don Alvaro and Leonora as they encounter a relentless series of misfortunes after they try to elope. After Don Alvaro accidentally shoots Leonoras father, the lovers separate and try to find autonomy, only to be defeated and reunited by fate. The emotional depth of the melodramatics in the opera is as present in the overture as it is in the body of the opera itself. The opening brass statement, which represents fate, creates an aura of foreboding, and the agitated ascending scalar passage in the strings foretells doom and gloom, recurring each time fate deals the lovers another blow.Instrumentationflute and piccolo, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, timpani, percussion, and stringsDuration: 8 minutesGiuseppe Verdi (1813-1901) La traviataAct I: Prelude strano! - Ah, fors' lui - Sempre liberaComposed 1852-54Verdi composed La traviata for the Teatro La Fenice in Venice, Italy. This theater was critical in the development of his operatic style. It was the house he most frequented as a composer, writing five operas for premiere there. Other operas were Ernani in 1844, Attia in 1846, Rigoletto in 1851 and Simon Boccanegra in 1857. Named after the apocryphal Phoenix who rises from the ashes, the theater has burned down three times (1792, 1836, and 1996) only to be rebuilt to remain one of the leading performance venues in the world today. The libretto for La traviata was written by Francesco Maria Piave (Verdi's most frequently used librettist), and was based on Alexandre Dumas, fils' novel La Dame aux Camlias. Verdi and Giuseppina Strepponi, his life partner who later became his wife, read the novel in 1848 and saw the play in 1852 together"