Since Alphonsine Plessis, better known as Marie Duplessis, died a few months before Verdi’s first trip to Paris in 1847, he would not have met her. However, it is entirely possible that Giuseppina Strepponi knew her; she certainly would have known of her. In 1852 the couple was in Paris and saw Dumas’s La Dame aux camélias. Verdi had promised a new work for La Fenice in Venice and Piave was working on a libretto for a subject not now known. The composer told him to stop immediately and to begin a new work to be based on Dumas’s play. This is a testimony to the effect the piece had had on him because earlier he had said: "I don’t like prostitutes on stage". He composed what was to become La traviata, completing most of it in four weeks while he was still rehearsingIl trovatore.
Since Dumas’s novel and play were so well known, Verdi was able to omit some of the facets of the story which would have offended the censors; the audiences could fill in the gaps. (The play had been performed in Venice just a week before the première of the opera.) Venice was one of the few cities in which such a story could be told without extensive changes. Still there were a few problems. Verdi wanted it to reflect the contemporary scene but the censors insisted it be moved back to about 1700, the time of Louis XIV, so the "lascivious" goings-on would not be seen as a reflection of "modern" life.* The original title, Amore e morte (Love and Death) also had to be changed. (Traviata is the past participle of the verb traviare meaning to go astray so la traviata is the "one who has gone astray".)
Verdi had provisionally agreed to the casting of Violetta with the option of changing his mind by a certain date. In his preoccupation the date passed. Though he tried to make a change, his request was denied. Against his wishes, Violetta was sung by Fanny Salvini-Donatelli who was not young and was somewhat large for a dying consumptive. He thought the singers did not understand their roles and criticized them to their faces at the final rehearsal, not a tactic to instill confidence in them. Piave quotes him as saying:
“The whole company is unworthy of the great Teatro La Fenice…I have no hopes for the outcome which will be a total fiasco, and so the interest of the management will be sacrificed,…and so will my reputation be sacrificed.”
Thus predisposed for failure, Verdi reported that it was a total fiasco. This has been repeated over and over, giving the impression that the première was a disaster. In fact, it was a considerable success. The public began to shout for Verdi after the prelude and called out again and again during the performance. Reviews said that the music was magnificently played and "the public was ravished by the most beautiful and lively melodies that have been heard in a long time". They did criticize the voices of the singers and the consensus was that he should try again with a better cast. However, there was also dissension, for example:
“The love depicted by Verdi is voluptuous, sensual, totally lacking that angelic purity found in Bellini’s music…Verdi was unable to resist the temptation of setting to music a filthy and immoral subject with the aim of rendering it more common and acceptable.”
In particular, the fair sex had to be protected from such spectacles, "which insinuate poison into the soul".
La traviata was repeated nine times during its first season, and the attendance and reception continued to improve, being better than many other productions at La Fenice that season. Genoa and Naples wanted to produce the work immediately but Verdi refused. After a few changes, and with a better cast, it appeared again in Venice in 1854 and was a resounding success! Now he could say: "Then it was a fiasco, now it is creating an uproar!". Today it is one of the most popular operas in the repertory, many equally healthy sopranos have sung the role of Violetta, and the time is usually set about 1850 in accordance with Verdi’s original wishes.
The approval given by the Venetian censors did not apply to other cities. There were standard librettos which contained the original text and expurgated ones. Rome and Naples prepared new libretti and the opera was renamed Violetta. To fit the music, new lines had to be written which scanned the same as the original ones. Violetta is virtuous, and she spends her time giving parties. Alfredo proposes marriage and doesn’t live in the country house, only coming to visit. His father objects, not because of Violetta’s profession, but because she is of low birth.
In Victorian Britain, the opera and play fared even less well. When the Obscene Publications Act was introduced into the British Parliament, the example of pornography used was La Dame aux camélias. When the opera was first given at Covent Garden, no English translation of the libretto was given so most of the audience would not understand the subject matter.
However, La traviata was soon heard in Madrid, Barcelona and Lisbon; in Paris, Dublin, Vienna, Hamburg, Warsaw, Moscow and Budapest, and in Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires, Mexico City and New York, and every soprano who thought she could has wanted to sing Violetta.
* One early commentator mistakenly wrote that it was performed in contemporary dress, and he has been widely quoted, but it was years before it was set at any time other than about 1700.