La traviata (1979)

Violetta, a young and attractive courtesan, falls genuinely in love with Alfredo, a young man from Provence. She gives up her gay life and friends to live with him outside Paris. They are not married, but they are extremely happy together. His father has an interview with Violetta in which he asks her to break off her affair with Alfredo because it is jeopardizing the marriage of Alfredo’s sister to a suitable young man in Provence. During the interview the father becomes convinced that Violetta genuinely loves Alfredo but points out that with her reputation she cannot marry him and will spoil not only his life but his sister’s. Violetta agrees to sacrifice herself and returns to a life of empty gaiety, telling Alfredo she no longer loves him. The final act shows Violetta alone, dying of consumption, and waiting for Alfredo, whose father has only just told him of her sacrifice, to come to her. When he arrives, she begins to feel they can start their life together again, but the excitement has exhausted her and she dies in his arms.

Colin Graham