Verdi's La Traviata at the Academy of Music - 6abc Loves the Arts

September 20, 2015 (WPVI) -- Opera Philadelphia is coming to the Academy of Music, next month, with a story of love and tragedy in 3 acts.

Verdi's La Traviata is a classic, but Opera Philadelphia is staging the US premiere of a whole new production of the show that debuted in Bucharest, last year.

La Traviata is Italian for 'the fallen woman' and it's the tragic story of Violetta, a young courtesan famous in Paris high society.

"She lived a very extravagant lifestyle; she had many lovers who would provide her with riches and possessions and gold and jewels," says Lasette Oropesa, who plays the role of Violetta Valery, "but for the price of her being available to them."

And while Violetta is living the high life, she's secretly suffering from tuberculosis. She finds love but then her family disapproves of the match.

"This is a great first time opera," says Oropesa, "I'm sure that a lot of girls have dated a guy their parents didn't want them to be with."

This new production is a mix of modern and traditional with huge highs and lows. "There's joy and dancing and laughing and singing. There's also a person who's on a deathbed who's coughing up blood constantly," says Oropesa, "when I was working on this I couldn't get through it without just bawling."

She says the story asks theatre goers some deep questions, "Can a person who is in love be truly free?" And she predicts, "You'll have questions at the end but you'll also have some sort of deep answer to all of life and that it's a big mystery; that's the answer, that it's a mystery."

La Traviata opens at the Academy of Music October 2nd and runs through the 11th. For tickets and show times, go to www.TheArtsInPhilly.org.