What is the Plot of the Opera "la Traviata"? ("the Lost One")

The scene of this opera is in Paris, and the time is about the year 1700.

The first act takes place in August, the second in January, the third in February.

The first act commences with a gay party in the house of Violetta (the heroine), a young and beautiful creature, thrown by circumstances and the loss of her parents in childhood, into a course of voluptuous living. She is surrounded by a circle of gay and thoughtless beings, who, like herself, devote their lives to pleasure.

Amongst the throng who crowd to her shrine, is Alfred Germont, a young man, who becomes seriously enamored of Violetta. Touched by the sincerity of his passion, she yields to his influence, a new and pure love springs up in her heart, and for the first time she becomes conscious of the misery of her position, and the hollowness of the pleasures in which she has basked.

In the second act, three months after the events narrated in the first act, we discover her living in seclusion with her lover in a country-house near Paris.

Alfred accidentally discovers that Violetta has been secretly selling her houses and property in Paris, in order to maintain this establishment; and, revolting at the idea of being a dependant on her bounty, he leaves hurriedly for Paris, to redeem his honor from this disgrace. During his absence, his father, who has discovered his retreat, arrives.

He represents to Violetta that his son's connection with her is not only lowering him in the opinion of the world, but will be ruinous to his family, inasmuch as his sister was betrothed to a wealthy noble, who had, however, declared his intention of renouncing her, unless Alfred would give up Violetta. The generous girl resolves to sacrifice her affection and happiness for her lover's sake, and returns alone to Paris, whither Alfred, overwhelmed with despair on discovering her flight, follows her.

In the next scene we are transported to a salon in the hotel of Flora, one of Violetta's former friends, during a festival given by the fair mistress of the mansion. There Alfred again meets Violetta, now under the protection of the Baron Douphol; and being unaware of the generous motive which made her desert him, he overwhelms her with reproaches, and flings the miniature she had given him at her feet, in the presence of the company. Degraded and heart-broken, the unfortunate Violetta returns home to die; and in the last act we find the sad romance of her life drawing to its close.

Alfred learns the truth of the sacrifice she has made to secure his happiness. Overwhelmed with grief and shame, he hastens, with his father, to comfort and console her, and to offer her his hand and name in reparation of the wrong he has done her; but too late! One gleam of happiness, the purest and brightest she has known, gilds the closing moments of her life. She dies, exclaiming, "I have returned to life! O happiness!"

The original story, by Alexandre Dumas the younger, from which the opera is taken, is entitled "La Dame aux Camelias." It has been also dramatized under the name of "Camille."