Before we see Violetta Valéry in her slinky gold dress, before she sings a note, we see her portrait, the avatar of her Instagram account. Writ large on revolving screens (video design by Zakk Hein), we see streams of emojis whooshing by, adulation from her 147 million followers. We see the selfies she posts with her doctor to reassure her fans that  she is on the mend following an illness and ready to grace the most fashionable Parisian nightclubs with her high-cheekboned duckface. We are also privy to her private exchanges, scrolling through her texts, emails and bank statements. 

Pretty Yene as Violetta and cast members in La Traviata. Photograph © Charles Duprat

Simon Stone has installed the latest updates in his La Traviata, where the demi-monde has gone decidedly mainstream. He has given Verdi’s tragic courtesan a drastically contemporary makeover, transforming her into a VIP blogger and influencer to rival Beyoncé or Kim Kardashian. For his fourth opera production, the young Australian director has turned away from creating a Traviata for the ages, opting for a Traviata saturated with the right here and right now, depicting the zeitgeist...