The hidden sadness and frustration of living as a moral outcast, the attempt to simulate innocence in frivolous living and the desperate search for relief from pain and anguish, the destruction of all hope in an unrealistic love affair... this is Violetta Valery.

Verdi penetrated the tormented sensitivity of her soul as he visualized her in his music, transforming her individual fate into a universal representation of human suffering. His compassion for her, however, met with bigoted censure:...