VALENTINO'S 'NEW' TRAVIATA

In a blockbuster mix of music, fashion, cinema and glamour, Valentino Garavani and longtime partner Giancarlo Giammetti hosted La Traviata on Sunday night at Rome’s Teatro dell’Opera to amazing success. The Giuseppe Verdi masterpiece was directed for the first time by Sofia Coppola, who offered a fresh, modern and simple take on an opera that even before its debut had raked in $1.3 million in ticket sales. Valentino designed four gowns for Violetta, the protagonist, who stole the stage with dramatic swooshes of red, gold and black. Current Valentino creative directors Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pier Paolo Piccioli, instead, designed the costumes for Flora Bervoix, Violetta’s friend, and for the chorus of over 1000 voices. All the costumes were created by Valentino’s Haute Couture Atelier and by the theater’s workshop, perfectly reflecting the Victorian period in which the tragic opera is set. According to the Theater’s original operaroma website, Valentino sees this special project “as a dream come true, since he has always been fascinated by opera and its power to invent fantastic and modern worlds, through wonderful and timeless music.” As for the guests, it was long list of heavy hitters, many of which flew in from Cannes to soak up the event. They included Kanye West and Kim Kardashian, Keira Knightly, Monica Bellucci, Francis Ford Coppola, Diane von Furstenberg, Frida Giannini and Patrizio Di Marco, Luke Evans, Raoul Bova, Eugenia Niarchos and Princes Paolo and Marie Chantal of Greece.