THE Russian State Ballet and Opera House presents Giuseppe Verdi's haunting tragedy La Traviata at York Barbican tomorrow night with a Bolshoi Theatre guest soloist – as yet unnamed – in the role of Violetta.

Verdi's 1853 love story shrouded in sacrifice and misunderstanding is set to an Italian libretto in three acts by Francesco Maria Piave, performed to the accompaniment of an orchestra of more than 30 musicians.

The title La Traviata means The Fallen Woman, or perhaps more figuratively, The Woman Who Strayed and the story is based on La Dame aux Camélias, a play adapted from the novel by Alexandre Dumas, fils.

Recounting Dumas’s true-life affair with the beautiful demi-mondaine Marie Duplessis, it depicts how courtesan Violetta is stuck in a round of endless parties until geeky writer Alfredo convinces her to live in the country.

Deeply in love, all is blissful contentment until some home truths convince her to leave Alfredo and head back into the arms of another, but shadowing Violetta is the disease that so often afflicts morally questionable 19th-century women: consumption.

Tickets are on sale on 0844 854 2757 or at yorkbarbican.co.uk or on the door tomorrow from 5pm. Bars open at 6.30pm for the 7.30pm start.