Spoiler alert! Right at the end of Verdi’s great tragedy, La Traviata, Violetta Valery, the benevolent Parisian hooker who finds a better life through her true love, Alfredo Germont, dies... ...Still, a sad ending is no reason to miss the Toledo Opera’s season-opening production of La Traviata next weekend.

When the Toledo Opera in March announced the cancellation of its final 2010-2011 production, Verdi's La Traviata, the pessimists predicted the demise of this region's proud 50-plus-year tradition of presenting live opera. That's when the optimists stepped up, gathered the many loose ends, and began to generate forward momentum.

The wealthy Count Almaviva loves the beautiful Rosina and wants to marry her. The less rich but far more but dashing barber, Figaro, loves Rosina, too. Even fusty old Dr. Bartolo, Rosina's legal guardian, is in love with his charge. Lucky Rosina? Maybe, maybe not, but the best way to figure it out is to watch the current Toledo Opera production of Giacomo Rossini's most beloved comic opera, The Barber of Seville.