True love and ultimate self-sacrifice are both part of the emotional roller coaster of La Traviata, which will be performed by Moscow's Stanislavsky Opera Company at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday in Eisenhower Auditorium.

The story, which was written by Giuseppe Verdi and debuted in 1853, revolves around Violetta Valery, a courtesan who shuns and denies herself for the sake of love. While her lover, Alfredo Germont, is left devastated and clueless about her motives, the audience remains anxious throughout the performance.

"It's a wonderful love story, and it's psychologically so complex and interesting," said Bruce Trinkley, a Penn State professor who teaches musical composition and orchestration and has seen La Traviata six times. "If it's well done, you can't help but cry at the end. You see characters that are hoping against hope, and that's what pushes the tears."

Though uncharacteristic of most of Verdi's work, La Traviata was written in a contemporary fashion that allows the performance to be adaptable to any era.

"It is not a period piece and it is not a classical rendition," said Davin Brummett, company tour manager. "It is timeless."

Although conductor Felix Korobov speaks only Russian, an interpreter translated what he had to say about the performance.

The ambiguity "allows us to interpret the opera as something of our time," Korobov said. "The state of mind of this opera is modernized. Whichever time the opera will be performed in, it is still a story about love, about human emotions, and about sincere relationships between people, and everyone will be able to feel that."

The costumes and the set also diverge from classical tradition, as both escape definition and tend to be more reminiscent of modern times than of the mid-19th century.

"It is not the old-fashioned stuffy dresses that you would usually see," Korobov said.

The Stanislavsky Opera Company, established in 1918, is one of Russia's leading companies and has won rave reviews across Europe, Asia and America. Though Penn State's Center of Performing Arts has never worked with Stanislavsky before, it has brought in other international opera companies.

Though it may not seem like many college students would be fans of the opera, ticket sales in the past have shown otherwise.

"I'm surprised every year by the number of students who come to experience opera," Eisenhower marketing and communications director Laura Sullivan said. "Probably about a third of the audience is students."

La Traviata in particular "would be the perfect first go," Trinkley said. "It is full of color and spectacle that has beautiful music and beautiful orchestration. Great operas are the perfect multi-media art form."

Though the score and Italian lyrics are the originals, the performance is enhanced by English supertitles. The production consists of three acts and two intermissions.