Short answers, pulled from the story.
The premiere took place on the 6th of March 1853 at La Fenice opera house in Venice. The audience jeered during the performance when they saw the lead singer Fanny Salvini-Donatelli who was thirty-eight years old and considered too old to play a young woman dying of consumption.
Giuseppe Verdi wrote the music for this opera after seeing the play La Dame aux camélias in Paris. He began composing the work in 1852 with librettist Francesco Maria Piave to create a story about people living right now rather than mythical heroes.
The failure occurred because the lead singer Fanny Salvini-Donatelli was thirty-eight years old and considered too old and overweight to play a young woman dying of consumption. Verdi had tried to persuade the manager to choose a younger soprano but failed before the crowd turned against the performance after the second act began.
Revisions took place between 1853 and May 1854 affecting acts two and three mostly to transform the work into a success story. These changes helped the opera succeed when performed by a new cast led by Maria Spezia-Aldighieri who was much younger than the original singer.
England received its first performance on the 24th of May 1856 at His Majesty's Theatre in London. Church leaders tried to put an injunction upon the performance there while the Queen refrained from visiting the theatre during shows even though the music played at the palace.