Giuseppe Verdi

   Italian composer

   born: 10 October 1813, Roncole; died: 27 January 1901, Milan

              La Traviata - The Wayward Woman

                   Prelude to Act I

                   Un di felice (One happy day)

                   Ah, fors’è lui (He delights my heart)

                   Follie!  Follie!  (Madness!  Madness!)

                   Gypsy Chorus

                   Matador Chorus

                   Parigi, o cara (Paris my dearest)

                   Libiamo (Let us drink)

La Traviata was premiered in Venice at the famous opera house, La Fenice, in March of 1853.  The libretto by Francesco Maria Piave is based upon the novel, La dame aux camellias (The Lady of the Camellias), which appeared in 1848 from the pen of Alexandre Dumas, fils.

Set as a melodrama in three acts, the story begins in Paris in about 1850.  The time-frame is perfect for the drama at hand, i.e. the very real Paris of Chopin and Sand, Liszt and Marie D’Agoult, Balzac and Madame Hanska, Berlioz and Harriet Smithson, among other romantic duos – all of them fiery affairs.  Moreover, Verdi was himself a resident of Paris from 1848 through 1852.

The diva incarnate of La Traviata is Violetta, a beautiful courtesan who suffers from consumption, and who reluctantly falls in love with the young and idealistic Alfredo.  She abandons her life of pleasure to live with him happily at a country estate.  For the sake of his family’s reputation, Alfredo’s father, Germont, pleads with Violetta to abandon his son, which she does with profound sadness.

With no alternative, she takes up her previous life style in Paris.  Ignorant of her selfless sacrifice, Alfredo confronts Violetta in public and humiliates her by throwing money at her feet for “services rendered.”  When Violetta turns deathly ill, Alfredo’s father admits his cruel intervention.  In anguish, Alfredo rushes to Violetta’s side.  In her final hour all is understood and forgiven, as they pretend they shall leave Paris together (see below).  Violetta smiles gently at Alfredo as she dies in his embrace.

Verdi’s Prelude to Act I sets the lush but poignant tone of the opera overall.  The evocative music is also a stand-alone concert piece in the symphonic repertoire.  In Act I, scene 3, Alfredo confesses his profound love for Violetta in Un di, felice, eterea, to which she replies without encouragement.  In turn, Violetta’s aria in scene 5, Ah, fors’è lui che l’anima, recalls her childhood dreams.  And later in the same scene, Alfredo and Violetta sing of the madness of love in Follie!  Follie!

In Act II, a masquerade party in scenes 10 and 11 reveal Verdi at his entertaining best in Noi siamo zingarelle, a bright gypsy chorus with cameo lines for two incidental characters, the Marchese and his lover, Flora.  In turn, Di Madride noi siam mattadori is a song of amorous conquest by a chorus of macho matadors.  For bittersweet contract, from Act III, scene 6, just before the final curtain, Alfredo and Violetta sing of their dream to escape from the Parisian bourgeois in the tender aria Parigi, o cara, noi lasceremo.

But along the way, the lovers had enjoyed the levity of the chic boulevard cabarets, framed in scene 2 of Act I, where everyone takes delight in a Brindisi, a lusty drinking song to the pleasures of love:  Libiamo ne’ lieti calici (Let us drink goblets of joy).

As an aside, we note that La Traviata was inspired by a real-life society woman of exceptional beauty and charm named Marie Duplessis.  She had become the lover of the 20-year-old Alexandre Dumas, fils, who captured her persona in his celebrated novel.

program notes by Edward Yadzinsky