Giuseppe Verdi | Italian composer | Britannica.com Italian composer Alternative Title: Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi Giuseppe Verdi Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Giuseppe Verdi, in full Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi (born October 9/10, 1813, Roncole, near Busseto, duchy of Parma [Italy]—died January 27, 1901, Milan, Italy), leading Italian composer of opera in the 19th century, noted for operas such as Rigoletto (1851), Il trovatore (1853), La traviata (1853), Don Carlos (1867), Aida (1871), Otello (1887), and Falstaff (1893) and for his Requiem Mass (1874). Giuseppe Verdi.

© Juulijs/Fotolia Early years Verdi’s father, Carlo Giuseppe Verdi, an innkeeper and owner of a small farm, gave his son the best education that could be mustered in a tiny village, near a small town of about 4,000 inhabitants, in the then-impoverished Po Valley. The child must have shown unusual talent, for he was given lessons from his fourth year, a spinet was bought for him, and by age 9 he was standing in for his teacher as organist in the village church. He attended the village school and at 10 the ginnasio (secondary school) in Busseto. A little later he composed music (now lost) for the town church and the largely amateur orchestra. One of Busseto’s leading citizens, Antonio Barezzi, a merchant and fanatical music enthusiast, became a second father to the young prodigy, taking him into his home, sending him to study in Milan, and in 1836 giving him his daughter Margherita in marriage.

Refused by the Milan Conservatory—he was past the admission age and played the piano poorly—Verdi studied privately with Vincenzo Lavigna, an older composer and an associate of La Scala opera house (Teatro alla Scala). Milan was the intellectual and operatic centre of Italy , and in the years 1832–35 Verdi seems to have learned much about literature and politics there as well as counterpoint and the elements of opera. Later, after his great success with Nabucco, he attended literary salons in the city and made lasting friendships with some cultivated aristocrats. opera: Verdi Barezzi’s plan was for Verdi to return to Busseto as music director, but when this post fell open in 1833 a furious political storm developed leading to long delays. Soured by this, Verdi nonetheless took a compromise position and stayed from March 1836 to October 1838, teaching and composing a good deal, though all he published was a set of songs in 1838. Needless to say, he had his eye on greater things.

The music that he had written during these years must have impressed the right people, for after some difficulty he succeeded in getting an opera, Oberto, conte di San Bonifacio, produced at La Scala in March 1839. Ordinary as the piece may seem today, it succeeded well enough to travel to Genoa and Turin and to gain him a commission for three more operas at Italy’s leading theatre. His rising career was deflected by tragedy: in 1840 his young wife died, following the deaths of two infant children. In addition to this personal grief, Verdi saw his next opera, Un giorno di regno (King for a Day), a comedy, hissed off the stage. This compounded trauma led to a severe depression and either caused or fixed the dour, fatalistic, sometimes harsh aspects of Verdi’s character. Early career Ringling Bros.

Folds Its Tent Verdi overcame his despair by composing Nabucodonoser (composed 1841, first performed 1842; known as Nabucco ), based on the biblical Nebuchadnezzar ( Nebuchadrezzar II ), though the well-known story he told later about snapping out of his lethargy only when the libretto fell open at the chorus “Va, pensiero”—by that time one of his most beloved works—is no longer credited. (The older Verdi embroidered on various aspects of his early life, exaggerating the lowliness of his origins, for example.) Nabucco succeeded as sensationally as Un giorno had failed abjectly, and Verdi at age 28 became the new hero of Italian music. The work sped across Italy and the whole world of opera; within a decade it had reached as far as St. Petersburg and Buenos Aires , Argentina . While its musical style is primitive by the composer’s later standards, Nabucco’s raw energy has kept it alive a century and a half later. Exploring Italy and France: Fact or Fiction?

There followed a period (1843–49) during which Verdi drove himself like a galley slave, as he himself put it, and to the detriment of his health, to produce nearly two operas a year. His aim was to make enough money for early retirement as a gentleman farmer at Sant’Agata, close to Roncole, where his forebears had settled. He purchased land there as early as 1844. To “produce” an opera meant, at that time, to negotiate with an impresario, secure and edit (often heavily) a libretto, find or approve the singers, compose the music, supervise rehearsals, conduct the first three performances, deal with publishers, and more—all this while shuttling from one end of Italy to the other in the days before railroads. Britannica Lists & Quizzes Editor Picks: Exploring 10 Types of Basketball Movies Though masterpieces were unlikely to emerge from a schedule like this, Verdi’s next two operas were, amazingly, just as wildly successful: I Lombardi alla prima crociata (1843; The Lombards on the First Crusade) and Ernani (1844).

The latter became the only work of the “galley-slave” period to gain a steady place in the opera repertory worldwide. His other operas had varying receptions. A list made in 1844 of possible subjects for librettos shows Verdi’s high-minded concern for literary and dramatic values. It included King Lear, a project he would return to and abandon several times in later years. In the 1840s he drew on Victor Hugo for Ernani, Lord Byron for I due Foscari (1844; The Two Foscari) and Il corsaro (1848; The Corsair), Friedrich von Schiller for Giovanna d’Arco (1845; Joan of Arc), I masnadieri (1847; The Bandits), and Luisa Miller (1849), Voltaire for Alzira (1845), and Zacharias Werner for Attila (1846). Only with Macbeth (1847), however, was Verdi inspired to fashion an opera that is as gripping as it is original and, in many ways, independent of tradition.

Just as the biblical theme had contributed to the grandeur of Nabucco, so the tragic theme of Shakespeare’s drama called forth the best in him. Verdi knew the value of this work and revised it in 1865, excising some of its crudities; but its greatest number, the harrowing sleepwalking scene of Lady Macbeth , could be left just as it was written in 1847. By that time he was receiving lucrative commissions from abroad—from London (I masnadieri) and Paris (Jérusalem, a thorough revision of I Lombardi, 1847). La battaglia di Legnano (1849; The Battle of Legnano), a tale of love and jealousy set against the Lombard League ’s victory over Frederick Barbarossa in 1176 ce, was Verdi’s emphatic response to the Italian unification movement, or Risorgimento , which spilled over into open warfare in 1848, the year of revolutions. Greeted ecstatically at the time, this opera later faded.

Connect with Britannica Facebook Twitter YouTube Instagram Pinterest It is often said that in the earlier operas, too, choruses and other numbers calling for liberation or revolt were taken metaphorically as revolutionary rallying cries, and evidently this did happen on isolated occasions. However, it was only after unification in 1861, when the conte di Cavour , seeking to involve as many important Italians as possible, persuaded the composer to stand for the Chamber of Deputies—which he attended faithfully but soon resigned from—that Verdi came to be widely celebrated as a national hero. “Va, pensiero,” the song of the enslaved Hebrews in Nabucco, assumed the status of an unofficial national anthem . That the vision of Verdi as “singer of the Risorgimento ” owes less to historical fact than to patriotic nostalgia should not be thought to diminish its significance; adapted to words about the downtrodden masses, “Va, pensiero” could still be heard at Italian communist rallies in the 1990s.

The early middle years The prima donna who created Abigaille in Nabucco, Giuseppina Strepponi, who also had helped Verdi as early as 1839 with Oberto, ultimately became his second wife. Her love, support, and practical assistance on behalf of Verdi, over half a century, was boundless, though he was not an easy husband. Born in 1815, Strepponi had a quite successful, if short, career. Living for a time with her agent, one Camillo Cirelli, in effect as common-law wife, she had borne three children, the oldest of whom (her only son, Camillino) was reared by her former maid. (The two other children were daughters and were given up for adoption.) When her voice began to deteriorate she set up as a teacher in Paris , where Verdi met her again in 1847 while there to produce Jérusalem. They fell in love and were soon living together, though they did not marry until 1859.

Strepponi, a devout Catholic, seems to have felt herself unworthy to be Verdi’s wife, a feeling that one suspects Verdi may have shared on some level. It also seems possible that marriage was put off until her son came of age in 1859. Trending Topics Eyjafjallajökull volcano The new richness and depth of Verdi’s musico-dramatic characterization in these years, especially though not exclusively of women, may have developed out of his relationship with Strepponi. She is often evoked in connection with the sympathetic and radiant portrayal of Violetta in La traviata (The Fallen Woman—a rough analogy , to be sure, for Violetta the courtesan had fallen a great deal farther than Strepponi the singer). Yet Verdi showed scant sympathy for the real-life woman when he determined to move back with her to Busseto in 1849 and then to Sant’Agata, where small-town outrage at their liaison reached a peak. For some time he refused to allow her to accompany him on his many travels, which left her alone in a very hostile environment .

He himself responded furiously to local censure and refused to have anything to do with Busseto and its musical activities, having first scrupulously repaid with interest the contribution made by the commune to his musical education. Listen: “traviata, La”: excerpt from “Libiamo” Excerpt from the song “Libiamo” (“Let Us Drink”) from Giuseppe Verdi’s … Listen: Verdi, Giuseppe: excerpt from “Rigoletto” as performed by Caruso An excerpt from “ Bella figlia dell’amore ” from Giuseppe Verdi’s opera … In the meantime he had composed three operas that remain his best known and best loved: Rigoletto (1851), Il trovatore (1853; The Troubadour), and La traviata (1853). The tunes were better than any he had written before, the drama tighter and more exciting, and the characterization altogether original.

Rigoletto makes an important technical advance toward a coherent presentation of the drama in music, especially in the famous third act; there is less distinction between the recitatives (the parts of the score that carry the plot forward in imitation of speech), which tend toward arioso (melodic, lyric quality), and the arias, which are treated less formally and dovetailed into their surroundings, sometimes almost unobtrusively. Even greater is the contrast of style in La traviata, with its intimate mood and lyrical pathos—a vein Verdi had previously explored in Luisa Miller. (Click here for an audio clip of an aria from La traviata. Click here for another excerpt, from Rigoletto, as sung by tenor Enrico Caruso . Another audio clip from Verdi may be heard at the Britannica biography of Amelita Galli-Curci .) By this time he had honed his skills as a competitor in the rapacious marketplace that was 19th-century Italian opera—or, as he always saw it, the grim site of major battles, endless skirmishes, and equivocal victories. He drove hard bargains, complained bitterly at every reverse, stonewalled, and sued.

He tried to insist that his operas be performed exactly as written, without cuts, transpositions, or substitutions. He met his match with the censors, especially after 1848. The plot of Le roi s’amuse, the play by Hugo that inspired Rigoletto, features a curse that was deemed blasphemous and the attempted murder of a king that was politically taboo; only after the king was demoted to a duke and various other modifications were made could the text be approved. Traviata experienced problems of another kind. With La Dame aux camélias (“The Lady of the Camellias”), Alexandre Dumas fils had just caused a considerable scandal in Paris, and Verdi’s operatic version, though at first performed in 17th-century costumes, too obviously broke from operatic convention in setting a present-day subject, and a risqué one at that. For this reason and also because a stout prima donna had been cast as the consumptive heroine, the first performance was a rare Verdi fiasco. “Is it my fault or the singers’? Time will show,” was Verdi’s characteristically laconic comment. After minor revisions and a new production, the opera carried all before it.

The later middle years Verdi had become an international celebrity, and the change in his status was reflected in his art. From 1855 to 1870 he devoted himself to providing works for the Opéra at Paris and other theatres conforming to the Parisian operatic standard, which demanded spectacular dramas on subjects of high seriousness in five acts with a ballet . He was pointedly challenging Giacomo Meyerbeer , the one European composer more renowned and wealthier than he was, on Meyerbeer’s own ground. While these operas show advances in many areas and include superb scenes, none of them is as satisfactory as a whole as any of the three great operas of the early 1850s. His first essay in the new manner, Les Vêpres siciliennes (1855; The Sicilian Vespers), is a rather cold piece that has had only lukewarm success from its premiere on. The fault lay partly in the libretto—by Meyerbeer’s own librettist, the poet Eugène Scribe ; Scribe merely refashioned an old piece he had written for Gaetano Donizetti .

Two pieces for Italian theatres, Simon Boccanegra (1857) and Un ballo in maschera (1859; A Masked Ball), affected to a lesser extent by the impact of the grand operatic style, show the enrichment of Verdi’s power as an interpreter of human character and as a master of orchestral colour. Boccanegra, despite a gloomy and excessively complex plot, includes powerful scenes and creates a special windswept atmosphere appropriate to its Genoese pirate protagonist. (Verdi often spoke of the unique tinta [“colour”] of each of his operas.) Much more successful with the public was Ballo, a romantic version of the assassination of Gustav III of Sweden—even though again the censorship barred the murder of a king and so made nonsense of the story, its setting transported from 18th-century Stockholm to Puritan Boston, a hundred years earlier. These years also saw Aroldo (1857), an unsuccessful revision of Stiffelio (1850). In 1862 Verdi represented Italian musicians at the London Exhibition, for which he composed a cantata to words by the up-and-coming poet and composer Arrigo Boito .

In opera the big money came from foreign commissions, and in the same year his next work, La forza del destino (The Force of Destiny), was produced at St. Petersburg. Always on the lookout for novel dramatic material, Verdi had wanted to tackle the epic narrative extending over many years and many locations, with scenes of high life and low. This he managed in Forza, which also includes the most extended religious scene in a Verdi opera and his first substantial comic role, that of the irascible Friar Melitone. Verdi finally surpassed Meyerbeer at the Paris Opéra (at least according to opinion at the turn of the 21st century—though not at the time) with Don Carlos (1867), a setting of another play by Schiller that is for once worthy of the original—and in which religion is portrayed much more harshly, and much more in accordance with Verdi’s lifelong strong anticlerical sentiments , than in Forza. Despite its problematic ending, Don Carlos is regarded by some as Verdi’s masterpiece, or at least his masterpiece prior to the Shakespeare operas of his last years.

Verdi felt that both operas with foreign commissions required revision for Italian theatres; this he accomplished for Forza in 1869 and Don Carlo (as it is now usually called) in 1884 and 1887. He needed none with the piece in which at last he fashioned a libretto exactly to his needs, Aida . Verdi wrote a detailed scenario—much simpler than those of the previous two operas—employing Antonio Ghislanzoni, a competent poet, to turn it into verse, the metres of which were often dictated by the composer. Commissioned by the khedive of Egypt to celebrate the opening of Cairo’s new Opera House in 1869 (Verdi had earlier declined a commission for an inaugural hymn celebrating the opening of the Suez Canal ), Aida finally premiered there in 1871 and went on to receive worldwide acclaim. Verdi had achieved the grandeur and the gravitas of the Parisian style without its notorious excess padding and without any weak spots, and onto it he had grafted an emotional intensity that only he could furnish.

Late years When Gioachino Rossini , the most revered figure in modern Italian music, died in 1868, Verdi proposed that a requiem mass in his honour be composed by himself and a dozen of his contemporaries. The project collapsed and Angelo Mariani, who was to have conducted the performance, seemed to Verdi less than wholehearted in his support. Verdi, who could not bear being thwarted, visited his wrath on the unfortunate Mariani, who was the most distinguished Italian conductor of the day and, until then, had been one of his closest friends. The quarrel shows both Verdi and Giuseppina at their worst. Verdi could never forgive an injury, real or imagined, as attested to by his lifelong hatred of La Scala and its audience, which had rejected Un giorno di regno, and his contempt for the town of Busseto. The breach with Mariani widened when the conductor refused to go to Cairo to direct the first performance of Aida. He pleaded illness and was indeed suffering terribly from cancer, of which he died in 1873.

Things reached a very ugly pitch when a scurrilous newspaper story accused Verdi of stealing Mariani’s fiancée, the soprano Teresa Stolz. Giuseppe Verdi. © iStockphoto/Thinkstock Although little is known for certain, Giuseppina’s private papers reveal her great distress. She worked valiantly to preserve the marriage, persevering in the most cordial relations possible with Stolz, who finally made some kind of break when she left Italy in 1876. Apparently Giuseppina had put her foot down. But two years later Stolz resumed visits to Sant’Agata, and it was clear the relationship had not blown over. Twenty years later, letters from Verdi that somehow escaped destruction speak of his love for Stolz. She was present at the composer’s deathbed. In 1873, while waiting in a Naples hotel for a production of Aida, Verdi wrote a string quartet , the only instrumental composition of his maturity. In the same year, he was moved by the death of the Italian patriot and poet Alessandro Manzoni to compose a requiem mass in his honour.

He was able to incorporate into it the final movement (“Libera me”) that he had written for the abortive Rossini mass . One of the masterpieces in the oratorio tradition, often heard in concert series into the 21st century, the Manzoni Requiem is an impressive testimony to what Verdi could do outside of the field of opera. After 1873 the maestro considered himself retired, at long last, from that world of opera to which he had been bound for so many years in a love-hate relationship. He settled in at Sant’Agata, where the same iron hand and obsessive attention to detail that he had applied to operatic rehearsals came to control all aspects of his farming enterprise. A 20-year program of enlargement and improvement of his estates made him a major landholder and a very wealthy man. He funded major charities, of which the best known is the Casa di Riposo per Musicisti, a home for aged musicians that is still in operation in Milan. His unintended and unimagined return to the stage, many years after Aida, was entirely due to the initiative of his publisher, Giulio Ricordi .

Reluctant to allow his most profitable composer to rest on his laurels, Ricordi contrived a reconciliation with Arrigo Boito, who had offended Verdi by some youthful criticism . A proposal that Boito should write a libretto based on Shakespeare ’s Othello attracted the old composer, and, as a sort of test, the now-prominent man of letters and composer of the opera Mefistofele agreed to revise the unsatisfactory libretto of Simon Boccanegra. The latter opera is still performed because of Boito’s revision of 1881. The Othello project then took shape, very slowly, on and off, until the opera finally opened at La Scala in 1887. In his 74th year, Verdi, stimulated by a libretto far superior to anything he had previously set, had produced his tragic masterpiece. In Otello the drama is absorbed into a continuous and flexible musical score vastly advanced in style over that of Aida, reflecting every aspect of the characters and every nuance of the action. After a rapturous tour with Otello throughout Europe, Verdi once more retreated to Sant’Agata, declaring that he had composed his last opera.

Yet Ricordi and Boito, who had grown very close to the old man, managed to intervene one more time. With infinite skill, Boito converted Shakespeare’s The Merry Wives of Windsor , strengthened with passages adapted from the Henry IV plays, into the perfect comic libretto, Falstaff , which Verdi set to miraculously fresh and mercurial music (and this time with fewer delays). This, his last dramatic work, produced at La Scala in 1893, avenged the cruel failure of Verdi’s only other comedy in the same theatre half a century earlier. Even after Falstaff Verdi still interested himself in composition. His list of works ends with sacred music for chorus: a Stabat Mater and a Te Deum published, along with the somewhat earlier and slighter Ave Maria and Laudi alla Vergine Maria, under the title Quattro pezzi sacri (Four Sacred Pieces) in 1898. After a long decline Giuseppina had died in 1897, and Verdi himself gradually grew weaker and died four years later.

Assessment Born in the same year, Verdi and Richard Wagner created parallel, mutually exclusive types of opera that figure equally among the greatest achievements of 19th-century culture . Their works remain at the heart of opera repertory at the beginning of the 21st century. Verdi appeared on the operatic scene just as the Italian bel canto tradition of Rossini, Vincenzo Bellini , and Donizetti, in the quarter-century from about 1815 to 1845, entered its waning phase. He transformed it and dominated Italian opera alone for another 30 years. It was a period of constant experimentation, constant refinement of musical and dramatic means—a process that seems to have continued underground to germinate the two transcendent Shakespeare operas written 20 years after his supposed retirement. At first it was mainly his vigour and dramatic intelligence that distinguished his operas, works that audiences could feel were continuing safely in his predecessors’ footsteps. But step by step Verdi modified the rigid conventions of bel canto opera, which showed off singers at the expense of dramatic values. Verdi’s genius was to dismantle the system while still giving the singers (and their audiences) melody and brilliance in ample measure.

All of this was in the service of drama, as Verdi always stressed, and drama, as he saw it, emerged from the interaction of people in striking, usually dire situations—people who were characterized unforgettably by Verdi’s music. No opera composer has ever assembled a more varied and vivid portrait gallery: Rigoletto, evil jester and loving father; self-sacrificing Violetta of La traviata and self-destructive Amneris of Aida; implacable Fiesco in Simon Boccanegra; the page Oscar in Ballo; the passionate Leonora of Trovatore and the tormented Leonora of Forza; the truly Shakespearean Lady Macbeth; and Verdi’s own Desdemona. His operas move rapidly, with unerring dramatic rhythm. He developed a whole new musical vocabulary, which broadened the role of the orchestra without compromising the primacy of the voice. He introduced a range of subject matter never before touched in opera; the later Verdi could be subtle, gentle, and atmospheric as well as powerful. Generations of listeners the world over, in and out of the opera house, have loved Verdi’s melodies.

The best of them serve the drama, capturing his characters’ emotions with a warmth and directness achieved by few other composers. La traviata | opera by Verdi | Britannica.com opera by Verdi Alternative Title: “The Fallen Woman” Related Topics Camille La traviata, opera in three acts by Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi ( libretto in Italian by Francesco Maria Piave ) that premiered in Venice at La Fenice opera house on March 6, 1853. Based upon the 1852 play by Alexandre Dumas fils ( La Dame aux camélias ), the opera marked a large step forward for Verdi in his quest to express dramatic ideas in music . La traviata means “the fallen woman” or “the one who goes astray” and refers to the main character, Violetta Valéry, a courtesan. The opera features some of the most challenging and revered music in the entire soprano repertoire; the aria “ Sempre libera ” at the end of Act I is especially well known.

Background and context Dumas, in his novel of 1848 and the play based on it, recalls an actual “lady of pleasure” (the scandalous Marie Duplessis) whom he had known and adored. Like Violetta in the opera, Duplessis had conquered Parisian society with her wit, charm, and beauty, but her reign was a brief one—she died of tuberculosis in 1847 at age 23. Verdi attended the play in 1852 in Paris , where he was spending the winter. The composer had already read the novel and had begun to conceive of an opera based on the story. La Fenice had been clamouring for a new work; although the theatre would supply funding and performers, Verdi was afraid its singers would not do the opera justice . He was right. Of the primary cast members, only the soprano who played Violetta (Fanny Salvini-Donatelli) was adequate as a singer. Unfortunately, she was 38 years old and overweight. When La traviata premiered, audience members openly mocked the idea that she could possibly be a desirable courtesan, let alone one wasting away from tuberculosis.

Verdi called the night a fiasco, yet he did not allow himself to be overly distressed, writing to a conductor friend, “I do not think that the last word on La traviata was uttered last night.” Within two months he was vindicated: the revival that opened May 6, 1853, at the Teatro San Benedetto in Venice, with more suitable singers and a few small revisions in the score, was an unqualified success. Giuseppe Verdi. Messiah La traviata’s subject and setting were novel for opera in the middle of the 19th century. The scale is intimate and bourgeois, not heroic or noble. The heroine is a fallen woman who earns redemption through sacrifice—a notion that was somewhat risqué at the time—although not forbidden by censors. Verdi was adamant that the opera be set in the present day (that is, the 1850s), with modern costumes. Opera companies would not comply, insisting on setting the story in the early 18th century.

(The first performance set in the period Verdi specified took place in 1906, after Verdi’s death and well after the setting could be called contemporary.) More than other Italian opera composers of the time, Verdi unified the music and underscored the drama through the use of techniques such as repeated phrases (Violetta’s “ Ah, fors’è lui ” echoes Alfredo’s declaration of love and continues as a love theme), instrumentation (high violins underscore Violetta’s character from the overture onward), coloratura ornamentation that reflects Violetta’s agitation (thus justifying what otherwise can seem empty virtuosity), and musical continuity (through blurring the line between recitative and aria ). During Verdi’s lifetime La traviata was one of the most frequently performed of all operas, and it has continued to be through to the present. The story feels immediate, and the melodies are beautiful. Practically speaking, the demands on orchestra and singers do not overburden the resources of even modest opera companies.

Violetta Valéry, a courtesan (soprano) Alfredo Germont, her young lover (tenor) Giorgio Germont, his father (baritone) Baron Douphol, Violetta’s former lover (bass) Flora Bervoix, Violetta’s friend (mezzo-soprano) Marquis d’Obigny, Flora’s lover (bass) Gastone de Letorières, Violetta’s friend (tenor) Doctor Grenvil, Violetta’s physician (bass) Giuseppe, Violetta’s servant (tenor) Annina, Violetta’s maid (soprano) Party guests, servants, dancers La traviata takes place in and around Paris, about 1850. Act I Violetta’s salon in Paris. Listen: La traviata Libiamo, ” from La traviata by Giuseppe Verdi, … Violetta, a Parisian demimondaine, is hosting a party. A number of young men arrive in the wake of Flora, another courtesan, and Flora’s lover, the Marquis d’Obigny.

Violetta’s friend, the Viscount Gastone, introduces young Alfredo Germont to her. Gastone tells her that during her recent illness, Alfredo had inquired after her daily. Violetta, amused, cannot understand why and teases her lover, Baron Douphol, that he did not do the same. The Baron explains that he has known her only a year, but she retorts that Alfredo has known her only a few minutes. Flora tells the annoyed Baron that it would have been better for him to have kept silent. Gastone, meanwhile, urges the shy Alfredo to speak; Violetta pours him a glass of champagne as encouragement. Gastone asks the Baron to propose a toast; the Baron refuses, so Gastone turns to Alfredo, who hesitates until Violetta assures him that it would please her. He then leads everyone in a lively drinking song (“ Libiamo ”), and the attraction between the two becomes clear. Violetta invites everyone to go to the ballroom for dancing but is stricken with dizziness. Her friends try to help her, but she insists that she will be fine and sends them all into the ballroom.

Alone, she looks at herself in the mirror and is shocked to see how pale she is. Alfredo comes up behind her to ask if she is feeling better. She tells him that she is, but he replies that she must take better care of herself; he says that if she were his, he would always watch over her. When she brushes this off, saying that no one takes care of her, he answers that no one loves her but he. Now Violetta laughs at him, and he chides her for being heartless. When she replies that perhaps she does have a heart, he responds that if she did, she would not make fun of him, for he has loved her deeply for a year. But she can offer him only friendship and urges him to forget her (duet: “ Un dì felice ”). Gastone drops in from the ballroom to see what is going on, and Violetta assures him there is nothing. Alone once more, Violetta makes Alfredo promise not to speak of love again. He is about to leave in a huff when, taking pity on him, Violetta gives him one of her camellias and asks him to bring it back when it has faded.

Alfredo is thrilled, but Violetta still cannot believe that he really loves her. They say their goodbyes just as the guests come crowding into the salon to make their own farewells. Connect with Britannica Sempre libera, ” from La traviata by Giuseppe … Left alone, Violetta wonders if she could ever truly be in love and if it was Alfredo who awakened that unaccustomed feeling in her (“ Ah, fors’è lui ”). But she casts aside the thought as foolishness. For her, love is an illusion , and she must simply live free and for pleasure alone (“ Sempre libera ”)—even though Alfredo’s declaration of love still rings in her ears. Act II Scene 1. Violetta’s country house near Paris. Alfredo and Violetta have now been living together in the country for three months, and he is filled with happiness (“ Dei miei bollenti spiriti ”). But his rapture is interrupted by the maid Annina, who informs him that Violetta has had to sell her horses , carriage , and other possessions in order to pay their expenses.

Alfredo is shocked and vows to go to Paris and pay the debt, but he forbids Annina to tell Violetta of his plan. Violetta enters from the garden and asks Annina about Alfredo’s whereabouts. Annina tells her only that he has gone to Paris. The servant Giuseppe enters with a letter for Violetta, and she informs him that she is expecting a visitor. The letter is an invitation from Flora to attend her ball that evening, but Violetta has no intention of going. Giuseppe announces the arrival of a gentleman. To her surprise, her visitor is Giorgio Germont, Alfredo’s father. He accuses her of bewitching his son, but she reminds him, with dignity, that she is a lady in her own house. He is impressed by her manner but tells her that Alfredo wants to bestow his fortune on her. She responds that he would not dare, for she would refuse; she produces a paper proving that she has been selling her own possessions to pay their expenses. Astounded, Germont softens toward her and regrets that her past has been scandalous. She loves Alfredo now, she says, and God will forgive her for her past.

But Germont must ask her to make another sacrifice: to leave his son for the sake of his young daughter, who is about to marry a respectable man (“ Pura siccome un angelo Editor Picks: Exploring 10 Types of Basketball Movies Violetta thinks that Germont is asking her only to leave Alfredo temporarily, until the marriage has taken place, but, to her distress, he tells her that she must leave him forever. She replies that she would rather die than give up her love. Germont reminds her that, while she is young and beautiful now, she will someday lose her looks, and Alfredo, being a man, will become bored with her, especially since their union will not have been blessed by God. As she bemoans her fate, Germont urges her to be a “consoling angel” to his family. Weeping, she gives in, asking Germont to tell his daughter that she, Violetta, will die giving up her only ray of hope to the young girl. Germont pities her, acknowledging the supreme sacrifice she has made and urging her to take courage.

He suggests that she tell Alfredo that she no longer loves him, but she replies that he will not believe it, and that if she simply left, he would follow her. She asks Germont to embrace her as a daughter to give her the strength to do what she must do and to console Alfredo after she has left him. When he asks what she will do, she refuses to tell him but begs him not to allow Alfredo to curse her memory. He promises that her sacrifice will not go unrewarded and leaves with a wish that she be happy. Trending Topics Pearl Harbor attack Violetta writes a letter and gives it to Annina to deliver; the maid is surprised at the address, but Violetta commands her to keep silent and deliver it at once. Then Violetta, with difficulty, writes to Alfredo. She is just finishing the letter when Alfredo, apparently concerned about something, enters and asks her what she is doing. When she hesitates, he demands the letter, but she refuses to give it to him. He asks her to forgive him, for he is worried—his father has left him a rather stern note. But he is confident that when his father sees Violetta, he will love her.

Violetta becomes agitated and says that Germont must not find her there. She begs Alfredo to love her as she loves him and rushes off. Giuseppe hurries in to tell Alfredo that Violetta has taken off for Paris and that Annina had gone before her. Alfredo tells Giuseppe to calm down, as he knows this already. Alfredo surmises that Violetta has gone to sell more of her possessions, but he is confident that Annina will stop her. A messenger arrives with a letter from a lady in a carriage. Seeing that the letter is from Violetta, Alfredo begins to tremble and is thunderstruck when he reads the contents. At that moment, his father arrives. Alfredo, weeping, falls into his arms. Germont urges Alfredo to return to his family in Provence (“ Di Provenza il mar, il suol ”). But Alfredo, enraged by the thought that Violetta is returning to her old lover, Baron Douphol, refuses to listen. He finds Flora’s invitation and rushes off to confront Violetta at the ball. Scene 2. Flora’s salon in Paris.

At her ball, Flora is looking forward to seeing the masqueraders. She has invited Violetta and Alfredo, but the Marquis tells her that they have separated and that Violetta is coming with the Baron instead. Surprised, Doctor Grenvil recalls that he had just seen them the day before and that they had seemed happy. Several young women costumed as gypsies come in and begin reading the guests’ palms. They tell Flora that she has many rivals and that the Marquis is not a model of fidelity . Flora threatens to make the Marquis regret his inconstancy, but the Doctor and some of the gypsies smooth things over. Then Gastone arrives with a group of men dressed as matadors , singing of a brave toreador who loved an Andalusian maiden. As the guests applaud, Alfredo enters; when asked where Violetta is, he says he doesn’t know. He joins other guests at the gaming tables. Meanwhile, Violetta arrives with the Baron, who orders her not to say a word to Alfredo. Seeing Violetta’s distress, Flora takes her aside and asks her what has happened.

As they talk, Alfredo is winning at cards and loudly proclaims that one who is unlucky in love is lucky at gambling. He also announces that he will go back to the country to enjoy his winnings with the woman who left him. The Baron nearly calls him out, but a warning word from Violetta makes him offer to gamble against Alfredo instead. Alfredo wins repeatedly until supper is announced. As everyone files out, the two vow to continue their game later. Violetta returns alone, having asked Alfredo to come speak to her. He coldly asks her what she wants. She urges him to leave, as he is in danger. He taunts her, saying that if he kills the Baron in a duel, she will be left without a lover or a keeper. But she responds that she fears only Alfredo’s death. Alfredo does not believe her at first, then promises to leave only if she will come with him. She refuses, admitting that she took a sacred oath to leave him. He asks her whether she made the promise to the Baron. With extreme difficulty, she tells him yes, and when he asks whether she loves the Baron, she tells him that she does.

Furious, Alfredo calls in the guests; he tells them that she had spent all her money on him and that now he must repay her. He flings his winnings at Violetta, who faints in Flora’s arms. All the guests denounce him. Meanwhile, Giorgio Germont has already arrived and seen what Alfredo has done. He reproaches his son for his poor behaviour. The Baron then challenges Alfredo to a duel. Violetta, recovering under the ministrations of her friends, tells Alfredo that he cannot understand how much she still loves him and what she has done for that love. Alfredo despairs over the way he has treated her. She forgives him as his father leads him away. Act III Violetta’s bedroom in Paris. Violetta is asleep. She wakes and asks Annina, who has dozed off in a nearby chair, to bring her some water and to let a little light into the room. As she does so, Annina sees Dr. Grenvil approaching. Violetta is happy at the prospect of seeing a true friend and asks Annina to help her up.

The doctor asks her how she is; she says that, although she is suffering physically, she has taken spiritual comfort in religion . The doctor assures her that she will soon be better, but she playfully accuses him of lying. As he says goodbye, she asks him not to forget her. At the door, Annina quietly asks the doctor about Violetta’s true condition; he replies that her consumption will give her only a few more hours to live. Violetta asks Annina whether it is a holiday; Annina tells her that it is Carnival time. Violetta thinks of those who are suffering during the festivities and tells Annina to give to the poor half of the money she has left. Listen: Verdi, La traviata, “Addio del passato” Violetta’s aria “Addio del passato” in Act III, scene 4, of Verdi’s La … When Annina leaves, Violetta takes out a letter from Giorgio Germont, reporting that the Baron was wounded in the duel and that Alfredo has gone abroad. Also, Germont has told Alfredo of her sacrifice and promises that both of them will come to her. But it is late, and they have not yet come.

Looking in the mirror, Violetta sees how much she has changed and how little hope she has of recovery (“ Addio del passato ”). Outside, a group of masqueraders celebrates Carnival. Annina returns, anxiously asking her mistress whether she feels better, for she wants to prepare her for a joyful surprise. But Violetta has guessed that Alfredo has returned, and as he rushes in she flings herself into his arms. They beg each other’s forgiveness and vow never to part; they will leave Paris and start over (“ Parigi, o cara ”). Violetta wants to go to a church to give thanks for Alfredo’s return, but she is too weak even to dress. Alfredo sends Annina for the doctor. Violetta cannot believe that she must die just when happiness is within her grasp (“ Ah! Gran Dio! morir sì giovine ”). Giorgio Germont now arrives, followed by Dr. Grenvil and Annina. Germont, keeping his promise, embraces Violetta as a daughter. But she tells him that it is too late, for she is dying, though she is grateful to die among those who are dearest to her in the world.

Germont is consumed with remorse. Violetta, meanwhile, presses a miniature portrait of herself into the grieving Alfredo’s hand. She asks that if he marries, he give it to his bride and tell her that the one portrayed is in heaven praying for them both (“ Prendi: quest’è l’immagine ”). Suddenly, she rises; she says that all her pain is gone, that she is strong again and returning to life. As she cries out with joy, she falls lifeless to her bed. La Traviata | Operas | Season And Tickets | Opera Carolina Buy Tickets La traviata A wealthy businessman falls for a “working girl” with a big heart and offers her a better life. But class differences may keep them apart. Sound familiar? That’s the plot of Pretty Woman. But long before, it was the plot of Verdi’s La traviata. Synopsis Death isn’t always unwelcome. An on-stage or on-screen death can be wonderfully cathartic. Without the death scene, Romeo and Juliet would be just another romance.

But to make death heart-wrenching, there must first be great love – like that of Edward (Richard Gere) and Vivian (Julia Roberts) in Pretty Woman, which is a retelling of Verdi’s La traviata – but with a Hollywood happy ending tacked on. (Baz Luhrmann’s Moulin Rouge! stuck closer to the source material.) The plot is familiar: Aristocrat falls for a "working girl" with a heart of gold and offers her a better life. An outside force tries to keep them apart due to their class differences. (In Pretty Woman, it’s Jason Alexander’s character. In La Traviata, the suitor’s father plays the heavy.) In Hollywood, love would save the day. But opera isn’t Hollywood, and the heroine of La traviata is gravely ill. When the tragic, tear-jerking end arrives, it’s glorious. An opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi. Libretto by Francesco Maria Piave. The story takes place in Paris in the fall of 1850.

Accessibility Options English Supertitles Provided During The Performance Act I In the world of Paris’ rich and powerful in the mid-19th century, social conventions bound everyone to a lifestyle that, on the surface, was proper. But beneath the surface existed another world – a half world, or demi-monde, as the French say – where the nobility could enjoy every excess their wealth offered, including the company of courtesans. These women were not prostitutes; they were kept women who were expected to entertain for their patron, go to the theater and opera with him and perform other services within the boundaries of the conventions of the demi-monde. Enter our heroine, Violetta Valery, a beautiful, engaging courtesan, who’s holding a dinner party for her patron and lover, the Baron Duphol. Violetta’s friend Gaston introduces her to Alfredo Germont. He explains that Alfredo came every day during her recent illness to inquire about her health. No one realizes Violetta has tuberculosis. In the famous Brindisi, or drinking song, Alfredo sings a toast to love, to which Violetta replies. As guests go off to dance, Violetta collapses in a fit of coughing.

Quickly recovering, she tells them to proceed to the ballroom, but Alfredo lingers and declares his love for her. She laughs at his ardor, but is touched by his sincerity. She dismisses him, but says he may return when the camellia she’s given him has faded. The guests leave, and she remains alone to consider Alfredo’s overture. Violetta realizes the social conventions that bind her life make true love impossible, and she resolves to continue her life of wealth and leisure in the thrilling aria, Sempre Libera (Always Free). Act II Alfredo has won Violetta’s love. For several months, they have been living happily together in Violetta’s country house. Violetta’s maid, Annina, tells Alfredo reluctantly that Violetta has been selling off her property to pay for the life she’s now leading. Realizing she has been paying his expenses, Alfredo leaves for Paris immediately to stop this. In his absence, Violetta gets a visit from Alfredo’s father, Giorgio Germont. He’s a well-to-do businessman who believes the courtesan is ruining his son’s reputation.

And, he tells her their illicit love affair is the reason he can’t marry off his daughter. At first, Violetta assumes Germont wants her to leave Alfredo until a wedding can take place. But that alone won’t satisfy the old man. He reminds her that her past will always haunt them, and that true love can never be hers. In despair, Violetta tells him Alfredo is all she lives for, and such a sacrifice would kill her. In the months she’s been in the country with Alfredo, her health has improved substantially and she believes she has escaped her past – and her illness. Giorgio cruelly tells her that her beauty will fade eventually and that Alfredo, like all men, will grow tired of her. Succumbing to his cruelty, Violetta agrees to Germont’s demands, asking only to be embraced as a daughter and to allow her to break the news to Alfredo. Having won, Germont leaves Violetta to decide how to break it off with Alfredo. She writes him a letter and plans to leave before he returns. Just then, Alfredo surprises her. She says she’s leaving for a short while but vows to return.

Then, turning to leave, she frantically confesses her love. Alfredo reads the letter and is crushed. His father reappears to offer consolation and to ask him to come home to his family. Angrily rejecting this suggestion, Alfredo notices an invitation for that evening from Flora, one of Violetta’s friends, and he concludes this is where he will find her. Scene Two. A magnificent party, with gambling, dancing, entertainment and gypsy fortune-tellers, is underway. Violetta has returned to her former lover, Baron Duphol, and arrives with him. Alfredo enters, to the surprise of everyone. He gambles with the Baron and wins a substantial amount. Violetta begs Alfredo to leave, but he forces her to explain her behavior. In desperation, and to protect Alfredo’s father, she says she no longer loves him. At this, Alfredo calls the guests to witness that he pays his debts in full and throws his winnings at Violetta. Flora’s guests are outraged at his cruel behavior, and the Baron challenges Alfredo to a duel. Act III It’s winter, and the scene is Violetta’s bedroom. Her health has declined. The Baron has left her.

And her money is almost gone. She tells Annina to give half of what little remains to the poor. She has gotten a letter from Alfredo’s father explaining that the Baron was wounded in his duel with Alfredo, and that Alfredo has left Paris. He tells her his son now knows the truth of her sacrifice and that they will both soon return to ask her forgiveness. Too late, she cries, and in a magnificent aria, she realizes her life will soon be over. Alfredo arrives and for a moment, he convinces her she will recover and again be happy. She gives Alfredo a locket and asks that he give it to the woman he will one day meet and marry. She asks him to be happy, and remember her. Reconciled to both father and son, and no longer bound by social convention, Violetta’s sacrifice is complete as the curtain falls. POPOpera Facts Did you cry in Pretty Woman when Vivian (Julia Roberts) wept during her first opera? She was watching Verdi’s La traviata in Edward’s (Richard Gere) luxury box. Pretty Woman is based on that tragic romance. (So is Baz Luhrmann’s Moulin Rouge!

But it stuck closer to the source material.) In the movie, Vivian is watching an opera that the movie she’s in was based on. How meta is that? In the movie and the opera, an aristocrat falls for a “working girl” with a heart of gold and offers her a better life. But a sinister, outside force tries to keep them apart. Hollywood gave it a happy ending. In Verdi’s version, the heroine is gravely ill. Love helps her hang on until a glorious, three-hanky finale. Meet the Composer GIUSEPPE VERDI (1813–1901) The Italian composer Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi was born in La Roncole in 1813. When he was a child, Verdi’s parents moved to Busseto, where the future composer’s education was facilitated by visits to the library at the local Jesuit school. Also in Busseto, Verdi was given his first lessons in composition. Displaying considerable talent from a young age, he was assistant organist at the small local church by the time he was 10.

In 1829, at the age of 13, he was an assistant conductor of the Busseto orchestra and an organist at the town church. In 1836, Verdi married Margherita Barezzi, the daughter of his benefactor, Antonio Barezzi. At 20, he went to Milan to continue his studies. There, he took private lessons in counterpoint while attending operatic performances, as well as concerts of, specifically, German music. It was during that period he decided pursue a career as a theater composer. His first successful opera, Oberto, opened at La Scala in 1839. However, his next opera, the comedy Un Giorno di Regno (King for a Day), was a complete failure. To add tragedy to insult, Verdi lost his wife and two young children to illness within the same year, and the despondent composer resolved to give up music altogether. Fortunately, the manager of La Scala persuaded him to persevere. His next opera, Nabucco, premiered in 1842 to great acclaim. Nabucco secured Verdi's reputation as a major figure in the music world.

Between 1844 and 1850, Verdi composed at a tremendous rate, demonstrating a maturing style and more flowing musical line, as evidenced in Ernani (1844), Macbeth (1847) and Luisa Miller (1849). During his “middle period,” Verdi wrote three of his most successful operas: Rigoletto (1851), Il Trovatore (1853) and La traviata (1853). These were followed by I vespri siciliani (The Sicilian Vespers, 1855), Simon Boccanegra (1857), Un ballo in maschera (A Masked Ball, 1859), La Forza del Destino (The Force of Destiny, 1862) and Don Carlos (1867). After Aïda (1871), which commemorated the opening of the Suez Canal in Egypt, Verdi retired to his estate at Sant'Agata, where he wrote the great Requiem Mass.

In each of these operas, Verdi expanded the formalism we hear in works like The Barber of Seville to a musical language that is more fluid and which joins the music with the drama. In a sense, Verdi and his German rival, Richard Wagner, were moving on... Meet the Cast Giuseppe Verdi - Opera Philadelphia Student Guide Giuseppe Verdi Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi was born on October 10, 1813 in the small village of Roncole in Italy. At this time, however, the country of Italy did not yet exist but, rather, the area was made up of several small states, most under the domination of foreign powers. When Verdi was born, the village of Roncole, and its surrounding province of Parma, was under the control of the French. In fact, Verdi’s original birth certificate is French with his name registered as Joseph Fortunin François. Despite his later claims of an illiterate peasant upbringing, Verdi came from a family of traders and small landowners. His mother, Luigia Uttini, was a spinner and his father, Carlo, was an innkeeper and very determined to provide his son with a good education.

Verdi’s strong musical inclinations were evident at an early age and his musical training began at the local church, where by the age of nine he was the full-time organist. In 1823, he moved to the larger and nearby city of Busetto, where he became heavily involved in the city’s musical life both as a composer and as a performer. He eventually moved into the house of Antonio Barezzi, a local merchant and devoted amateur musician. There, Verdi gave singing and piano lessons to Barezzi’s daughter, Margherita, whom he would later marry, while he continued to take lessons on musical composition and instrumental playing from Ferdinando Provesi, maestro of the local Philharmonic society. Approx. 2 hrs 53 min. Includes two 20 min intermissions Portrait of Giuseppe Verdi - 1886 Credit: Giovanni Boldini Oberto and Personal Tragedy At the age of 18, with Barezzi’s financial support and Provesi’sglowing references, Verdi traveled to Milan and applied to the conservatory.

His application was rejected because he was over the age limit and, instead, he began studying with Vincenzo Lavigna, a composer and maestro at La Scala. Verdi bounced back and forth between Milan and Busseto until 1836. It was then that he returned to Busetto to marry Margherita Barezzi and to accept the position of maestro of the Busetto Philharmonic. He held the position for nearly three years, during which time he and Margherita had two children, before the young family moved back to Milan. In November of 1839 Verdi’s first opera, Oberto, conte di San Bonifacio, was accepted at La Scala. It ran for multiple performances and was well received, winning him a contract for three additional operas. Tragically, the composer’s wife and two children all died shortly after the premier. As a result, Verdi’s next opera, Un giorno di regno, was a complete failure. The despondent Verdi resolved never to compose again until the maestro at La Scala, Bartolomeo Merelli, forced the libretto for Nabucco on him.

He was deeply moved by the Biblical story and the opera premiered two years later in 1842. Nabucco enjoyed glorious success and carried Verdi’s reputation across Italy, Europe, and the New World. The Italians identified the captivity of the Israelites in the opera with their own dominance by foreigners and the patriotic chorus "Va, pensiero" quickly became a national anthem of sorts. Verdi involuntarily became a leading figure in the movement toward a free, united Italy. A rapid ascent After the premiere of Nabucco, Verdi wrote 16 opera in 11 years. The pinnacle of these busy years came between 1851 and 1853 with three of Verdi’s most popular operas, the first of which was Rigoletto, which was produced in Venice to huge success. In 1853, Il trovatore premiered in Rome, earning great accolades. Just six weeks later La traviata opened in Venice. Traviata’s initial success was nothing compared to the previous two operas, but after some revisions it gained a great deal of support.

By the time he was 40, Verdi was the most famous and most frequently preformed Italian opera composer in Europe. After spending some years in Paris, Verdi returned to Rome in 1859 for the premiere of Un ballo in maschera, which became his biggest success since Il trovatore six years earlier. In August of that same year, Verdi married soprano Giuseppina Strepponi, with whom he’d been living for over a decade. Also during this time, it became apparent that war with Austria was just around the corner. Verdi again became a symbol of the desire for freedom and a battle cry. His name happened to be an acronym for Vittorio Emmanuele, Re d’Italia, the king of Piedmont, who would soon become the first king of a united Italy. “Viva V.E.R.D.I.” became the most revolutionary and patriotic exclamation in Italy. With his imposed political standing, Verdi was elected to an Assembly in Parma dedicated to joining with the neighboring province of Piedmont and by 1861, the unification of Italy was well underway.

Verdi was elected to the first Italian parliament where Vittorio Emmanuele II, King of Piedmont, was proclaimed King of Italy. He was not, however, an especially active member and his formal political career was short. Ending on top After a three year hiatus, Verdi resumed composing with La Forza del Destino for St. Petersburg in 1862. He traveled extensively in the following years to Russia, Paris, Madrid, and London, supervising productions of his operas. He enjoyed tremendous success with his final three operas: Aida in 1871, Otello in 1887, and Falstaff in 1893. In all he wrote 26 operas, several in two different versions, and lived to the age of 87. He died in Milan on January 17, 1901. The composer had asked for a funeral with no music and no singing but, as 200,000 people lined the streets for his funeral, it is said that someone in the crowd started to sing "Va, pensiero" and soon everyone softly joined in the famous melody.

La traviata is underwritten in part by Mrs. Sandra K. Baldino A Ciao Philadelphia Featured Event Production from Bucharest National Opera House La Traviata, opera | Details | AllMusic La Traviata, opera google+ Description by Richard LeSueur The last of the three great operas of Giuseppe Verdi 's middle period, La Traviata is now one of his most popular works. Written for the Teatro la Fenice in Venice, it was first heard on March 6, 1853. The libretto, by Francesco Maria Piave , details the ill-fated love affair between a young gentleman named Alfredo Germont and a terminally ill courtesan named Violetta. It is based on the play La dame aux camélias by Alexander Dumas, Jr., which premiered the previous year. Perhaps surprisingly, La Traviata's opening night was a fiasco.

Legend gives two reasons for the failure: the generous size of the soprano (supposedly dying of consumption!) and the use of a contemporary stage setting, which was considered distasteful at the time (subsequent performances were re-set in the 1700s; the reinstatement of Verdi 's original conception did not occur until the 1880s). Verdi withdrew the opera and, after making significant changes in the second and third acts, premiered the new version at the Teatro Gallo di San Benedetto in 1854. It is in this version that the opera has enjoyed its continued success. In many ways, La Traviata follows the established operatic traditions of the 1850s. Each act is composed of smaller dramatic units made up of traditional set pieces in clearly identifiable forms (a structure known as la solita forma), and each of the three major characters is given a two-part aria (slow-fast) which displays a change of the character's mood. (For many years the cabalettas for Alfredo and Giorgio Germont were omitted not only in the theater but also on recording.

By the 1980s, one verse of the cabaletta for Alfredo began to be heard in the theater on a more regular basis but Giorgio Germont's cabaletta has not made its way to most stages.) Also, like its predecessor, Rigoletto, La Traviata has a full overture -- a device that would make only rare appearances in Verdi 's later works. However, in other ways La Traviata begins to stretch, and expand upon, the mid- nineteenth century Italian norms. This is especially evident in the depth of characterization written into the role of Violetta. Formal musical concerns, while still evident, begin to take a backseat to more immediate dramatic issues.

In the first act alone, Verdi takes the character of Violetta from the gregarious hostess of the opening drinking song to the intimate lover of "Un di felice" and "Ah, fors' e lui" to the wild abandon of the courtesan in "Sempre libera." In the final act -- as she succumbs to her disease and dies -- she sings only a few gasped lines, rather than the full double aria which would be found in most operas of Verdi 's predecessors. The other roles are not as well defined, but Alfredo and Giorgio Germont far outstrip the one-dimensional characters encountered in most operas of this period. Although there are opportunities for pure vocal display in their arias, even these displays are tied to the character. For example, Alfredo's "O mio rimorso" shows the impetuosity of youth as he runs off to save the good name of his beloved. Verdi 's use of the traditional forms in combination with a new dramatic conviction would lead to the more dramatic style of his later operas. This delicate blend of old and new styles is perhaps what has kept La Traviata ever fresh and appealing in modern opera houses.

Parts/Movements No. 2, Dell'invito trascorsa è già l'ora No. 3, Libiamo, ne'lieti calici [Brindisi] No. 4a, Che è cio? No. 4b, Un dì, felice, eterea No. 5, Si ridesta in ciel No. 6a, È strano! È strano! No. 6b, Ah fors'è lui quest'anima No. 6c, Follie! Sempre libera No. 7a, Lunge da Lei No. 7b, Dei miei bollenti spiriti No. 7c, [Annina, donde vieni...] O mio rimorso! No. 8a, Madamigella Valéry? No. 8b, Pura siccome un angelo No. 8c, Bella voi siete No. 8d, Dite alla giovine No. 9a, Morrò! La mia memoria No. 9b, Dammi tu forza o Cielo No. 10a, Al vive sol quel core No. 10b, Di Provenza il mar No.

10c, Ne rispondi No. 11, Avrem lieta di maschera la festa No. 12a, Noi siamo zingarelle No. 12b, Di Madride noi siam Mattadori No. 13, Alfredo! Voi! No. 14a, Ogni suo aver tal femmina No. 14b, Di sprezzo degno! No. 15, Prelude No. 16b, Teneste la promessa No. 16c, Addio del passato No. 17, Bacchanale. Largo al quadrupede No. 18a, Signora, Che t'accade No. 18b, Parigi, o cara noi lasceremo No. 18c, Gran Dio! morir sì giovine No. 19, Ah! Violetta La Traviata | Composed by Giuseppe Verdi | Phoenix Opera La Traviata Composed by Giuseppe Verdi La Traviata is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi set to an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave.

It is based on the novel La Dame aux Camélias by Alexandre Dumas, fils, published in 1848. more about Gaetan Laperriere >> ACT I In her Paris salon, the courtesan Violetta Valéry greets party guests, including Flora Bervoix, the Marquis d'Obigny, Baron Douphol, and Gastone, who introduces a new admirer, Alfredo Germont. This young man, having adored Violetta from afar, joins her in a drinking song (Brindisi: "Libiamo"). An orchestra is heard in the next room, but as guests move there to dance, Violetta suffers a fainting spell, sends the guests on ahead, and goes to her parlor to recover. Alfredo comes in, and since they are alone, confesses his love ("Un dì felice"). At first Violetta protests that love means nothing to her. Something about the young man's sincerity touches her, however, and she promises to meet him the next day. After the guests have gone, Violetta wonders if Alfredo could actually be the man she could love ("Ah, fors'è lui").

But she decides she wants freedom ("Sempre libera"), though Alfredo's voice, heard outside, argues in favor of romance. ACT II Some months later Alfredo and Violetta are living in a country house near Paris, where he praises their contentment ("De' miei bollenti spiriti"). But when the maid, Annina, reveals that Violetta has pawned her jewels to keep the house, Alfredo leaves for the city to settle matters at his own cost. Violetta comes looking for him and finds an invitation from Flora to a party that night. Violetta has no intention of going back to her old life, but trouble intrudes with the appearance of Alfredo's father. Though impressed by Violetta's ladylike manners, he demands she renounce his son: the scandal of Alfredo's affair with her has threatened his daughter's engagement ("Pura siccome un angelo"). Violetta says she cannot, but Germont eventually convinces her ("Dite alla giovine"). Alone, the desolate woman sends a message of acceptance to Flora and begins a farewell note to Alfredo.

He enters suddenly, surprising her, and she can barely control herself as she reminds him of how deeply she loves him ("Amami, Alfredo") before rushing out. Now a servant hands Alfredo her farewell note as Germont returns to console his son with reminders of family life in Provence ("Di Provenza"). But Alfredo, seeing Flora's invitation, suspects Violetta has thrown him over for another lover. Furious, he determines to confront her at the party. At her soirée that evening, Flora learns from the Marquis that Violetta and Alfredo have parted, then clears the floor for hired entertainers - a band of fortune-telling Gypsies and some matadors who sing of Piquillo and his coy sweetheart ("E Piquillo un bel gagliardo"). Soon Alfredo strides in, making bitter comments about love and gambling recklessly at cards. Violetta has arrived with Baron Douphol, who challenges Alfredo to a game and loses a small fortune to him. Everyone goes in to supper, but Violetta has asked Alfredo to see her.

Fearful of the Baron's anger, she wants Alfredo to leave, but he misunderstands her apprehension and demands that she admit she loves Douphol. Crushed, she pretends she does. Now Alfredo calls in the others, denounces his former love and hurls his winnings at her feet ("Questa donna conoscete?"). Germont enters in time to see this and denounces his son's behavior. The guests rebuke Alfredo and Douphol challenges him to a duel. ACT III In Violetta's bedroom six months later, Dr. Grenvil tells Annina her mistress has not long to live: tuberculosis has claimed her. Alone, Violetta rereads a letter from Germont saying the Baron was only wounded in his duel with Alfredo, who knows all and is on his way to beg her pardon. But Violetta senses it is too late ("Addio del passato"). Paris is celebrating Mardi Gras and, after revelers pass outside, Annina rushes in to announce Alfredo. The lovers ecstatically plan to leave Paris forever ("Parigi, o cara"). Germont enters with the doctor before Violetta is seized with a last resurgence of strength.

Feeling life return, she staggers and falls dead at her lover's feet.

Question: Which Italian composed the opera "La Traviata"?
Answer: Verdi