Opera La Traviata Program Notes, Sheet Music and Recordings

Program Notes & Analysis

A Fiasco for the Ages

When Giuseppe Verdi wrote to his friend the day after the 1853 premiere of La Traviata, his bitterness was palpable. Last night La Traviata was a failure, he wrote. Is the fault mine or the singers'? Time will tell. The blame lay squarely with the production. The Venetian audience, accustomed to grand historical tales, was simply not ready for what Verdi gave them. The opera’s disastrous debut was compounded by a cast that was physically and vocally unsuited for the roles. The baritone Felice Varesi (who had been Verdi's first Macbeth) complained that his role was secondary. The tenor Lodovico Graziani was hoarse. But most famously, the robust soprano Fanny Salvini-Donatelli inspired open mockery as the frail, dying Violetta. The audience howled with laughter during the final act's death scene. Verdi, though deeply wounded, knew the opera's worth. He immediately withdrew it, made some minor revisions, and restaged it a year later with a new cast. It was a triumphant, permanent success.

The Shock of Contemporary Realism

The true scandal of La Traviata was its subject matter. It was based on the play La Dame aux camélias by Alexandre Dumas fils, which itself was based on the author's own tragic, real-life affair with the famous Parisian courtesan Marie Duplessis, who died of consumption at 23. This was not history or mythology; it was a contemporary story torn from the headlines. Verdi and his librettist, Francesco Maria Piave, wanted to set the opera in their own time, 1853. The Venetian censors were so horrified by the idea of presenting a morally "fallen" woman sympathetically in modern dress that they forced Verdi to backdate the setting to the 1700s. This move fooled no one. The audience knew they were watching a story about their own world, and the opera’s raw, realistic portrayal of a "woman of questionable morals" as a figure of profound nobility and sacrifice was a direct challenge to the social conventions of the day.

Violetta: Three Sopranos in One

The role of Violetta Valéry is one of the most demanding and psychologically complete in the soprano repertoire. It famously requires the singer to be, in essence, three different vocalists. Act I demands a brilliant coloratura soprano. In her aria Sempre libera, the music is light, glittering, and filled with virtuosic fioritura, perfectly capturing the brittle, hectic, and emotionally hollow facade of her life as a party girl. Act II requires a full lyric or spinto soprano, capable of sustaining the long, powerful, and emotionally wrenching vocal lines of her duet with Germont and her desperate farewell to Alfredo, Amami, Alfredo. This is the music of her emotional core and her tragic sacrifice. Act III calls for an "ethereal" or spiritual spinto voice, one that can float exquisite high pianissimi in Addio, del passato and yet still summon a final, desperate burst of energy. This vocal trilogy maps her psychological journey from denial to sacrifice to tragic acceptance.

The Music of Illness and Love

The Act I prelude is a stroke of revolutionary genius. It begins not with a bang, but with a whisper. Verdi opens the opera with the music of its end: a high, frail, descending theme in the divided violins, shimmering and sickly. This is the sound of Violetta's consumption, the death that hangs over the entire story. Only after this theme of illness does the orchestra swell into the broad, passionate love theme from her duet with Alfredo, Amami, Alfredo. Verdi tells the entire story before the curtain even rises: this is a story where love and death are inextricably bound. When he re-uses this "illness" music as the prelude to Act III, it is even more desolate and stark, setting the scene for her deathbed.

The Waltz as a Gilded Cage

The score of La Traviata is dominated by a single, pervasive rhythm: the waltz. The famous Brindisi (Libiamo ne' lieti calici) is a waltz. Violetta and Alfredo's first declaration of love, Un dì, felice, eterea, is a waltz. Her desperate denial of that love, Sempre libera, is a frantic, almost hysterical waltz. The entire opera is a whirl of dance music, but Verdi uses it with devastating irony. The waltz is the sound of the glittering, superficial Parisian society that Violetta lives in. It is the sound of her "gilded cage," a constant, breathless revelry that masks her illness and emotional emptiness. The dance rhythm is the very sound of the society that will ultimately judge and destroy her.

Alfredo: The Romantic Catalyst Alfredo Germont is, in many ways, a conventional operatic tenor, but he serves a crucial role. He is the passionate, naive, and idealistic romantic. His music is all ardent, open-hearted lyricism. From his charming Brindisi to his love-struck duet, he represents a sincere, simple love that Violetta has never known. His Act II aria, De' miei bollenti spiriti (Of my boiling spirits), is a portrait of blissful contentment, blind to the financial sacrifice Violetta is making to support their life. His character turns on a dime when he believes he has been betrayed, and his subsequent jealous rage, culminating in his public humiliation of Violetta, shows his immaturity. He is the catalyst for the tragedy, but he is not its deep, psychological center.

Germont: The Voice of Bourgeois Morality

The opera's true antagonist, and its second great psychological portrait, is Alfredo's father, Giorgio Germont. He is one of Verdi's greatest baritone roles. Germont is not a cackling villain like Iago. He is a far more mundane and realistic figure: the embodiment of middle-class, provincial morality. His music is steady, formal, and purposeful. The great Act II duet between Germont and Violetta is the opera's dramatic core. He arrives to condemn her, but as he witnesses her dignity and the depth of her love, his music softens. He pressures her into making an unthinkable sacrifice, all to protect his own daughter's "pure" engagement. His famous aria, Di Provenza il mar, il suol (The sea and soil of Provence), is a masterpiece of characterization. He sings this beautiful, nostalgic melody to his son, attempting to lure him home, but it sounds completely hollow, utterly detached from the life-and-death passion of the drama he has just instigated.

The Great Internal Battle

The finale of Act I is one of the greatest scenes Verdi ever composed, a perfect musical portrait of a mind at war with itself. Left alone, Violetta muses on Alfredo's declaration of love in the tender, hesitant aria Ah, fors'è lui (Ah, perhaps he is the one). This is her true, vulnerable heart. She then violently shakes off the idea, launching into the frantic, glittering cabaletta Sempre libera (Always free). This is her "head," her defense mechanism, as she tries to convince herself that a life of freedom and pleasure is all she wants. But as her coloratura fireworks reach their peak, Verdi has Alfredo's voice sing his love theme, Amami, Alfredo, from offstage. His simple, earnest melody cuts right through her frantic denial, a literal musical battle between her past life and her potential future.

The Public Humiliation

The party scene at Flora's house is a masterwork of building tension. Verdi ratchets up the social pressure with gypsy and matador choruses, creating a false, chaotic gaiety. The tension snaps when Alfredo, blind with rage, confronts Violetta. After she lies to protect his father's secret, he publicly denounces her. He summons the guests and hurls his gambling winnings at her feet, shouting that he has now paid her in full for her "services". It is a moment of supreme, shocking cruelty. The music stops, and Verdi builds a massive, crushing ensemble, Di sprezzo degno (Worthy of contempt), begun by Giorgio Germont, who arrives just in time to witness the scene and rebuke his son. Each character expresses their own horror, shame, or pity, a classic Verdian "frozen moment" where the private tragedy becomes a public spectacle.

A New Path for Opera

La Traviata’s intimate realism and its sympathetic focus on a "fallen" contemporary heroine had a profound impact on the composers who followed. It effectively blew the doors open for the verismo movement in Italian opera decades later. Giacomo Puccini’s entire career is indebted to Traviata. One can draw a direct line from the consumptive Violetta to the consumptive Mimì in La bohème, or to the titular courtesan of Manon Lescaut. The idea of finding high tragedy in the lives of ordinary, flawed people became a new standard. While Verdi's great rival, Richard Wagner, generally dismissed Italian opera, he was reportedly deeply impressed by the work's dramatic cohesion. Other contemporaries, like Hector Berlioz, were publicly scandalized by the subject matter, but even their shock proves how revolutionary the opera was. It broke the mold set by the grand historical pageants of Meyerbeer or even the bel canto tragedies of Bellini and Donizetti, proving that a small, domestic story could be the most powerful of all.

The Final, Realistic Death The final act is a long, stark, and quiet portrait of death. It is a devastating contrast to the glitter of Act I. Violetta's aria, Addio, del passato (Farewell, past dreams), is a masterpiece of pathos. Her voice is fragmented, sung over a simple, mournful string accompaniment, as she reads Germont's letter revealing the truth. When Alfredo finally returns, their reunion duet, Parigi, o cara (Paris, oh dearest), is not a triumphant climax, but a fragile, desperate dream of a future that will never come. The opera's final stroke of genius is its most "realistic" moment. Violetta is suddenly seized by a final, strange burst of energy. She cries out that the pain has stopped, that she feels her life returning. This is a medical phenomenon of consumption, a "false rally" known as spes phthisica. Verdi sets this to a surging, hopeful musical line, making her sudden collapse and death all the more brutal and shocking. It is the final, heartbreaking triumph of realism.

Opera Story

Act I: A Parisian salon, mid-19th Century A lavish party is underway at the home of Violetta Valéry, a famous and beautiful courtesan. She is ill with consumption but hides it with a hectic, pleasure-seeking lifestyle. A young nobleman, Alfredo Germont, who has adored her from afar, is introduced. He toasts her with the famous drinking song, the Brindisi (Libiamo ne' lieti calici). As the guests move to another room to dance, Violetta suffers a dizzy spell. Alfredo stays behind and expresses his deep concern and love for her. He sings Un dì, felice, eterea (One day, happy, ethereal). Violetta, who has never known true love, is deeply moved but warns him away. She gives him a camellia, telling him to return when it has wilted. After the party, she is left alone. She muses on Alfredo’s love in Ah, fors'è lui, wondering if he could be the one. Then, she violently rejects the idea, vowing to remain free in her glittering, desperate cabaletta, Sempre libera.

Act II Scene 1: A country house outside Paris Three months later, Violetta and Alfredo are living blissfully in the countryside. Violetta has given up her former life entirely. Alfredo sings of his happiness. He learns from Violetta’s maid, Annina, that Violetta has been secretly selling her possessions to support their life. Ashamed, Alfredo leaves for Paris to secure his own funds. While he is gone, his father, Giorgio Germont, arrives. He confronts Violetta, accusing her of ruining his son. He then begs her to make a terrible sacrifice: he asks her to leave Alfredo permanently. Germont's daughter is engaged, and her fiancé's family threatens to break off the marriage due to the "scandal" of Alfredo's connection to a courtesan. Violetta, heartbroken, agrees to sacrifice her only happiness for the sake of another woman’s. She writes a farewell letter to Alfredo, telling him she is returning to her old lover, Baron Douphol. Alfredo returns, finds the letter, and is consumed by a jealous rage, refusing to listen to his father's pleas to return home (Di Provenza il mar, il suol).

Scene 2: A party at Flora's house in Paris Violetta, as promised, arrives at the party on the arm of Baron Douphol. Alfredo is also there, gambling recklessly. He and the Baron exchange insults. Alfredo confronts Violetta, demanding she leave with him. Bound by her promise to Germont, she refuses, lying that she is in love with the Baron. Blinded by rage, Alfredo calls all the guests together. He denounces Violetta and hurls his winnings at her, shouting that he has now "paid" her for the time they spent together. Violetta faints in shame. Giorgio Germont arrives and scathingly rebukes his son for his cruel and public behavior.

Act III: Violetta's bedroom Months later, Violetta is dying, destitute, and alone in her apartment. She reads a letter from Giorgio Germont, who has been overcome with remorse. He has told Alfredo the truth about her sacrifice, and Alfredo is rushing to her side to beg forgiveness. Violetta, knowing it is too late, sings her heartbreaking farewell, Addio, del passato (Farewell, past dreams). The sounds of a carnival celebration drift in from the street. Suddenly, Alfredo and his father burst in. Alfredo and Violetta are reunited, and they passionately sing of leaving Paris to start a new life, Parigi, o cara. But Violetta's strength is gone. She is suddenly seized by a strange, final burst of energy, crying out that her pain has vanished. She then collapses, dead, in Alfredo’s arms.