[2/5/2011] In "La Traviata," Violetta stands on the brink of life transformation (continued)

Callas as Violetta

BEFORE WE CONTINUE WITH VIOLETTA'S SOLO
SCENE, WE HAVE SOME UNFINISHED BUSINESS

Around here we don't like to jump into operas without reminding ourselves of how they started. Last night we heard the two performances of the Traviata Act I Prelude by Herbert von Karajan and the La Scala orchestra. Tonight I think we'll go with Carlo Maria Giulini and the Covent Garden orchestra.

La Traviata: Prelude to Act I

Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Carlo Maria Giulini, cond. Live performance, May 5, 1967


BACK TO VIOLETTA, LEFT HOME ALONE
AFTER THE DEPARTURE OF HER GUESTS

First, here's Valerie Masterson, singing in English from the English National Opera studio recording. One textual note: Masterson sings only one stanza of the first aria, "Ah, fors'è lui"; there's a second stanza that was routinely cut in the bad old days of textual infidelity but in more recent times has sometimes been restored. In fairness, there's nothing to heard in the second stanza that we haven't heard in the first, and there's a case to be made that the dramatic progression of the scene is spoiled by having Violetta go back over musical ground she's already covered.

La Traviata: "I wonder, I wonder!" . . . "Is he the one I dream about?" . . . "It can't be, it can't be!" . . . "Give me the freedom to be happy"

Valerie Masterson (s), John Brecknock (t); English National Opera Orchestra, Sir Charles Mackerras, cond. EMI, recorded Aug.-Oct. 1980

Now we hear the scene in Italian, sung first by another of the Violettas we heard last night, Maria Callas, plus the lovely Romanian soprano Virginia Zeani. Masterson, Callas, and Zeani will be our Violettas tomorrow for the Act II scene with Alfredo's father.

We've got one asterisk here: Callas is double-represented. I might note that while Violetta is a role for which Callas's fans adore her, it's not one I often turn to her for. I fixed on her 1958 Lisbon performance because we're headed for the high drama of the Act II scene -- and also because we need a decent Germont père. However, for the Act I solo scene I've also slipped in the performance from her 1953 Cetra recording, where the vocal problems are present but don't yet entail quite the degree of "tradeoff" they would by 1958. Not that Zeani's voice is ideally steady in the upper range either, a useful reminder of just how difficult this music is to sing -- by composer's intention, I have to assume. (There is, by the way, an audio-only YouTube clip of Zeani singing this scene quite beautifully at a Hamburg concert in 1956, age 29.)

La Traviata: Act I, Violetta, Recitative, "È stranno, è stranno!" . . . Aria, "Ah, fors'è lui che l'anima" . . . Recitative, "Follie, follie!" . . . Aria, "Sempre libera degg'io folleggiare"

Recitative, "È stranno, è stranno!"
It's strange, it's strange!
Those words are carved upon my heart!
Would a true love bring me misfortune?
What do you think, o my troubled spirit?
No man before kindled a flame like this.
Oh, joy . . .
I never knew . . .
To love and to be loved!
Can I disdain this
For a life of sterile pleasure?
Aria, "Ah, fors'è lui che l'anima"
Was this the man my heart,
Alone in the crowd,
Delighted many times to paint
In vague, mysterious colors?
This man, so watchful yet retiring,
Who haunted my sickbed
And turned my fever
Into the burning flame of love!
That love,
The pulse of the whole world,
Mysterious, unattainable,
The torment and delight of my heart.
[2nd stanza, as noted, omitted in all of our performances]
Recitative, "Follie, follie!"
It's madness, it's madness!
A poor, lonely woman
Abandoned in this teeming desert
They call Paris!
What can I hope? What should I do?
Enjoy myself! Plurge into the vortex
Of pleasure and drown there!
Enjoy myself!
Aria, "Sempre libera degg'io folleggiare"
Free and aimless I must flutter
From pleasure to pleasure,
Skimming the surface
Of life's primrose path.
As each day dawns,
As each day dies,
Gaily I turn to the new delights
That make my spirit soar.
ALFREDO [outside the window]: Love is the pulse . . .
VIOLETTA: Oh!
ALFREDO: . . . of the whole world . . .
VIOLETTA: Yes! Love!
ALFREDO: Mysterious, unattainable,
The torment and delight of my heart.
VIOLETTA: It's madness!
Pleasure!
Free and aimless, I must flutter … etc.

Maria Callas (s), Violetta; Francesco Albanese (t), Alfredo; RAI Turin Symphony Orchestra, Gabriele Santini, cond. Cetra/EMI, recorded September 1953

Maria Callas (s), Violetta; Alfredo Kraus (t), Alfredo; Orquestra Sinfónica Nacional (Lisbon), Franco Ghione, cond. Myto, recorded live at the Teatro São Carlos, Mar. 27, 1958

Virginia Zeani (s), Violetta; Ion Buzea (t), Alfredo; Romanian National Opera (Bucharest) Orchestra, Jean Bobescu, cond. Electrecord/Vox, recorded 1968
["Ah, fors'è lui" at 1:19, "Follie, follie!" at 4:19, "Sempre libera" at 5:23]


IN TOMORROW'S SUNDAY CLASSICS POST

So how do things work out for Violetta and Alfredo? Tomorrow we'll venture into Act II in pursuit of that second life-transforming event.


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