Sunday Classics: In Verdi's "La Traviata," Violetta faces her second life-transforming event

Anna Moffo and Gino Bechi perform the first half of the Violetta-Germont scene from Act II, Scene 1 of La Traviata, up to the point where our audio clip in the click-through kicks in, tracks [1] through [4] of our breakdown, in this lip-synched 1967-ish film (online sources list Bechi as having retired in 1965 or maybe 1961!), with Giuseppe Patané conducting. We've got English translations of the whole scene in the click-through.

by Ken

I'm arguing that in each of the three acts of La Traviata the heroine, Violetta, undergoes a life-transforming experience, and in Friday night's and last night's previews we considered the first, a happy and most unexpected one: She meets a secret admirer, Alfredo Germont, and falls gloriously and -- by the start of Act II -- blissfully in love. What happens next is just as unexpected, but alas a whole lot less happily so.

It's worth pointing out that these life-transforming events tend to transform not just our immediate subject, in this case Violetta, but the people around her, in this case Alfredo obviously, but -- it turns out -- the rest of his family as well. The scene we're about to plunge into is one of the supreme confrontations, not just in opera, but in the whole of the theatrical literature. One thing to remember in approaching it as that two people go through the wringer here. I don't want to exonerate Germont père for what he does here, which strikes me as fairly monstrous, but just to underscore how desperately important it is to him.

First we need to back up a bit. Last night, as we heard Violetta bring Act I to a breathtaking close after the lavish party in her Paris home with her aria "Sempre libera," it seemed as if her final decision about the tantalizing life change suggested by the entry of the worshipful Alfredo into her life was "no way." As Act II opens, however, we discover that the couple has taken up residence in Violetta's country house, and they're living an idyllic life of delirious passion. And then, just as unexpectedly as her life-transforming event in Act I, in walks Alfredo's father, Giorgio Germont. The happiness that exceeds anything she dared to dream of is over.

It has driven him to make the long, arduous journey from his happy home in the south of France to Paris. As far as he's concerned, the stakes are life-or-death for his cherished daughter, and he's far from unconcerned about his son as well -- but then, society allows sons more leeway than daughter, and his future isn't in such immediate peril. One thing to listen for her is how much of Germont's "presentation" to Violetta is, in effect prescripted, formulated and reformulated on that long journey. Of course not much in life happens the way we plan, and almost immediately Germont is thrown off his game plan. Which is the next thing to listen for: how much of his "presentation" is reformulated on the fly, tailored to the unexpected circumstances -- that Violetta bears no resemblance to the wanton trollop of his imaginings. Unfortunately, in so far as his mission is concerned, this changes nothing at all, except to make the whole ordeal that much harder for both of them.

This is a scene we could spend weeks looking at, so we're just going to be skimming the surface here. But one thing to listen for on Violetta's side is, despite the ferocious fight she puts up, how easily and thoroughly her spirit is broken. What we find underneath all the outward confidence and bravado who doesn't expect real happiness, who expects it all to come apart. "I was too happy" is how she puts it in our selection [3]. This culminates in one of the most beautiful moments in all of music [5], her plea to Germont to tell his daughter ("so beautiful and pure") of the sacrifice she's made for her. Then Verdi if anything tops this, when she asks him for instructions and then implores him [6}, "Like a daughter, like a daughter embrace me. Then I'll be strong." And then there's their parting exhortation of "Be happy!": "Siate felice! Felice siate!" (Italian syntax allows the words to be put in either order.) Whew!

Here, first, is the scene first in English. The track changes will break the scene down rather clumsily, but that's not entirely a bad thing. It's a scene that warrants some breaking down for closer inspection.

La Traviata: Act II, Scene 1, Violetta-Germont scene (in English)

[1] Violetta, "Alfredo" . . . Annina, "He has just set out for Paris" . . .
[2] Germont, "I have a daughter sent from Heav'n" . . .
[3] Violetta, "Do you realize I adore him" . . .
[4] Germont, "A day will come when making love" . . .
[5] Violetta, "Ah! Comfort your daughter, so pure and lovely" . . .
[6] Violetta, "Then command me!" . . .
[7] Violetta, "I'll die! But you must promise me" . . .

Valerie Masterson (s), Violetta Valéry; Shelagh Squries (ms), Flora Bervoix; Edward Byles (t), Joseph; Christian du Plessis (b), Giorgio Germont; English National Opera Orchestra, Sir Charles Mackerras, cond. EMI/Chandos, recorded Aug.-Oct. 1980


TO CONTINUE WITH OUR TRAVERSAL OF THE
VIOLETTA-GERMONT SCENE, CLICK HERE.

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Sunday Classics preview: In "La Traviata," Violetta stands on the brink of life transformation

Virginia Zeani, who'll be one of our Violettas today and tomorrow, reflects -- on her 84th birthday! -- on her first performance of the role, in Bologna on three days' notice in 1948 at age 22. (Later she talks about singing Puccini's Manon with the young Plácido Domingo.)

by Ken

In last night's preview we witnessed the first actual meeting between the Parisian courtesan Violetta Valéry and a charming, innocent young man from (we find out in Act II) the south of France, Provence, a very different sort of man from the ones she's become accustomed to socializing with. When he was introduced to her at they party she was giving, she learned that he had been in love with her for a year, had in fact been doing what we might call stalking her.

And something about him -- not just his dash and good looks, persuasive as they are -- got to her. She tried to dismiss him, in all senses, but wound up sending him off with grudging leave to return the next day. Now the guests have all gone, and Violetta is left alone to process what has just happened.

The stage is set for one of the great showpieces of the soprano literature, but of course it's also one of the great dramatic scenes. In form, it's clearly the old bel canto erea "double aria," or aria and cabaletta -- a normally slow first aria, in which the singer contemplates or deals with a situation or problem, and then, after the introduction of new information or perhaps just a change of thought (in this case it's simply what Violetta would probably think of as "coming to her senses"), a contrasting fast aria in which the singer deals with the revised situation or contrasting thought. It certainly corresponds to a basic human mode of behavior, and here Verdi and librettist Francesco Maria Piave found an opportunity to bring it to about as full a music-dramatic realization as anybody ever did.

(There's some irony here, in that in the next scene both the tenor and baritone in Traviata, Viioletta's new fascination, Alfredo Germont, and his father, Giorgio Germont, have arias with cabalettas, in situations that could plausibly sustain the form, and for whatever reason(s) Verdi doesn't seem to have bought in. Those cabalettas are the weakest numbers in the score, indeed the only less than first-rate music in it. While great singers might make them work -- the baritone cabaletta seems to me on the verge of being workable -- it's not an accident that these numbers were for a long time routinely omitted. Restoring them hasn't necessarily been a gain.)

SIDEBAR: WHY IS ALFREDO'S FATHER SO
SET AGAINST HIS LIAISON WITH VIOLETTA?

The words most often associated with Violetta are "courtesan" and "demimondaine." From the American Heritage Dictionary:

courtesan n. A woman who is a prostitute, especially one whose clients are men of rank or wealth.

A "demimondaine" is defined as "a woman belonging to the demimonde," so let's jump to that:

demimonde n. 1.a. A class of women kept by wealthy lovers or protectors. b. Women prostitutes considered as a group. 2. A group whose respectability is dubious or whose success is marginal: the literary demimonde of ghost writers, hacks, and publicists. In this sense, also called demiworld.

Now Violetta actually has a fiancé, and a baron at that, which makes me wonder whether she's actually a prostitute. Wouldn't you figure that even the most liberal baron would have certain limits of propriety in matters of matrimony? So I'm inclined to 1a, with the powerful odor of dubious respectability from 2.

Note that for Alfredo's father, in his primly middle-class social circle, this would probably be a distinction without a difference, which is one reason "updating" the time period of the opera, as has been done by many too-smart-for-their-own-good directors, seems to me dangerous. I think we need for the stigma attached to Violetta's social status to be powerful enough to set the opera's events in motion.

Why don't we lead off, now, with the English-language performance by Valerie Masterson?

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

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

TO CONTINUE WITH OUR "AH, FORS'È LUI"
AND "SEMPRE LIBERA" PREVIEW, CLICK HERE.

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[2/6/2011] In Verdi's "La Traviata," Violetta faces her second life-transforming event (continued}

"Dite alla giovine . . .": Violetta (Amelita Gallli-Curci) gives in, and Germont (Giuseppe de Luca) has won -- at considerable cost to both of them (but especially Violetta, of course); then she asks him to tell her what to do. This 1918 recording comprises our tracks [5] through [7] (translations below).


NOW WE HEAR OUR OTHER VIOLETTAS
FROM OUR TRAVIATA PREVIEWS --

Maria Callas (with Mario Sereni) and Virginia Zeani (with her Romanian countryman Nicolae Herlea). In both performances we begin later than in the Masterson-du Plessis one, right at the moment of Germont's entrance. The Callas-Sereni version, conveniently, uses exactly the same track points as the Masterson-du Plessis, while the track-free Zeani-Herlea version allows us to hear the scene without interruption.

VERDI: La Traviata: Act II, Scene 1, Violetta-Germont scene

[1] Germont, "Madamigella Valéry" . . .
[2] Germont, "Pura siccome un angelo" . . .
[3) Violetta, "Non sapete, quale affetto" . . .
[4] Germont, "Un dì, quando le veneri" . . .
[5] Violetta, "Dite alla giovine" . . .
[6] Violetta, "Or imponete" . . .
[7] Violetta, "Morrò! Morrò! La mia memoria" . . .

[1] (A): track 1, (B): 0:00
GERMONT: Mademoiselle Valéry?
VIOLETTA: Yes.
GERMONT: I'm Alfredo's father.
VIOLETTA [surprised, invites him to sit down]: You are?
GERMONT [sitting down]: Yes, I'm the father of that headstrong boy,
Who's rushing to his ruin
Because of his infatuation for you.
VIOLETTA [rising indignantly]: I am a woman, Sir,
And this is my house;
Please excuse me if I leave you,
More for your sake than mine.
[She turns to go out. ]
GERMONT [to himself]: What bearing!
All the same ...
VIOLETTA [returning to her chair]: There must be some mistake!
GERMONT: He wants to make over everything to you.
VIOLETTA: He wouldn't dare,
I should refuse.
GERMONT [looking round him]: But all this luxury . . .
VIOLETTA [showing him a document]: That puzzles a lot of people,
But you shall know the truth.
GERMONT [looking at the document]: Heavens! What are you telling me?
You're sacrificing
Everything you possess?
Is this how the past reproaches you?
VIOLETTA [with enthusiasm]: The past is over. I love Alfredo now,
God has wiped out the past.
He knows of my repentance!
GERMONT: Your feelings do you credit.
VIOLETTA [getting up]: How kind your voice sounds now.
GERMONT: I have to ask a sacrifice
Of those noble feelings of yours.
VIOLETTA: No! Don't tell me!
Don't tell me your terrible demand!
I foresaw it . . . I expected it . . .
I was too happy!
GERMONT: Alfredo's father
Pleads with you now for the future
Of his two children!
VIOLETTA: His two children?
GERMONT: Yes.
[2] (A): track 2, (B): 3:08
God gave me a daughter
As pure as an angel;
And if Alfredo refuses
To return to the bosom of his family,
The man she loves and who loves her,
The one whose wife she was to be,
Will break the chain
That was to bind them in their happiness.
I pray you not to change the roses of their
Love to flowers of sadness.
Surely your heart will not deny
The prayer I utter now.
VIOLETTA: Ah yes, I understand.
If I left
Alfredo for a time . . .
It would be a sacrifice, but then ...
GERMONT: That's not what I'm asking.
VIOLETTA: Heavens! What more do you expect?
So much I've offered already!
GERMONT: But not enough.
VIOLETTA: You want me to leave him
Forever?
GERMONT: It's necessary.
VIOLETTA: Oh, no! Never!
No, never!
[3] (A): track 3, (B): 5:13
You cannot know the kind of passion
-- Living, overwhelming --
That burns in my heart!
I have no friends, no family still living.
Alfredo swore,
That I should find them all in him.
How should you know that my life
Is threatened by a fell disease?
That already I see the end is near?
If I parted from Alfredo,
My suffering would be so unbearable
That I would rather die,
Why yes, much rather die!
GERMONT: The sacrifice is weighty,
But hear me out with patience,
You're young and beautiful
And in time . . .
VIOLETTA: Oh, say no more . . .
I understand you.
But it's impossible for me . . .
I want nothing but to love him!
GERMONT: That may be,
But men are often less faithful.
VIOLETTA: Oh, heavens!
[4] (A): track 4, (B): 7:45
GERMONT: One day, when time
Has put your charms to flight,
Boredom will swiftly rise.
What will happen then? Think!
The gentle balm of affection
Will not be for you,
Because the threads that bound you
Had not been blessed by heaven.
VIOLETTA: It's true!
GERMONT: Ah, why not then abandon
So tempting a dream?
VIOLETTA: It's true!
GERMONT: Be the consoling angel
Of my family!
Violetta, only think,
You still have time for that.
My child, it's God who inspires
The words this father speaks.
VIOLETTA [in great grief]: So, for the wretched woman
Who's fallen once,
The hope of rising is forever gone!
Though God should show His mercy,
Man will never forgive her.
[5] (A): track 5, (B): 10:49
[To Germont, weeping] Say to your daughter, so pure and fair,
That there's a victim of misfortune
Whose one ray of happiness
Before she dies
Is a sacrifice made for her.
GERMONT: Weep, unhappy girl, weep!
I see the sacrifice I ask
Is the greatest one of all,
In my own heart I feel your sorrow;
Have courage, and your generous
Heart will conquer!
[6] (A): track 6, (B): 15:19
VIOLETTA: Tell me what I must do.
GERMONT: Say you don't love him.
VIOLETTA: He won't believe me.
GERMONT: Then leave him.
VIOLETTA: He would follow me.
GERMONT: Then . . .
VIOLETTA: As your daughter now embrace me,
So you may give me strength.
[embracing Germont] Soon he will be restored to you,
But more unhappy than words can tell.
You must be there
To comfort him.
[She indicates the garden. She goes to the writing table.]
GERMONT: What are you doing?
VIOLETTA: If I told you,
You would oppose me.
GERMONT: You are generous indeed!
And what can I do for you?
What can I do for you who are so generous?
[7] (A): track 7, (B): 16:29
VIOLETTA [turning to him]: I shall soon die!
And he'll not curse
My memory
If someone tell him
How much I suffered.
GERMONT: No, generous girl, you must live,
You must be happy,
For one day
Heaven will repay you for these tears.
VIOLETTA: Let him know the sacrifice
I made of the love
That will be his
Till I draw my last breath.
GERMONT: Your sacrifice shall be rewarded,
And in days to come
You will be proud
Of so great a love.
Yes!
VIOLETTA: Someone is coming, you must go now.
GERMONT: I thank you from my heart!
VIOLETTA: Go now. [They embrace.]
We may not meet again.
VIOLETTA and GERMONT: May you be happy! Farewell!
[Germont goes to the door.]
VIOLETTA [weeping]: Let him know the sacrifice
I made of the love . . .
GERMONT [at the door]: Yes! Yes!
VIOLETTA: That will be his forever ...
Her tears stifle the words.
Farewell!
GERMONT: Farewell!
VIOLETTA and GERMONT: May you be happy! Farewell!
[Germont goes through the door into the garden.]

(A)
Maria Callas (s), Violetta Valéry; Mario Sereni (b), Giorgio Germont; Orquestra Sinfónica Nacional (Lisbon), Franco Ghione, cond. Myto, recorded live at the Teatro São Carlos, Mar. 27, 1958
(B)
Virginia Zeani (s), Violetta Valéry; Nicolae Herlea (b), Giorgio Germont; Orchestra of the Romanian National Opera (Bucharest), Jean Bobescu, cond. Electrecord/Vox, recorded 1968


VIOLETTA PUTS HER "PLAN" INTO EFFECT

This is the plan she refuses to share with Germont. Sorry to say, it kind of sucks. She hurriedly writes Alfredo a letter, which she has delivered to him while she's vamoosing to Paris. Alfredo returns sooner than she expects, and she struggles to retain her composure, finally erupting in this outburst.

La Traviata: Act II, Scene 1, "Amami, Alfredo"

VIOLETTA: Love me, Alfredo.
Love me as much as I love you.
Farewell.

[in English] Valerie Masterson (s), Violetta Valéry; English National Opera Orchestra, Sir Charles Mackerras, cond. EMI/Chandos, recorded Aug.-Oct. 1980
Maria Callas (s), Violetta Valéry; Orquestra Sinfónica Nacional (Lisbon), Franco Ghione, cond. Myto, recorded live at the Teatro São Carlos, Mar. 27, 1958
Virginia Zeani (s), Violetta Valéry; Orchestra of the Romanian National Opera (Bucharest), Jean Bobescu, cond. Electrecord/Vox, recorded 1968


AND ONE LAST TIME, LET'S GO BACK TO THE BEGINNING

No, I didn't forget about the Prelude to Traviata. I just thought that today we would save it for the end. I think the reason will be readily audible.

La Traviata: Prelude to Act I

Orchestra of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Carlos Kleiber, cond. Live performance, Dec. 9, 1984


RETURN TO THE BEGINNING OF THE POST

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[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.


RETURN TO THE BEGINNING OF THE POST

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