LA TRAVIATA NOTES

General:
Librettist: Francesco Maria Piave
Date: March 1853 (failure)
Revised performance Date: May 1854
Theatre and City: Teatro La Fenice, Venice
Revised performance Theatre and City: Teatro San Benedetto, Venice

Source Material: La dame aux camlias: The BOOK and then later the PLAY
Source Material Author: Alexandre Dumas fils
Source Material Date: 1848 (book), 1852 (play)

Issues of Innovation:
CONTEMPORARY SETTING:
o Censors refused this:
Re-set at the beginning of the 18
th
Century
o Based on a modern source as well!!!
USE OF DISEASE AS SUBJECT MATTER:
o Tuberculosis (consumption) was really big disease at the
time.
COURTESAN HEROINE
o Idea of a courtesan for a heroine was shocking to the
audiences and provoked critics to react passionately.
MUSICAL PERSONALITY Particularly in Violetta
THE PRELUDE (see operatic form)
MANIPULATION OF TRAGEDY GENRE:
o Seen as an art form of high status, therefore created a
new seriousness for the operatic stage.
o Romanticism with emphasis on feelings:
Undermined by being a courtesan, idea of
immediate sexual gratification
o Delayed happy ending (often with lovers meeting beyond
the grave)
Violettas death and Alfredo living keeps the lovers
permanently apart throughout the opera
o Romantic death often with symbolism of moving on to a
higher place and disconnected from the real world:
Violettas death is ugly, she is scared of death and it
is juxtaposed against the sound of people enjoying
themselves offstage- placing it in real life
OPERATIC FORM FURTHER INNOVATED:
o Use of repeating themes of music like the love theme, the
breathing theme.
o More developments of form

Operatic Form:
PRELUDE:
o Musical depiction of the start of the novel (Violetta
(Marguerie) dying in bed as her belongings are being
auctioned off)
o Opening phrases shortening in length reflect Violettas
loss of breath (Used later in Act 3)
o Love theme then appears again preempting the music of
hers and Alredos love.
Ah, fors lui
o UNBELIEVABLE DEPICTION OF AN EMFATUATION LOVE
THROUGH MUSIC.
o Uses material from her previous duet with Alfredo.
Shows that she is thinking about him and that she
loves him.
In di quellamor turns into their anthem of
love.
Andantino: Ah fors lui:
ABAB and coda (B sections are the reprise of
di quellamor which is built up to very
obviously.
Tempo di mezzo: Follie! Follie!
Suggesting she is mad wanting to settle down
with Alfredo.
Recit. Acts as a banishing of the love theme
and she settles into her cabaletta suggesting
she wants to be free.
Cabaletta: sempre libera
Trying to suggest to herself that she is free
ALFREDO OFFSTAGE PROMTING an ARIOSO:
Singing amore palpito offstage and his
singing stops her flat as she is musically
transfixed by him.
Follie! then returns with huge coloratura as
she tries again to banish his voice
Cabaletta (II): Sempre Libera:
A repeat of the cabaletta happens followed
by Alfredo being heard offstage again.
Violetta continues trying to banish him from
her mind repeating fly, my thoughts.
Addio del passato Violetta Aria Act III
o ONE MOVEMENT (doesnt have the strength to build into
a faster second movement and so helps show bleakness)
o BLEAK DEPICTION OF DEATH unmarked grave without
a cross.
o Recit. letter and recitative
o Reads the letter from Germont saying that he told
Alfredo that she does love him.
Underscored of di quellamor but the shimmering
tremolo strings make it seem like a distant sobbing
dream
o Then a short recitative ending in the finality of a
downwards octave leap on morta forshaddowing
death.
o Movement 1- Andante mosso- addio del passato
o Melody line is that of a dramatic soprano
o Accompaniment mirrors Violettas livelihood, growing
and dying with her strength and energy
starts with sparse quaver beats (line a failing heart
or failing breath).
She builds up a bit of strength as the quavers
become more sustained and the orchestration
more dense but it dies away again back to the three
quavers.
(these three quavers can be seen as preempting the
death motif it is on her mind but not yet in full
fruition).
o The OBOE:
This instrument almost represents Violettas
thoughts in this aria:
Often taking over the melody line when her
character does not have the strength to
speak- an extension of herself.
o The ENDING:
Doesnt end on the conventional chord following
her final A but rather lets the accompaniment fizzle
out, again an extension of her character continuing
on from a final note (drama before music).
DUETS - 3 important duets in the opera:
Un d felice Act I Alfredo and Violetta
o Sets up Alfredo and Violettas love for the first time.
Alfredo Act II Violetta and Germont
o C. 20 minutes in length
o Where Violetta chooses to do whats best for Alfredo and
his family (according to Germont) and so transforms into
a Madonna.
o Germont tries to persuade Violetta to leave Alfredo.
o Uses excuses like the turn-off of age and Alfredos sisters
inability to get married if they stay together to persuade
her.
Signora Act III Violetta and Alfredo
o Violetta, at the sight of Alfredo, suddenly comes back to
vocal life with a huge cadenza with him.
o An arioso of interlocking responsive vocal lines sees
VIoletta flake away back to her ill self
o Parigi o Cara
o Starts after the music restores Violetta to her weakened
state.
o Alfredo, still perfectly healthy starts a traditionally-
flavoured melody with waltz-like string accompaniment.
Violetta tries to respond but needs Alfredo saying
si to urge her voice on to the completion of the
line. And then underpinning her. Feels like he is
musically keeping her afloat.
o Alfredo, seeing Violetta is falling off and so interrupts the
end of her line and tries a second melody with the same
words, this time a spin-off of their original di quellamor
motif but to no avail, Violetta can only respond with
short breathful responsnses.
o Alfredo ends singing Violettas breathless motif, almost in
recognition of her demise.
o FEELS LIKE, VOCALLY, ALFREDO IS TRYING TO
RESTORE HER BUT, THROUGH THE DUET, VIOLETTA IS
GETTING WEAKER AND MORE DILLUSIONAL
Can see al this just through the music and the vocal
line.







Vocality:
VIOLETTA:
o Act I: Colorotura Soprano
Reflective of how giddy and vivacious her life is.
Huge amount of coloratura used, particularly when
she is trying to banish the thoughts of Alfredo from
her mind- shows how she is trying to preserve her
youthfulness.
Eg. ah, fors lui
o Act II: Lyric Soprano
Reflective of her maturing from Magdalena to a
Madonna.
Eg. Alfredo (duet with Germont)
o Act III: Dramatic Soprano
Lack of vocality reflective of her being at deaths
door. Now as a Madonna, she is resigned to her
fate.
Addio del passato
Letter read against violins repetition of Di
quellamor love theme
Aria has sobbing rhythms in the vocal line
Death very gravely depicted-
o Violetta imagines an unmarked grave.
o Finality of death is also highlighted.
ALFREDO: typical dramatic tenor
o His lack of progression vocally is used in juxtaposition
with Violetta to show her demise.
o This comes to fruition in Parigi O Cara, where Alfredo is
trying to enthuse Violetta into a large dramatic duet but
she does not have the strength to participate properly.
GERMONT: a more typical baritone role
o Different to the previous baritones created by Varesi
o Less acting and parlante more dependent on vocal ability
o Thus, it turned out to be a mismatch with Varesi and
indeed Varesis last creation for Verdi.

Musics Articulation of Drama:
SEE DESCRIPTION OF ACT 3 MUSIC IN OPERATIC FORM!!!


Source Material

Thematics:
Prostitution:
o Set and written in a time where prostitution is rige.
o Set in a Bohemia where people come without family ties
o Marriage is seen as a trade so a lot of worthless women
use prostitution as a way of making income.
Challenging the gender ideal:
o Man seen as the oak and women as the ivy who are
dependent on the oak.
o Traviata turns this on its head with Alfredo in Act II
lamenting being dependent on the headstrong Violetta.
Consumption (TB)
o Known as the wasting disease- people slowly wasting
away and dying.
o Associated with promiscuity and sex outside marriage
(the then equivalent of STDs eg. HIV)
o Disease on the stage seen as VERY REAL- really
connected to the problems of the audience of the day.
o Makes Violettas death very moving and pressing for the
audience, they could completely relate to the reality of
the situation.
REALITY OF DEATH
o Violettas last words were on a rising chromatic scale,
beinging parlando and spanning an octave and a half. It
depicts Violetta apparently coming back to life but there
is a sense of forboding in the music of a growing sense of
oppression of this revival.
o Juxtaposed against the sound of the outside world-
grounding it in the reality of the real world.
o She is not returning to anyone beyond this earth. Her
only love, Alfredo, is kept alive throughout and (a change
from the play) actually brought to her side for the death
to further convey this loss.

Staging and Performance:
Opera written very quickly premiered only two months after Il
trovatore in Rome.
CASTING:
o VERDI FORCED TO USE LA FENICES CONTRACTED
SINGERS- he was not happy!!!
o Violetta = Fanny Salvini-Donatelli
Previously performed in a production of Nabucco
Seen as a fiasco by Verdi, she was too old, did not
look right and did not have the pathos to play the
character.
o Germont = Felice Varesi
Very different to the other roles he created
Probably not the right sort of part for him and
consequently he and Verdi had a falling out,
leading him to not create another role for his
operas.
o Alfredo = Lodovico Graziani
Previously performing in La Fenices performances
of Rigoletto (Duke of mantua) and Stiffelio (title
role).
Verdi described his singing in the premiere as
monotonous

Characterisation:
Verdi to De Sanctis (1853) Great characters produce great
situations, and effect is born naturally.
Music reacts much more flexibly to the drama and to the
characters and their developments.
VIOLETTA
o She captures both Madonna vs Magdalena
Madonna: feminine ideal, what woman were
supposed to be the angel in the house.
Magdalena: gritty, cheating, promiscuous woman
She is Madonna until the act II duet with Germont
where she chooses to become the Magdalena.


CRITICAL RECEPTION:
Verdi himself hated the first run and premiere.
o Thought Fanny Salvini-Donattello was not good enough to play
Violetta, she did not have enough pathos with the character.
Verdi much more pleased with the second performance:
o Felt that Maria Spezia-Aldighieri was much better at the role
Young, modern and compassionate singing actor.
Abram Basevi (1859):
o tainted music
eg. The downward melody for the love theme is suggestive
of something sensual and wrong.
Sees show as dangerous and provocative:
Particularly because it is favoured by women.