Verdi's La Traviata E-Book

Michael Steen

• Herausgeber: Icon Books
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 44

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2013

Beschreibung

Verdi's now-popular opera was a fiasco in Venice in 1853, attributable perhaps to the prima donna being noticeably obese, despite apparently wasting with tuberculosis. Soon, however, Verdi's scandalous love story was on stage contemporaneously at Her Majesty's Theatre, Covent Garden and Drury Lane. Piave's libretto depicts Violetta and Alfredo Germont, the Marguerite and Armand of The Lady with the Camelias by Alexandre Dumas (son of the author of The Count of Monte Cristo and The Three Musketeers). The bestseller was based on the short life of the courtesan Marie Duplessis, mistress of a duke, a viscount and a baron – in Paris the 'oldest profession', prostitution, was the only way many women could survive, as Victor Hugo's Les Misérables depicts. Featuring some of Verdi's best-loved tunes, such as the 'Brindisi' and Violetta's Sempre libera, La Traviata is enduringly popular. Violetta has been sung by international operatic sopranos such as Patti and Melba, and recently Gheorghiu. Some, like Joan Sutherland, have preferred to stay off-stage and make an opera recording. Domingo and Pavarotti have sung the role of Alfredo. Written by Michael Steen, author of the acclaimed The Lives and Times of the Great Composers, 'Short Guides to Great Operas' are concise, entertaining and easy to read. They are packed with useful information and informed opinion, helping to make you a truly knowledgeable opera-goer, and so maximising your enjoyment of a great musical experience. Other 'Short Guides to Great Operas' that you may enjoy include Rigoletto, Carmen and La Bohème.

Leseprobe

Published in the UK in 2013 by Icon Books Ltd,

Omnibus Business Centre, 29–41 North Road, London N7 9DP

email: [email protected]

www.iconbooks.net

ISBN: 978-1-84831-554-9 (ePub format)

ISBN: 978-1-84831-555-6 (Adobe ebook format)

Content previously published in Great Operas, published in the UK in 2012 by Icon Books Ltd

Text copyright © 2012, 2013 Michael Steen

The author has asserted his moral rights.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, or by any means, without prior permission in writing from the publisher.

Typesetting by Marie Doherty

CONTENTS

Title page

Copyright

PREFACE

USING THIS EBOOK

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

VERDI’SLA TRAVIATA

THE OPERA AND ITS COMPOSER

WHO’S WHO AND WHAT’S WHAT

THE INTERVAL: TALKING POINTS

Alexandre Dumas and La Dame aux Camélias

Consumption (tuberculosis)

The courtesans

Immorality

The music

ACT BY ACT

Act 1

Act 2 Scene 1

Act 2 Scene 2

Act 3

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Sources of quotes

Other sources

NOTES

Short Guides to Great Operas

PREFACE

This guide is aimed at the ordinary opera-goer and opera-lover, usually a busy person who wants to know the essentials of the opera but has little time to grasp them.

It provides key background information to La Traviata, told engagingly by someone who knows the opera intimately.

It is light, easy to read, and entertaining. Relevant information has been carefully selected to enhance your appreciation of Verdi’s work.

It is authoritative, but not dense or academic. It is unburdened with the clutter that can easily be obtained elsewhere. It concentrates on information that it will help you to know in advance.

Read quickly before going to the opera or listening to it at home, you will get the very best out of the performance and have a truly enjoyable experience.

Opera can be a great social occasion. Being knowledgeable and well-informed, you’ll appreciate this magical art-form much more if you read this first.

I hope you enjoy the opera!

Michael Steen

USING THIS EBOOK

A very quick grasp of the opera can be gained by reading the opening section on ‘The opera and its composer’ and the ensuing ‘Who’s who and what’s what’. Further elaboration may be found in the sections entitled ‘The interval: talking points’ and ‘Act by act’.

The footnotes and boxes are an integral part of the information. The reader is encouraged to go to these by clicking on the links.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Michael Steen OBE studied at the Royal College of Music, was organ scholar at Oriel College, Oxford, and has been chairman of both the RCM Society and the Friends of the V&A Museum. He is a trustee of the Gerald Coke Handel Foundation and Anvil Arts, and Treasurer of The Open University.

VERDI’SLATRAVIATA

A SHORT GUIDE TO A GREAT OPERA

The opera and its composer

Who’s who and what’s what

The interval: talking points

Act by act

THE OPERA AND ITS COMPOSER

A fiasco. That was Verdi’s own description of the première of La Traviata (‘The Fallen Woman’)at La Fenice in Venice on 6 March 1853.1 The performers were apparently not up to their parts and the leading tenor was hoarse – they excused themselves by claiming that the music did not suit them.

Most of the blame is usually heaped on the Violetta, Fanny Salvini-Donatelli (1815–1891). She had been very much a second choice, because Verdi’s first choice was ill. For his prostitute dying of consumption, Verdi wanted a prima donna who was ‘young, had a graceful figure and could sing with passion.’ Fanny actually sang very well indeed. But, at the age of 38, she was obviously no longer the nuovo ed ardente sirena of her youth. And there was a worse, insuperable problem: she weighed 286lb, or over 20 stone.

For Verdi, the singer was expected to provide a ‘near perfect union of music and drama’, the one complementing and supporting the other, in perfect balance. La Traviata is a reminder of the importance of the singer, as a minimum, looking credible in the role – a matter usually, but far from invariably, attended to today.

At the première, the Prelude with which the opera starts was greeted with great applause. From the beginning of Act 2, though, the reception took a turn for the worse, and the audience began hooting. However, the production ran for nine nights and actually did quite well at the box office. Verdi withdrew it for fourteen months. After this, it was performed to great acclaim. Today, it is at the top of the list of most-performed operas.

Verdi had composed La Traviata under great pressure. He had been in Rome working hard on Il Trovatore, which was premièred there only seven weeks before. However, we should not be too surprised: this was a time when operas were produced like shelling peas – Donizetti had assembled L’Elisir d’Amore in about a fortnight.

Verdi had first encountered the story of La Traviata around a year earlier. During a visit to Paris,2 he went to a performance of an immensely popular play by Alexandre Dumas, La Dame aux Camélias