la traviata noting

8/10/2019 La Traviata noting

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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 18thCentury

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 beyondthe 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:


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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 luio 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 ofdi 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 followedby Alfredo being heard offstage again.


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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 adownwards 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 quaversbecome 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


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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 intoa 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 seesVIoletta flake away back to her ill self

o Parigi o Carao

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 ismusically 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 TORESTORE HER BUT, THROUGH THE DUET, VIOLETTA IS

GETTING WEAKER AND MORE DILLUSIONAL

Can see al this just through the music and the vocal

line.


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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 roleo Different to the previous baritones created by Varesi

o Less acting andparlantemore 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


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Thematics:

Prostitution:

o Set and written in a time where prostitution is rige.

o

Set in a Bohemia where people come without family tieso 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 ivywho are

dependent on the oak.

o Traviataturns 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 wastingaway 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 DEATHo Violettas last words were on a rising chromatic scale,

beingingparlandoand 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 changefrom 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

trovatorein Rome.

CASTING:

o VERDI FORCED TO USE LA FENICES CONTRACTED

SINGERS- he was not happy!!!

o

Violetta = Fanny Salvini-Donatelli


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Previously performed in a production of Nabucco

Seen as a fiasco by Verdi, she wastoo 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.

VIOLETTAo 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-Donattellowas 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-Aldighieriwas 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.


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