What to Listen for in LA TRAVIATA - Act III

John Baril
Conductor, La Traviata

Today we conclude our three-part blog series on "What to Listen for in La Traviata" with Conductor John Baril. If you're just joining us, please read the previous posts on Act I and Act II.

ACT III

The last Act starts with another prelude featuring pronounced sobbing or weeping in the strings. Very sparse recitative ensues with much information for the audience. Violetta reads a letter (literally speaking out loud, a very rare occurrence in opera) to comfort herself over underscoring which features, you guessed it, Alfredo’s “Di quell’amor” in the solo violin. She sings her farewell aria (“Addio del passato”), realizing she will die alone. 

LISTEN: Addio del passato (Act III, Violetta) – Edita Gruberova

An offstage chorus is heard singing a cappella (unaccompanied) party music—it is Baccanale or Mardi Gras time in Paris. Note: anytime you hear offstage music in a stage work, there is always a faithful assistant conductor with a monitor and music stand making sure it all happens smoothly and efficiently. Alfredo arrives and, to another famous three-quarter time “oom-chick-chick” accompaniment, they sing about leaving Paris as soon as Violetta’s health returns (“Parigi o cara”).

 

LISTEN: Parigi o cara  – Luciano Pavarotti and Mirella Freni

When the voices combine, listen for how differently each is written; that is, Alfredo’s melody is very lyrical and sustained whereas Violetta’s interjections are laboriously separated by (her ever-diminishing) breathing. Violetta tries to get dressed so they can go to church – all with powerful, distressing, insistent music – but to no purpose. The end of this duet (“Gran Dio, morir si giovine”) is supported by pizzicati in the orchestra—which sounds very striking and unusual. 

Germont arrives full of remorse to what reminds me of circus-music. The final ensemble, despite its intimacy, features full orchestra, including trombones and tuba, playing along in a kind of death march (except it’s in three - oh, well). Anyone familiar with sister opera Il trovatore will recognize this as a musical kindred spirit to the famous “Miserere” scene from that piece. Again, listen for how the characters express themselves within the confines of this march—very individual rhythmic outbursts layered one on top of the other. In the final moments, Violetta experiences a burst of energy bolstered by the first violin’s very soft reiteration of “Di quell’amor” supported by tremolo (literally “trembling”) string section. The very final bars of music feature the orchestra punctuating the fortissimo timpani roll with their sad, powerful Db minor chords.

LISTEN: Act III Finale – Beverly Sills, Nicolai Gedda, Rolando Panerai

View our Opera Insider today for the full article and more insider information on the entire 2015 Festival. La Traviata opens tonight and runs through August 8, 2015. If you can't make our opening night performance, listen to our live broadcast on Colorado Public Radio, over the air or online, 8:00 pm Mountain.

What to Listen for in LA TRAVIATA - Act II

John Baril
Conductor, La Traviata

Today we continue with the second part of our Opera Insider article on "What to Listen for in La Traviata", courtesy of conductor John Baril. If you're just joining us, read our blog post regarding Act I.

ACT II

Alfredo’s aria in Act II is usually performed with the strings playing the offbeats (“oom-CHA-CHA-CHA”) on the strings with their bows. However, there is evidence (and at least one famous recording) to suggest that the strings should play this pizzicato (plucked) instead, resulting in a more intimate, nuanced sound. As of this writing, I haven’t decided which to do and will wait to see which accompaniment is most suited to the staging. Lots of “action” happens in a short amount of time during the first scene of this act. Letters filled with good and bad news are written and delivered, and unknown people arrive and are introduced. Much of opera written in the romantic period has to do with expressing how someone feels about information they’ve just gleaned. Therefore, much of that information is delivered in fast recitative (speaking) style, often by underlings and messengers, and then the major characters’ feelings are expressed in slower, more sustained music (arias and duets and such). In this scene, we also hear Violetta’s passionate outburst “Amami, Alfredo,” hinted at in the prelude; listen for the amazing orchestral crescendo which precedes it.

Another fun game involving Verdi operas: how many “father/daughter” duets can you name, and from which works? The combination of baritone and soprano under these circumstances coerced from Verdi some of the most sublime music ever composed for the lyric stage. Traviata and Rigoletto are perhaps the most recognized, but I encourage you to check out Simon Boccanegra and Luisa Miller. 

LISTEN: Pura siccome un angelo  (baritone/soprano duet; score excerpted above) – Leonard Warren and Eleanor Steber

The “rules” of opera at the time dictated that Germont (Alfredo’s father) had to have a double-aria too, even though the action stops in order to do so, especially with regard to Alfredo’s anger, so his reactions are allowed for between the cracks of the arias. The second of these arias was often cut to avoid halting the action, but we are keeping one verse of it for two reasons: musical balance and the fact that I wanted to hear Troy [Cook] sing it!

LISTEN: Di Provenza il mar  (1st section of Germont’s double-aria) – Sherrill Milnes

Act II, scene 2 involves some more party music—this time a costume ball. Alfredo arrives, and with him, some of Verdi’s most intense music (up to this point, anyway) including an obsessively repeated motif (very small rhythmic pattern, first in the lower strings) that keeps the action moving forward to tighten up the drama. 

About the drama: La traviata is often considered the first verismo opera (realistic, or, about real people as opposed to royalty or mythical characters). Strict censorship by authorities who controlled such things prevented Traviata from being performed in modern costume, which was Verdi’s preference. That was considered too risqué and avant garde. However, it resulted in the first chink in the armor: though Verdi would fight with censors throughout his life, this fight resulted in the verismo opera movement, which includes works such as Cavalleria rusticana, I pagliacci, and much of Puccini’s output. Audiences identified much more sympathetically with this type of naturalistic theatre.

Violetta tries to get Alfredo to leave, mostly for his safety (an impending duel, of course), but his pride takes a hit, all underscored by the intense music. Everyone returns to the stage for an extraordinary ensemble that ends the act. Listen for the different reactions of characters and then Violetta’s gorgeously sad melody in the midst of it all.

LISTEN: Act II finale – Teresa Stratas, Fritz Wunderlich, Hermann Prey (“Alfredo, Alfredo, di questo core...” is heard at 6:23 and  visually excerpted above.)

Stay tuned for our final installment of what to listen for in Act III of La Traviata - or download our Opera Insider today for the full article and more insider information on the entire 2015 Festival.

What to Listen for in LA TRAVIATA - Act I

John Baril
Conductor, La Traviata

For our 2015 Opera Insider (Festival Resource Guide), we asked John Baril, Central City Opera’s Music Director and Conductor for La Traviata, to write about some of the musical themes and devices Giuseppe Verdi employed in this opera and what to listen for.  Here are his thoughts:

ACT I

La traviata begins with an orchestral prelude that conveys Violetta’s story, but in reverse chronological order. Sixteen solo violins play in 4-part harmony the music that is heard at the outset of Act III and which is associated with her death. Next, accompanied by “oom-pah-pah,” very typical of the period, is her tune “Amami, Alfredo,” which we’ll hear in the middle of Act II, scene 1, just before she leaves him. Lastly, this tune is repeated without the “oom-pah-pah,” now replaced with very delicate ornamentation, especially in the first violins, that is depictive of Act I. The tune is played in a lower, more somber octave by clarinet, bassoon, and ‘celli. [The violoncello (plural violoncelli) instrument is more commonly known in its abbreviated form: cello.]

Il trovatore (“the troubadour”) premiered less than two months before La traviata; not surprisingly, there are unmistakable musical resemblances between the two; the orchestration of the gypsies and matadors in Act II, scene 2 springs instantly to mind. Yet the two couldn’t be more different—a testament to Verdi’s skill. Trovatore seems to stand out for its boldness and public displays; the characters are bigger than life and even the intimate moments are set in cold, dreadful locales. Traviata, on the other hand, even in the opening scene and at Flora’s party, seems desperately intimate. The party music which opens the opera, ravishingly urbane, suddenly becomes chamber music, with only 4 violins, 2 violas, one ‘cello and bass accompanying the private conversations. Another tutti outburst followed by the “chamber music,” but in a different key, is followed by the most famous music, the Brindisi, or drinking song, in which a solo character makes a toast (Here, it’s Alfredo) and then the company joins in. The Brindisi is common in Italian opera (there are examples in Verdi’s Otello and Macbeth, and Gilbert and Sullivan poked fun at it), but, curiously, the word comes from “(Ich) bring dir’s,” a very German phrase once used by knights to “offer you” a drink followed, presumably, by a toast.

LISTEN: The Brindisi as performed by Maria Callas and Giuseppe Di Stefano.

You can view an English translation of La Traviata to follow along with the excerpts. At the opera, we’ll have English supertitles above the stage.

Banda music (literally wind-instruments playing music from somewhere else) announce a dance.  Alfredo, concerned about Violetta’s health, stays behind to confront her, then to confess his love in “Un di felice.” This is one of many of Verdi’s three-quarter time (sometimes 6/8 time), slow “oom-plick-plick” pieces.  It’s a fun game to see how many of these can be cited and from which operas; there are many, to be sure, but no opera has more than La traviata. 

This particular “oom-plick-plick” piece is made more special by the tune Alfredo sings, “Di quell’amor.” 

 

The tune is emblematic of his love for Violetta and is repeated at several important moments in the opera, sometimes sung (Violetta sings it later in this act, recalling) and sometimes as underscoring in the orchestra. Violetta’s rejoinder in this duet, despite the “oom-plick-plick” underneath, couldn’t be more different: there is daring fioratura (ornamented or “flowered” music) to suggest he flee from her and that only friendship is possible.

 LISTEN: Un di felice—Joan Sutherland and Luciano Pavarotti (“Di quell’amor” is heard at 0:49; the fioratura begins at 1:34.)

In the stretta (refers to the closing of a scene, where music tightens up and usually gets faster) of Act I, the ensemble chatters about dawn ensuing and other parties to attend. (This music is very difficult for a chorus to enunciate this fast without rushing ahead of the orchestra! Left alone, Violetta now sings perhaps the most famous (and fearsome) of all soprano scenes in the repertoire. Called a “double-aria”, the first half of which is slow (“Ah, fors’e lui”) and the second half of which is fiendishly and recklessly difficult (“Sempre libera”), it requires every available tool in a soprano’s toolbox. The slow aria has a reiteration of Alfredo’s earlier line “Di quell’amor;” that emblem, sung in exactly the same manner, even in the same key, and at the end, a cadenza, very delicate and moving at the same time. Then, instantaneously, her mind suddenly changed, she launches into “always free;” music that is desperate, irresponsible and, at the same time, determined; music that characterizes the other side of Violetta.

 

LISTEN: Ah, fors’e lui/Sempre libera – Renata Tebaldi (The latter begins at 5:00.)

Stay tuned for future blog posts of what to listen for in the other acts of La Traviata - or download our Opera Insider today for the full article and more insider information on the entire 2015 Festival.