Slavini-Donatelli was not done with the part however, she would repeat the role several times! Verdi would make a few alterations as the opera was taken up around Europe, and he found his ideal Violetta in Maria Spezia. The opening was a disaster though the rest of the run was actually moderately successful financially (there's an upside to a good scandal), and other opera houses would quickly take up the opera. The audience were unkind to Salvini-Donatelli the legend goes that one shouted, “I see no consumption, only dropsy”. Varesi considered Papa Germont unworthy so he put minimal effort in while Lodovico Graziani as Alfredo wasn’t up to snuff. Act I fared solidly, but it was all downhill from Act II. He was so concerned he sent Piave to La Fenice to request a casting change but to no avail.įirst night came and went as Verdi feared. Verdi feared the worse: the premiere cast were not nearly what he wanted, especially Fanny Salvini-Donatelli as Violetta, who was the opposite of the slender figure he imagined. Negative anonymous letters were sent, and to top it off, Verdi was informed that owing to the subject matter, the opera could not be done in modern dress. The alarm bells rang quickly, Varesi reportedly informing La Fenice of Verdi’s plan to put this “common whore” on the opera stage. This novel and then play had been an enormous success, but its themes were highly scandalous for the time. Verdi finally chose a subject but then abandoned it after beginning work and began from scratch on a new opera with Francesco Piave, his frequent librettist, based on “La Dame aux camelias” by Alexandre Dumas fils. Verdi in a letter to the Baritone Felice Varesi It is easy to find commonplace, and I can find 50 of them an hour but it is difficult, very, very difficult, to find one that has all the qualities needed if it is to have an impact, one that is also original and provocative. Verdi was already working on Il Trovatore but La Fenice offered him another commission, and by May of 1852, a contract was signed for a premiere in March 1853, though Verdi did not yet even have a subject. It was 1851, and Rigoletto had just premiered to enormous acclaim at La Fenice in Venice. La Traviata came at the end of Verdi’s most frenetic period of composition, finishing what has become known as his Galley Years. The Act closes with a tremendous ensemble number in which the various characters pour out their hearts. Giorgio Germont arrives, denouncing his son's behaviour. She faints, and the crowd loudly turns on Alfredo. She does so, and he makes a frightful scene calling all the guests back into the room.Īlfredo vilely humiliates Violetta in front of everyone culminating in him throwing his winnings at her as “payment” for her services. Maddened, he demands she tell him to his face that she now loves the Baron. She fears either the Baron or Alfredo will challenge the other to a duel and asks Alfredo to leave before that can happen. The Baron is less than pleased.Įveryone leaves, but Violetta has asked Alfredo to meet with her privately. Eventually, Flora announces supper, and Alfredo leaves with a small fortune in winnings. Excitement ensues with Alfredo and the Baron going head to head at the gambling table. The plight of Violetta makes sense irrespective of whether we see her as a 19th Century courtesan, a 21st Century prostitute or something else altogether! In Brief The real wonder of this work is that these characters speak to our universal nature regardless of the period. That was his wish, though, for the premiere the censors forced him to shift the period, from the contemporary to some hundred years earlier, out of fear that the morality on stage might somehow slip out from the proscenium and into the aisles. It is also the only one of Verdi’s operas to specifically take place in his own time, “about 1850”. The opera concerns itself with social issues contemporary to Verdi, almost autobiographical in places with regard to his relationship with Giuseppina Strepponi ( you can learn much more on our Verdi page). The scale is far more intimate than the vast majority of his output, with no grand historical or political elements. It is currently the most popular of Verdi’s operas and one of his most distinct. Traviata at the Royal Opera House starring Ailyn Pérez
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