"Follie" and "Sempre libera" from La Traviata
Listening Guide
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Featuring Edita Bruberova as Violetta, Neil Shicoff as Alfredo, and the Orchestra and Chorus of the Teatro La Fenice in Venice, Italy, conducted by Carlo Rizzi
Composer: Giuseppe Verdi
Composition: "Follie" and "Sempre libera" from La Traviata
Date: 1853
Genre: recitatives and aria from an opera
Form: alternates between singing styles of accompanied recitative, with some repetition of sections
Nature of Text: libretto by Francesco Maria Piave; View Complete Libretto and Translation.
Performing Forces: soprano (Violetta), tenor (Alfredo), and orchestra
What we want you to remember about this composition:
- The virtuoso nature of Violetta's singing
- The subtle shifts between recitative and aria, now less pronounced than in earlier opera
- A large orchestra that stays in the background
Other things to listen for:
- Alfredo's more lyrical melody in distinction to Violetta's virtuosity
Timing
Timing
Performing Forces, Melody, and Texture
Performing Forces, Melody, and Texture
Text and Form:
Text and Form:
Violetta sings a very melismatic and wide-ranged melody with flexible rhythm; the orchestra provides sparse accompaniment.
Accompanied recitative: Follie! follie! Delirio vano è questo!
[Folly! All is folly! This is mad delirium!]
Povera donna, sola, abbandonata in questo popoloso deserto che appellano Parigi. Che spero or più? Che far degg'io? Gioire, di voluttà ne' vortici perir.
[A poor woman, alone, lost in this crowded desert which is known to men as Paris. What can I hope for? What should I do? Revel in the whirlpool of earthly pleasures.]
Violetta sings wide leaps, long melismas, and high pitches to emphasize these words
Accompanied recitative: Gioir!
(Pleasure!)
Stronger orchestral accompaniment Aria:as Violetta sings a more tuneful melody in a lilting meter with a triple feel
Sempre libera degg'io folleggiare di gioia in gioia, vo' che scorra il viver mio pei sentieri del piacer. Nasca il giorno, o il giorno muoia, sempre lieta ne' ritrovi, a diletti sempre nuovi dee volare il mio pensier.
[Forever free, I must pass madly from joy to joy. My life's course shall be forever in the paths of pleasure. Whether it be dawn or dusk, I must always live. Ah! Gaily in the world's gay places, ever seeking newer joys.]
Alfredo sings a more legato and lyrical melody in a high tenor range (this melody comes from earlier in the opera)
Alfredo's melody: Amore, amor è palpito…dell'universo intero – Misterioso, misterioso, altero, croce, croce e delizia, croce e delizia, delizia al cor.
[Love is the very breath......of the universe itself -Mysterious and noble, both cross and ecstasy, cross and ecstasy of the heart.]
Violetta sings her virtuoso recitative and then transitions into her aria style
Accompanied recitative and then aria: Follie…Sempre libera
[Folly! Folly! Ah yes! From joy to joy, forever free, I must pass madly from joy to joy. My life's course shall be forever in the paths of pleasure. Whether it be dawn or dusk, I must always live. Ah! Gaily in the world's gay places, ever seeking newer joys, etc.]
Alfredo sings his lyrical melody and Violetta responds after each phrase with a fast and virtuosic melisma
Alfredo and Violetta sing: Repetition of text above
[ALFREDO: Love is the very breath of the universe itself.
VIOLETTA: Oh! My thoughts have to seek new joys. Oh! My thoughts. My thoughts.]
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