"Follie" and "Sempre libera" from La Traviata
Listening Guide
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
Performing Forces, Melody, and Texture
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.]