La Traviata

Giuseppe Verdi's La Traviata is focused on the love affair between Violetta, a woman who has, as the title suggests, been "led astray" and is a courtesan, and Alfredo, a gentleman who is led to believe hat she is unfaithful (John, 1981). The course of this love affair is predictable: the couple meet, fall in love, quarrel, separate, and reunite only when Violetta lies dying of the "consumption" (i.e., tuberculosis) that is one of the consequences of her lifestyle. Along to way to an ending in which Alfredo returns to the dying woman, having learned that Violetta was not unfaithful to him, opera goers are treated to frenzied and gay parties in Violetta's salon, arias of love and passion, a duel, parental anger, and a diagnosis of a fatal condition. As Arthur Groos (1995, p. 233) commented, "the last fin de siecle was highly conscious of the pervasive 'white plague'" known today as tuberculosis. Operatic and literary heroines were often dispatched via this dread disease, which could occasionally permit a temporary remission.

In Verdi's opera, as noted by David Hamilton (53), the theme was drawn from Alexandre Dumas films' work titled La Dame aux Camelias. Consumption, as it was called, was common; no antibiotic treatment existed at the time and victims of this malady often experienced a period of unusual vigor and gaiety immediately before death. Such is the case in Act III, Scene

6 of La Traviata. In this Scene the repentant Alfredo, finally aware that Violetta

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of hope, signaled by their fervor when Alfredo bursts into Violetta's sick room. They are able to rise vocally above the physical limitations of the dying woman, who at this stage of the opera is no loner the vibrant, beautiful and perfectly groomed courtesan and "party girl" she was in earlier scenes. The combination of poetry, music, and staging combine to crate a mood of alternating hope and despair in this scene of the final act. The audience is expected to believe, at least temporarily, that Alfredo's return may be the "cure" that will return Violetta to health. We are also expected to believe that her character is fully changed by her love for Alfredo and that his character is now free from the jealousy and suspicion that had led to their break up. Of course, one recognizes that Violetta will always, should she live, be a woman with a past; Alfredo will always be a man with suspicions of her promiscuity (Groos, 1995). Nevertheless, listeners suspend their logical thought processes to join with the lovers in dreaming that the "cruel destiny reserved for all our love" (John, 1981, p. 72) will be avoided. Of course, the point of this Act is to resolve all of the issues and tension that have built up throughout the

Category: Arts - L