"Sempre libera"
Forever free
Alfredo has declared his love for the fun-loving courtesan, Violetta, and this stirs unaccustomed feelings in her. He is so devoted he has visited her every day when she was unwell. Her aristocratic lover was much less attentive. She is convinced, though, that love is an illusion and what she wants from life is the freedom to seek never-ending pleasure.
How strange it is … how strange!
Those words are engraved in my heart!
Would a true love be a misfortune?
What will you decide, my troubled soul?
No man has ever moved you like this.
What joy, which I never knew …
Loving, being loved!
Can I scorn this
For the barren craziness of my life?
Ah, perhaps he is the one my heart,
Alone in the uproar,
Delighted in picturing so often In secret?
This man, so quiet and attentive,
Who came to my sickbed
And kindled a new fever
Waking me to love! To that love,
Which is the heartbeat of the universe,
Mysterious, grand,
The torment and delight of my heart.
It's madness! This is futile madness!
A poor, lonely woman
Abandoned in this teeming desert
They call Paris!
What more can I hope for now?
What should I do?
Enjoy myself!
Perish in a whirl of pleasure.
I must always be free
To flit from pleasure to pleasure,
I want my life to flow
Along paths of delight.
At daybreak or the end of the day,
Always happy, wherever I am,
My thoughts will fly
Towards ever new delights.
La traviata (The Fallen Woman) by Giuseppe Verdi is based on a play adapted from the 1848 novel by Alexandre Dumas. The opera was originally titled Violetta, after the main character.
Alfredo Germont has long adored society courtesan Violetta Valéry from afar. At a party she hosts he gives a toast – a rousing drinking song – but Violetta is then overcome by a fainting fit. Alfredo stays with her, offering to protect her as her lover. Violetta laughs off his passionate declarations; she must be free to enjoy herself.
Violetta and Alfredo leave Paris for the countryside but their happiness is short-lived. Alfredo’s father, Germont, arrives unexpectedly, asking her to leave his son, to spare the family the shame of this connection with a courtesan. She agrees, asking only that, one day, Germont reveals her sacrifice to Alfredo.
Violetta returns to her old life in Paris and a liaison with her former lover, Baron Douphol. Alfredo encounters them at a party and tensions rise. In the final act, Violetta is dying of consumption. Alfredo now knows of her sacrifice and arrives to beg her forgiveness. Caught in the moment, the lovers plan a happy future together. But Violetta’s new-found strength is fleeting; she suddenly collapses and dies.