"Libiamo"
Let's drink . . .
Alfredo yearns for a deeper love a life beyond the hedonistic Paris party scene, while Violetta's views love as fleeting and that pleasure is to be found in wine, song and laughter. Everyone else is happy to drink!
ALFREDO & THE BARON
Let’s drink from beauty’s cup
And drown the fleeting hour in pleasure.
Let’s drink to the trembling sweetness love inspires
to your eyes which pierce my heart.
Let’s drink! For wine
gives greater passion to love’s kisses.
ENSEMBLE
Let’s drink! For wine
gives greater passion to love’s kisses.
VIOLETTA & FLORA
I will share my happy days with you
It’s all folly in this world if it’s not pleasure.
Let’s enjoy ourselves!
Love’s delight is fleeting –
A flower that blooms and fades
And can no longer be enjoyed.
Let's take our pleasure!
And accept its alluring invitation.
ENSEMBLE
Let's take our pleasure
in a night of wine and song and laughter;
let the new day continue in this paradise.
FLORA
We live for pleasure
THE BARON
Only until we love…
VIOLETTA
Don’t tell that to someone who knows nothing about it.
ALFREDO
But that is my fate!
ENSEMBLE
Let's take our pleasure
in a night of wine and song and laughter;
let the new day continue in this paradise.
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.
Eventually won over by Alfredo's sincerity, Violetta and Alfredo leave Paris for the countryside but their happiness is short-lived. Alfredo’s father, Germont, arrives unexpectedly, asking Violetta 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.