Opera - La Traviata

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GIUSEPPE VERDI

La traviata

118:32

The Fallen Woman

Libretto by Francesco Maria Piave after Alexandre Dumas's La dame aux camélias

English translation by Edmund Tracey

1

Prelude

4:03

Act I

2

'What a time to arrive at a party!'

4:53

Chorus, Violetta, Flora, Marquis, Gaston, Alfredo, Baron

3

'Be happy, be happy and raise your glass with me'

3:02

Alfredo, Chorus, Violetta

4

'What's that?'

2:18

5

'I saw a vision ethereal'

3:10

Alfredo, Violetta

6

'Ha, ha! What are you doing?'

1:19

Gaston, Violetta, Alfredo

7

'We present ourselves before you'

1:43

Chorus

8

'I wonder! I wonder!'

1:05

Violetta

9

'Is he the one I dream about?'

2:48

10

'It can't be! It can't be!'

0:57

11

'Give me freedom to be happy'

3:30

Violeta, Alfredo

Act II

Scene 1

12

'I'm never happy if she is not beside me'

1:53

Alfredo

13

'My life was too impetuous'

2:02

14

'Annina, where have you been?'

0:45

Alfredo, Annina

15

'I hate myself! I'm so ashamed!'

1:38

Alfredo

16

'Alfredo?' 'He has just set out for Paris'

3:46

Violetta, Annina, Joseph, Germont

17

'I have a daughter sent from Heav'n'

1:42

Germont, Violetta

18

'Do you realise I adore him'

2:15

19

'A day will come when making love . . .'

2:52

20

'Ah! Comfort your daughter so pure and lovely'

4:23

21

'Then command me!'

1:20

22

'I'll die! But you must promise me . . .'

3:43

23

'God give me strength to bear it!'

1:46

Violetta, Annina

24

'What's that?' 'Nothing'

2:17

Alfredo, Violetta

25

'Ah, she is mine forever'

2:18

Alfredo, Joseph, A Passer-by, Germont

26

'In Provence, your native land'

4:03

Germont

27

'Won't you answer your father, Alfredo?'

0:47

Germont, Alfredo

28

'No, no, I cannot preach at you'

1:54

Scene 2

29

'The surprise is a band of dancing gipsies'

1:04

Flora, Marquis, Doctor, Chorus

30

'We're gipsy fortune tellers'

2:51

Gipsies, Flora, Marquis, Chorus

31

'We are heroes, in Spain they adore us'

2:40

Gaston, Matadors, Chorus

32

'Alfredo! You!'

4:08

Chorus, Alfredo, Flora, Violetta, Baron, Gaston, Servant

33

'I have asked him here to meet me'

2:29

Violetta, Alfredo, Chorus

34

'All that she had she spent on me'

1:31

Alfredo, Chorus

35

'Disgraceful conduct! How I despise you!'

1:49

Germont, Alfredo, Baron, Chorus

36

'Alfredo, Alfredo, you hate and scorn me'

4:10

Violetta, Alfredo, Germont, Baron, Chorus

Act III

37

Prelude

3:41

38

'Annina?' 'Did you call me?'

5:04

Violetta, Annina, Doctor

39

'You have kept your promise . . .'

1:50

Violetta

40

'Forever I must leave thee . . .'

2:53

41

'Hail to the carnival's four-footed master!'

0:51

Chorus of Revellers

42

'Dear Madam -'

1:45

Annina, Violetta, Alfredo

43

'Come, bid farewell to Paris forever'

4:12

Alfredo, Violetta

44

'Ah, no more, Alfredo, let's go to church now'

1:21

45

'But if my loved one cannot revive me'

2:18

46

'Ah, Violetta!'

1:38

Germont, Violetta, Alfredo

47

'Listen! I have a picture here'

0:51

48

'I see a pure and lovely girl'

3:06

Violetta, Germont, Doctor, Annina, Alfredo

Valerie Masterson soprano - Violetta Valéry

John Brecknock tenor - Alfredo Germont

Christian du Plessis baritone - Giorgio Germont

Della Jones mezzo-soprano - Flora Bervoix

John Gibbs baritone - Baron Douphol

Roderick Earle bass - Doctor Grenvil

Dennis Dowling baritone - Marquis d'Obigny

Geoffrey Pogson tenor - Viscount Gaston de Letorières

Shelagh Squires mezzo-soprano - Annina

Edward Byles tenor - Joseph

John Kitchiner baritone - A Passer-by

Sir Charles Mackerras

August, September and November 1980