In the late 1840s, with more than a dozen operas to his credit – including the highly successful Nabucco – Giuseppe Verdi was not yet rich, but he was close to it. By then he enjoyed the most complete financial independence and, lover of the countryside as he was, in 1849 he decided to buy a farm near Busetto, the town that had seen him grow as a musician. And there he took Giuseppina Strepponi, a singer he had met in the distant days of his first operas, and with whom he had become engaged after a chance meeting in Paris two years before.
Giuseppe and Giussepina, in Buseto
The people of Busetto were not amused by the return of Verdi, now victorious and famous, to live among them with a woman who was not his wife, and a singer as well. Verdi, in addition, was a widower. His first wife, Margherita, daughter of his first protector, Antonio Barezzi, had died in 1840. Barezzi was no stranger to gossip either, and when Verdi learned of his former father-in-law's disapproval, he replied with an indelicate letter.
A year later, Verdi began composing La Traviata, which tells the tragic story of Violetta Valery who must renounce her love for Alfredo so as not to tarnish the good name of a family.
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| Giuseppe Verdi, in 1843 (1813 - 1901) |
In Act II, Violetta and Alfredo have already fallen in love and live together in the house she owns in the countryside, the fruit of her courtesan life. In the absence of her beloved, Violetta receives a visit from Alfredo's father, Giorgio, who has come to ask Violetta to end her relationship with his son, since his sinful behavior will only damage his family's reputation, especially now that his daughter, Alfredo's sister, is about to get married as God intended.
Violetta refuses at first, arguing that Alfredo is her first and only love, but Giorgio eventually convinces her. Violetta then sings Dite alla giovine, announcing "to the young girl" her renunciation of life with her beloved Alfredo, a sacrifice she fears will lead to her death. Giorgio then steps in to thank her for the merciful act.
In a performance by the Opéra National de Paris, Violetta: the Albanian soprano Ermonella Jaho; Giorgio: the Russian baritone Dimitri Hvorostovsky.
