"La Traviata" and Family Recollections--Saturday Journal #2

Chicago's Classical Music Station, WFMT, carries live opera broadcasts every Saturday at noon.  Today we got a treat from New York's Metropolitan Opera, Verdi's "La Traviata".

This lush and popular opera, one of Verdi's greatest, tells of the tragic romance between Violetta, the "traviata" (wayward woman) of the title, and the young Alfredo, who loves her.


"La Traviata"s combination of typically romantic and melodramatic elements, familiar arias and tunes, and a lavish score that is beautifully sung and plausibly emotional, has pleased generations of operagoers, even those not familiar or not predisposed to enjoy opera. 

Even those who don't know opera are surely familiar with the Drinking Song "Libiamo" ("we drink"), which as been used countless times in popular media.   Here's a clip from Franco Zeffirelli's gorgeous 1983 film version of the opera (the English translation of the lyrics appear at the end of this post):



My maternal grandparents, Sam and Lucy, were not grand aficionados of opera.  However, Sam's father, Joseph, was a consummate fan of opera.  He listened to the Met every Saturday on his little radio.  When my mother and her sister, as girls, made too much noise (my mother lived with her parents and grandparents) he would grumble and take his radio to the attic bedroom to listen in peace.  He memorized the greatest operas, and knew them so well, that if one word was missed, or one note was played incorrectly, he would exclaim, in his most idiomatic Sicilian, "They ruined it!" and would stomp off after turning off his radio in disgust.

When my mother was 18 years old, Joseph took my mother, his granddaughter, to the Lyric Opera in Chicago as her high school graduation present. He saved money for months to afford the tickets.  They saw "La Traviata".  She always describes the experience, and how romantic and sad it made her feel.

Today I called her to remind her to listen to the Met broadcast.  She still loves the music, even though she has forgotten most of the tragic story.  My father, tall, taciturn, and cultured, listened to Classical music all during my childhood.  I believe that my mother's love for this opera was one of the things that drew this unlikely pair together in their youth.  I wonder if they listened to it  again, together, today?  I wonder if the lively and haunting music sparked memories of emotions long ago spent, and reminded them of their youthful passion, and what bonded them 50-plus years ago? 



Lyrics to "Libiamo", from "La Traviata"

ALFREDO
Let's drink from the joyous chalice
Where beauty flowers ...
Let the fleeting hour
To pleasure's intoxication yield.
Let's drink
To love's sweet tremors -
To those eyes
That pierce the heart.
Let's drink to love - to wine
That warms our kisses.

ALL
Ah! Let's drink to love ‑ to wine
That warms our kisses.

VIOLETTA
(rising)
With you I would share
My days of happiness;
Everything is folly in this world
That does not give us pleasure.
Let us enjoy life,
For the pleasures of love are swift and fleeting
As a flower that lives and dies
And can be enjoyed no more.
Let's take our pleasure!
While its ardent,
Brilliant summons lures us on.


ALL
Let's take our pleasure
Of wine and
Singing and mirth
Till the new day
Dawns on us in paradise.


VIOLETTA
(to Alfredo)
Life is just pleasure.


ALFREDO
(to Violetta)
But if one still waits for love ...


VIOLETTA
(to Alfredo)
I know nothing of that ‑ don't tell me ...


ALFREDO
(to Violetta)
But there lies my fate.


ALL
Let's take our pleasure
Of wine and
Singing and mirth,
Till the new day
Dawns on this paradise of ours.