La Traviata - Famous Arias - 07 - Act II - Amami Alfredo

Giorgio Germont conviced Violetta to leave Alfredo forever in order not to ruin his sister's marriage. Alfredo enters and finds Violetta writing a letter (it's a farewell letter for him). He understands that something bad has happened but Violetta dissimulates her disperation and tries to rassicure him. Before leaving she gives him her last farewell full of love ("Amami Alfredo - Love me Alfredo").

AMAMI, ALFREDO
Testo

VIOLETTA

Silenzio, va’ all’istante.

Ed ora si scriva a lui
Che gli dirò? Chi men darà il coraggio?

ALFREDO

Che fai?

VIOLETTA

Nulla!

ALFREDO

Scrivevi?

VIOLETTA

Sì… no!

ALFREDO

Qual turbamento! a chi scrivevi?

VIOLETTA

A te!

ALFREDO

Dammi quel foglio.

VIOLETTA

No, per ora.

ALFREDO

Mi perdona, son io preoccupato.

VIOLETTA

Che fu?

ALFREDO

Giunse mio padre…

VIOLETTA

Lo vedesti?

ALFREDO

Ah no, severo scritto mi lasciava
Però l’attendo, t’amerà in vederti.

VIOLETTA

Ch’ei qui non mi sorprenda:
Lascia che m’allontani; tu lo calma.
Ai piedi suoi mi getterò, divisi
Ei più non ne vorrà; sarem felici,
Perché tu m’ami, Alfredo, non è vero?

ALFREDO

O, quanto! Perché piangi?

VIOLETTA

Di lagrime avea d’uopo, or son tranquilla
Lo vedi? ti sorrido… lo vedi?
Or sono tranquilla, ti sorrido!
Sarò là, tra quei fior, presso a te sempre.
Sempre, sempre presso a te!
Amami, Alfredo,
Quant’io t’amo!
Addio!

AMAMI, ALFREDO
English translation

VIOLETTA

Hush! Go at once.

And now a note to him.
What shall I say? Who will give me the courage to say it?

ALFREDO

What are you doing?

VIOLETTA

Nothing!

ALFREDO

You were writing?

VIOLETTA

Yes… no!

ALFEDO

Why are you confused? Who were you writing to?

VIOLETTA

To you!

ALFREDO

Give me the letter.

VIOLETTA

No, later.

ALFREDO

I’m sorry, there’s something worrying me.

VIOLETTA

What is it?

ALFREDO

My father’s arrived…

VIOLETTA

Have you seen him?

ALFREDO

No, but he left me an angry letter.
I shall wait for him. He’ll love you when he sees you.

VIOLETTA

Don’t let him find me here:
Let me go; you can calm him down.
I’ll throw myself at his feet,
He won’t want to part us any more. We shall be happy,
Because you love me, Alfredo, don’t you?

ALFREDO

So very much, but why are you crying?

VIOLETTA

I felt like crying, but I am better now.
You see… I’m smiling… you see?
I’m all right now, I’m smiling!
I shall be there among the flowers, always near to you.
Always, always near to you!
Love me, Alfredo,
Love me as I love you!
Farewell!

La Traviata - Famous Arias - 06 - Act II - Pura siccome un angelo

Giorgio Germont, Alfredo's father, explains to Violetta that he has a daughter pure as an angel ("Pura siccome un angelo ") and that her engagement is about to break because of the relationship between Violetta and Alfredo (not well seen by the society because she's a prostitute).
He asks her to make a sacrifice for his family, he asks her to live Alfredo, not for a while but forever.
He doesn't tell her immediately that he can't admit that his son lives with a whore and initially he just states that he should return to his family ("in seno alla famiglia "). 

Violetta is shocked and refuses but Giorgio Germont manages to convince her to leave Alfredo.

PURA SICCOME UN ANGELO
Testo

GERMONT

Pura siccome un angelo
Iddio mi diè una figlia;
se Alfredo nega riedere
in seno alla famiglia,
l’amato e amante giovane,
cui sposa andar dovea,
or si ricusa al vincolo
che lieti ne rendea.
Deh, non mutate in triboli
le rose dell’amor!
Ai preghi miei resistere
non voglia il vostro cor.

VIOLETTA

Ah, comprendo,
dovrò per alcun tempo
da Alfredo allontanarmi…
Doloroso fora per me… Pur…

GERMONT

Non è ciò che chiedo.

VIOLETTA

Cielo! Che più cercate?
Offersi assai!

GERMONT

Pur non basta.

VIOLETTA

Volete che per sempre a lui rinunzi?

GERMONT

È d’uopo!

VIOLETTA

Ah no! Giammai!
Non sapete quale affetto
vivo, immenso m’arda in petto?
Che né amici, né parenti
io non conto tra i viventi?
E che Alfredo m’ha giurato
che in lui tutto io troverò?
Non sapete che colpita
d’altro morbo è la mia vita?
Che già presso il fin ne vedo?
Ch’io mi separi da Alfredo?
Ah, il supplizio è sì spietato,
che morir preferirò!

GERMONT

È grave il sacrifizio,
ma pur tranquilla uditemi.
Bella voi siete e giovane.
Col tempo…

VIOLETTA

Ah, più non dite…
V’intendo.
M’è impossibile…
Lui solo amar vogl’io!

GERMONT

Sia pure, ma volubile
sovente è l’uom.

VIOLETTA

Gran Dio!

GERMONT

Un dì, quando le veneri
il tempo avrà fugate,
fia presto il tedio a sorgere.
Che sarà allor? Pensate,
per voi non avran balsamo
i più soavi affetti,
poiché dal ciel non furono
tai nodi benedetti.

VIOLETTA

È vero!

GERMONT

Ah, dunque sperdasi
tal sogno seduttore.
Siate di mia famiglia
l’angiol consolatore!
Violetta, deh, pensateci,
ne siete in tempo ancor.
È Dio che ispira, o giovine,
tai detti a un genitor.

VIOLETTA

Così alla misera,
ch’è un dì caduta,
di più risorgere
speranza è muta!
Se pur beneficio
le indulga Iddio,
l’uomo implacabile
per lei sarà.

PURA SICCOME UN ANGELO
English translation

GERMONT

God gave me a daughter
As pure as an angel;
If Alfredo refuses
To return to the bosom of his family,
The man she loves and who loves her,
The one whose wife she was to be,
Will break the chain
That was to bind them in their happiness.
I pray you not to change the roses of their
Love to flowers of sadness.
Surely your heart will not deny
The prayer I utter now.

VIOLETTA

Ah yes, I understand.
If I left
Alfredo for a time …
It would be a sacrifice, but then …

GERMONT

That’s not what I’m asking.

VIOLETTA

Heavens! What more do you expect?
So much I’ve offered, already!

GERMONT

But not enough.

VIOLETTA

You want me to leave him for ever?

GERMONT

It’s necessary.

VIOLETTA

Oh, no! Never!
You cannot know the kind of passion
– Living, overwhelming – that burns in my heart!
I have no friends,
No family still living.
Alfredo swore,
That I should find them all in him.
How should you know that my life
Is threatened by a fell disease?
That already I see the end is near?
If I parted from Alfredo,
My suffering would be so unbearable
That I would rather die!

GERMONT

The sacrifice is heavy,
But hear me out with patience,
You’re young and beautiful.
And in time …

VIOLETTA

Oh, say no more …
I understand you.
But it’s impossible for me …
I want nothing but to love him!

GERMONT

That may be,
But men are often less faithful.

VIOLETTA

Oh, heavens!

GERMONT

One day, when time
Has put your charms to flight,
Boredom will swiftly rise.
What will happen then? Think!
The gentle balm of affection
Will not be for you,
Because the threads that bound you
Had not been blessed by heaven.

VIOLETTA

It’s true!

GERMONT

Ah, why not, then, abandon
So tempting a dream?
Be the consoling angel
Of my family!
Violetta, only think,
You still have time for that.
My child, it’s God who inspires
The words this father speaks.

VIOLETTA

So, for the wretched woman
Who’s fallen once,
The hope of rising
Is for ever gone!
Though God
Should show His mercy,
Man will never
Forgive her.

La Traviata - Famous Arias - 05 - Act I - De' miei bollenti spiriti

It's Alfredo himself that describes us what happens between the first and the second act (Dumas had written an entire act between the two but Verdi decide to omit it).
Three months have passed ("Volaron già tre lune ")  since when Violetta and Alfredo are living together in the countryside just outside Paris.
Alfredo has just come back from hunting and Un this beautiful aria he tells us how much he loves Violetta and how happy he is since when Violetta decided to leave mondanity in order to leave with him ("per me lasciò dovizia, onori, e le pompose feste" - "Gave up for me her easy, luxurious life

Of love?affairs and expensive parties …"). But in reality life in the countryside is very expensive and Alfredo finds out from the servant Annina that Violetta is selling all her things in order to pay it.

DE’ MIEI BOLLENTI SPIRITI
Testo

ALFREDO

Lunge da lei per me non v’ha diletto!
Volaron già tre lune
Dacché la mia Violetta
Agi per me lasciò, dovizie, onori,
E le pompose feste
Ove, agli omaggi avvezza,
Vedea schiavo ciascun di sua bellezza
Ed or contenta in questi ameni luoghi
Tutto scorda per me. Qui presso a lei
Io rinascer mi sento,
E dal soffio d’amor rigenerato
Scordo ne’ gaudii suoi tutto il passato.

De’ miei bollenti spiriti
Il giovanile ardore
Ella temprò col placido
Sorriso dell’amore!
Dal dì che disse: vivere
Io voglio a te fedel,
Dell’universo immemore
Io vivo quasi in ciel.

DE’ MIEI BOLLENTI SPIRITI
English translation

ALFREDO

There’s no pleasure in life when she’s away!
It’s three months now since Violetta
Gave up for me her easy, luxurious life
Of love?affairs and expensive parties …
There she was used to the homage of all
Who were enslaved by her beauty,
But she seems happy here in this
Charming place,
Where she forgets everything for me.
With her beside me, I feel myself reborn,
Revived by the breath of love,
Forgetting the past in present delights.

My passionate spirit
And the fire of youth
She tempers with the
Gentle smile of love!
Since the day when she told me
“I want to live, faithful to you alone!”
I have forgotten the world
And lived like one in heaven.

La Traviata - Famous Arias - 04 - Act I - Follie, follie...Sempre libera

Violetta is in Paris in her house. She feels that she's falling in love with Alfredo ("È strano, è strano......ah forse è lui - It's strange, it's strange...maybe it's him") but decides to forget this feeling.,  because it's inconciliable with her life as a prostitute: what she can do is to stay free ("sempre libera") and have fun ("gioir"). From the musical point of view in the cabaletta "Sempre libera" the character of Violetta is linked to the same musical themes (the thrills and the high notes) that have marked out her figure of frail person (she has tubercolosis) and frivolous prostitute. She knows that she can't love because both because her whore condition and her illness (tubercolosis) is getting worse. But when it seems that she has taken her decision, Alfredo's voice breaks from "under the balcony", renewing his declaration of love. ("Di quell'amor che è palpito dell'universo intero - that love that is the heartbeat of the whole universe").
As Violetta states that she will remain always free ("Sempre libera"), her heart has decided: she will live her lovestory with Alfredo.

SEMPRE LIBERA
Testo

VIOLETTA

Follie! Follie! Delirio vano è questo!
Povera donna, sola, abbandonata
In questo popoloso deserto
Che appellano Parigi,
Che spero or più?
Che far degg’io?
Gioire!
Di voluttà ne’ vortici perir!
Gioir!

Sempre libera degg’io
Folleggiare di gioia in gioia,
Vo’ che scorra il viver mio
Pei sentieri del piacer.
Nasca il giorno, o il giorno muoia,
Sempre lieta ne’ ritrovi,
A diletti sempre nuovi
Dee volare il mio pensier.

ALFREDO

Amor è palpito …

VIOLETTA

Oh!

ALFREDO

… dell’universo intero,…

VIOLETTA

Oh! Amore!

ALFREDO

Misterioso, altero,
Croce e delizia al cor.

VIOLETTA

Follie! Follie!
Gioir!
Sempre libera degg’io
Folleggiare di gioia in gioia,
Vo’ che scorra il viver mio
Pei sentieri del piacer.
Nasca il giorno, o il giorno muoia,
Sempre lieta ne’ ritrovi,
A diletti sempre nuovi
Dee volare il mio pensier.

Link Spotify:

1. Maria Callas - 1953 - studio
2. Maria Callas - Live
3. Renata Tebaldi - 1954 - Live
4. Joan Sutherland - 1975 - Studio

SEMPRE LIBERA
English translation

VIOLETTA

Madness! Madness! These are vain musings!
Poor woman, alone, abandoned in this
crowded desert
which they call Paris,
what more can I hope for?
What should I do?
Enjoy myself!
Perish in the whirlpool of desire!
Enjoy myself!

I must always be free
to hurry from pleasure to pleasure,
I want my life to pass
along the path of delight.
At daybreak or at the end of the day,
always happy, where ever I am,
My thoughts will ever fly
towards new delights.

ALFREDO

Love is a heartbeat…

VIOLETTA

Oh!

ALFREDO

… throughout the universe,…

VIOLETTA

Oh! Love!

ALFREDO

Mysterious, altering,
the torment and delight of my heart.

VIOLETTA

Madness! Madness!
Enjoy myself!
I must always be free
to hurry from pleasure to pleasure,
I want my life to pass
along the path of delight.
At daybreak or at the end of the day,
always happy, where ever I am,
My thoughts will ever fly
towards new delights.

La Traviata - Famous Arias - 03 - Act I - Un dì felice, eterea

While everybody is dancing Violetta, who has almost fainted, stops for a while in order to rest. Alfredo has stayed close to her, he tells her to consider more her health and he takes advantage of the moment to declare his love for Violetta. He remembers the day in which he saw her for the first time ("Un d' felice eterea mi balenaste innante, - One happy day you flashed lightly into my life") and breaking the rules of the good society and showing his impulsive character, he tells her that he loves her. Violetta's answer to this declaration of universal love ("amor ch'è palpito dell'universo intero - that love which is the pulse of the whole world") is pretty frivolous and this frivolousness is musically expressed by some "vocalizzi" ("amar non so, né soffro - I don’t know how to love"). Violetta is not ready to leave her freedom to become Alfredo's loyal lover and she describes love as the mixture of pleasure and pain ("croce e delizia al cor - the torment and delight of my heart"). Violetta want to push love away, a feeling that as a prostitute she cannot accept,  and for this reason she tells to Alfredo that she can't love him back and they can be just friends (BOOM FRIENDZONED! xD).
They are interrupted by Gastone and they must compose themself. Violetta gives a flower to Alfredo (a camellia of course) and promises him that they will meet again when the flower will be withered (the following day).

UN DÌ FELICE, ETEREA
Testo

ALFREDO

Un dì felice, eterea,
mi balenaste innante,
e da quel dì, tremante,
vissi d’ignoto amor.
Di quell’amor ch’è palpito
dell’universo intero,
misterioso, altero,
croce e delizia al cor.

VIOLETTA

Ah, se ciò è ver, fuggitemi,
solo amistade io v’offro:
amar non so, né soffro
un così eroico amor.
Io sono franca, ingenua;
altra cercar dovete;
non arduo troverete
dimenticarmi allor.

Link Spotify:

1. Bergonzi-Caballè 
2. Callas - Di Stefano 

UN DÌ FELICE, ETEREA
English translation

ALFREDO

One happy day,
you flashed lightly into my life,
and since that day,I’ve lived in tremolous possesion
of that unspoken love,
that love which is the pulse
of the whole world,
mysterious, unattainable,
the torment and delight of my heart.

VIOLETTA

If that’s true, then leave me,
friendship is all I can offer you:
I don’t know how to love,
I couldn’t feel so great an emotion.
I’m being honest with you, sincere;
you should find somebody else;
then you wouldn’t find it hard
to forget me.

La Traviata - Famous arias - 02 - Act I - Libiamo ne' lieti calici

Violetta is having a party in her house in Paris, when she and her guests invite Alfredo to improvize a brindisi that exalts the joys of wine, love and pleasure. He starts to sing the famous brindisi with the rhythm of a valzer: Violetta and her guests join him.
In this merry atmosphere the love that is growing between Violetta and Alfredo is clear.

Libiamo, libiamo ne’ lieti calici (Brindisi),                     Alfredo's aria from La Traviata

Libiamo, libiamo ne’ lieti calici                                         Let us drink from the goblets of joy

che la belleza infiora.                                                           adorned with beauty,

E la fuggevol ora s’inebrii                                                   and the fleeting hour shall be adorned

                    a voluttà.                                                              with pleasure.

Libiamo ne’ dolci fremiti                                                     Let us drink to the secret raptures

che suscita l’amore,                                                                                  which love excites,

poiché quell’occhio al core                                                for this eye reigns supreme in my 
                                                                                            heart...

                    omnipotente va.

Libiamo, amore fra i calici                                                   Let us drink, for with wine

più caldi  baci avrà.                                                                love will enjoy yet more passionate

                                                                                                    kisses.

Tra voi, tra voi saprò dividere                                           With you I can spend

il tempo mio giocondo;                                                       the time with delight.

Tutto è follia nel mondo ciò                                              In life everything is folly

che non è piacer.                                                                   which does not bring pleasure.

Godiam, fugace e rapido                                                    Let us be happy, fleeting and rapid

È il gaudio dell’amore,                                                         is the delight of love;

È un fior che nasce e muore,                                            it is a flower which blooms and dies,

né più si può goder.                                                             which can no longer be enjoyed.

Godiam, c’invita un fervido                                               Let us be happy, fervent and enticing 
                                                                                             words

                    accento lusighier.                                              summon us.

(Godiamo, la tazza e il cantico                                          (Be happy... wine and song

la notte abbella e il riso;                                                      and laughter beautify the night;

in questo paradiso ne sopra                                             let the new day find us in this paradise.)

                    il nuovo dì.)

La vita è nel tripudio                                                             Life is nothing but pleasure,

quando non s’ami ancora.                                                 as long as one is not in love.

Nol dite a chi l’ignora,                                                          Don’t say that to one who does not 
                                                                                              know it.

e’ il mio destin così...                                                           That is my fate..

Spotify links:

1.  Libiamo ne' lieti calici - Callas,Albanese - Santini - 1953
2. Libiamo ne' lieti calicie - Caballé,Bergonzi - Pretre - 1967
3. Libiamo ne' lieti calici - The three tenors