Verdi: La Traviata

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Free Music Notes for Verdi: La Traviata

Free Music Review: The Ultimate Recording
Hit: 5 Stars

With so many recording of La Traviata out, a great recording can become a matter of taste. Many find that Maria Callas' live 1955 recording is the best, while others enjoy Joan Sutherland and Pavoratti in the lead roles, others Placido Domingo and Ileana Contrubas or Teresa Stratas, others enjoy the Violettas sung by Mirella Freni, Anna Moffo, Roberta Peters, Lily Pons, Christine Nilsson, Edita Gruberova, Elizabeth Futral, Victoria De Los Angeles and many others including Renee Fleming whose performed the role most recently. Violetta is Verdi's best example of characterization in opera. The delicate strings that open the overture represent Violetta's deathly sickness and the overture continues with her declaration of love for Alfredo "Amami Alfredo" and staccato, trills and frivolous violins. Violetta in Act I is festive and care-free. Beverly Sills delivers this portion very superbly- in everything from the Brindisi to the tour de force scenes in private when she sings the melancholy A Fors E Lui and Sempre Libera coloratura showpiece that features elaborate roulades. Beverly Sills and Rolando Panerai, the baritone in the role of Germont, do a sensational job in the duet. Violetta is now desperate as Germont announces that she must leave Alfredo forever. But in "Ditte A La Giovine" she is resigned and even self-sacrificing. It's a moment of real beauty in the opera. Beverly Sills is Violetta. She knew the role more than anyone else. Her voice is the most I think of when I think of Violetta. In this recording, I feel that her best singing is towards the end, especially the Death Scene. No one can make the Death Scene sound so real as Beverly Sills.

Classical Music CDs

• Opera & Vocal