The Sounds of Paris in Verdi's La traviata

Emilio Sala uses rare documents and images to re-examine Verdi's La traviata in the cultural context of mid-nineteenth-century Paris.

Emilio Sala (Author)

9781107009011, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 9 May 2013

224 pages, 16 b/w illus. 40 music examples
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.4 cm, 0.46 kg

'Sala's methodology draws on both ethnomusicology and musicology in his endeavours to consider the 'contextualization of the text' as much as the 'textualization of the context'. In this finely controlled and often intriguing analysis, he undoubtedly succeeds in demonstrating La traviata not just as a product of Verdi's imagination, but as a subtle refashioning of the sounds of Paris itself in the 1840s and 1850s.' Susan Rutherford, Music and Letters

How did Paris and its musical landscape influence Verdi's La traviata? In this book, Emilio Sala re-examines La traviata in the cultural context of the French capital in the mid-nineteenth century. Verdi arrived in Paris in 1847 and stayed for almost two years: there, he began his relationship with Giuseppina Strepponi and assiduously attended performances at the popular theatres, whose plays made frequent use of incidental music to intensify emotion and render certain dramatic moments memorable to the audience. It is in one of these popular theatres that Verdi probably witnessed one of the first performances of Dumas fils' La Dame aux camélias, which became hugely successful in 1852. Making use of primary source material, including unpublished musical works, journal articles and rare documents and images, Sala's close examination of the incidental music of La Dame aux camélias - and its musical context - offers an invaluable interpretation of La traviata's modernity.

Prelude
1. Verdi and the Parisian 'boulevard' theatre
2. Images and sounds in waltz (and polka) time
3. Motifs of reminiscence and musical dramaturgy
Coda.

Subject Areas: Opera [AVGC9], Romantic music [c 1830 to c 1900 AVGC5], Music [AV], Theatre studies [AN]