La Traviata - N3 Valzer e duetto

Description

Against a waltz heard from offstage, Alfredo confesses to Violetta the love he has felt for a year, and they sing the duet Un dì felice. The music comes from Act I of Verdi's La Traviata, as the party guests move to the next room to dance, and is No. 3 in this series. Violetta gives him a camellia and promises to see him again, and their relationship begins here.

The melody of Alfredo's declaration of love returns in later scenes and is one of the opera's central themes. The piano version is a long piece of 3,724 notes, with a range of five octaves from B-flat 1 to B-flat 6, 61 keys, which no octave shift fits on the C2 to C7 of a 61-key keyboard.

Length is the main hurdle: the rating is intermediate, but real stamina is needed to play it through. The waltz and the duet differ both in accompaniment pattern and in how the melody should sing. Divide it scene by scene with the A-B loop, and lower the playback speed so the hands learn each accompaniment pattern. Use the hand colours to locate the melody, and keep the vocal line ahead of the accompaniment so the character of the scene comes across.

A broad collection of standalone piano pieces not belonging to any specific set, offering hundreds of varied character pieces to explore and compare.