La Traviata - N6 Scena ed aria

Description

This is Alfredo's scene and aria at the opening of Act II of Verdi's La Traviata; it is No. 6 in this series. Having left Paris to live with Violetta in a house outside the city, Alfredo sings of his quiet happiness in the aria De' miei bollenti spiriti. Then the maid Annina tells him that Violetta has been selling her possessions to support their life, and Alfredo, ashamed, sings of his resolve to go to Paris.

The aria is lyrical music built around a broad, singing melody, and the second half changes character into a fast song driven by self-reproach. The piano version has 4,323 notes, one of the highest counts in this series, and its range covers exactly five octaves, from G1 to G6, 61 keys, which no octave shift fits on the C2 to C7 of a 61-key keyboard.

It is an advanced piece that tests both the expressiveness to make the melody sing and the concentration to hold tension across a long span. In the first half the key is to lift the melody above the accompaniment; use the hand colours to see which hand carries it. For the fast second half, lower the playback speed, finish it section by section with the A-B loop, and then join everything up.

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