La Traviata at La Scala – A Dream Come True…
The love of my life swept me off to Milan…
To attend Verdi’s “La Traviata” at the legendary Opera House “La Scala”.
A dream come true for me.
“J’adore l’Opera”…
“J’adore La Scala”…
I wore a black taffeta and satin off-the-shoulder evening dress with only a huge white Magnolia in my blonde hair.
My love looked so “distingué” in his “smoking”, with a white Gardenia in his lapel.
No one looks more magnificent than Italian Counts and Countesses, Ladies, and their Gentlemen in their evening finery.
Their famed beauty… breathtaking…
Their amazing style… divine.
We were enthralled.
We took our seats in the rounded balcony, while sipping our champagne…
Awaiting the heavy, dark red velvet curtains to unveil the poignant and tragic – but thrilling – love of Violetta and Alfredo in Giuseppe Verdi’s “La Traviata”…
A love story based on “La Dame aux Camélias”, an opera adapted from the novel by Alexandre Dumas.
A famed and beautiful courtesan and a young nobleman, who fall madly in love and how their love unravels, spiralling into the untimely death of a beautiful young woman – making their tragic love one of the most legendary of Verdi’s Operas.
La Traviata, with the gorgeous Angela Gheorghiu leading… was magnificent.
She’s beautiful.
She excelled… She soared…
Gheorghiu’s debut in La Traviata, conducted by the great Sir Georg Solti at the Royal Opera House, launched her into international stardom.
While watching La Traviata, my mind could not help wandering and imagining the time when Maria Callas – my absolute favourite diva – was performing this very role of Violetta at La Scala…
Nothing could ever be more thrilling than Callas singing La Traviata.
Callas personified her character…
She became the heroine…
She was Violetta.
Her voice has no equal… her acting – Shakespearean.
She was… is… sublime.
Divine.
Magnificent.
Never… ever… to be replicated.
Coming back from my reverie…
I found myself being impressed by Gheorghiu.
It was the Final Scene…
The most beautiful.
The most poignant.
Violetta looked pale and wan, but ethereally beautiful.
The words… heartbreaking.
Violetta sang in the final scene before her lover, Alfredo, returns to her Paris bedroom:
“Farewell the happy dreams of yesteryear.
The colour has gone from my cheeks.
I don’t even have Alfredo’s love,
To combat and sustain my tired heart”…
“Oh bitter sorrow”.
“So closes my sad story”
Suddenly Alfredo rushes into her bedroom, the lovers are reunited, while he expresses his undying love for Violetta. She, at last, falls into the arms of her lover.
But it was too late…
After holding her close, Violetta dies in her lover’s arms.
Beautifully touching…
Moving.
Their love… made eternal
Tears were flowing…
The heavy velvet curtains fell at the end of the tragic final scene.
Angela Gheorghiu appeared on stage…
Triumphant.
The applause… thunderous.
Maria Callas would have applauded her…
She would have approved.
Angela Gheorghiu…
Violetta…
Bravo.
a.