La Traviata

ACT ONE A salon in Violetta's house

It's long past the time you were invited, you are late.

We've been gambling at Flora's, time flies when one is playing.

Flora, my dear friends,

let's enjoy the rest of the evening.

- Have a drink and enjoy the party. - Can you be so gay?

I want to: I put my faith in pleasure as a cure for all my ills.

Yes, pleasure adds zest to life.

Alfredo Germont, dear lady,

is a great admirer of yours

and a close friend of mine.

Thank you, Viscount, for sharing such a gift.

- My dear Alfredo! - Marquis!

As I told you friendship joins hands with pleasure here.

Is everything ready?

Sit down, my dear friends,

and let's open our hearts to each other.

Well said, for wine can put secret sorrow to flight.

Let's open our hearts to each other.

- Alfredo thinks of nobody but you. - You are joking.

When you were ill he came here every day,

- enquiring anxiously about you. - Be quiet!

- I am nothing to him. - I am telling the truth.

Is it true? But why should you? I don't understand.

- It is true. - I am very grateful to you.

You never did as much for me, Baron.

I've only known you for a year.

He has only known me for a few minutes.

You'd have done better to keep quiet.

- This young man annoys me. - Why?

I think he's charming.

You have nothing else to say?

It's up to you to loosen his tongue.

I will be Hebe and pour the wine.

- Maybe you'll be as immortal as she. - Let's drink!

Baron, can you find a toast

to mark this happy moment?

- What about you? - Yes, a drinking song!

- The muse doesn't smile at me. - Command her, master!

Would it please you?

- Yes. - Yes! Now it's in my heart.

- Listen, now - Yes! Let's hear the singer.

Let's drink from the chalices of joy adorned with beauty,

and the fleeting hour shall be adorned with pleasure.

Let's drink to love's sweet tremors,

for those eyes reign supreme in my heart.

Let's drink to love, to wine that warms our kisses.

With you I can spend the time delightfully.

Everything in life is folly which does not bring joy.

Let's be happy, the delight of love is fleeting and rapid.

It is a flower which blooms and dies, which can no longer be enjoyed.

Let us be happy, fervent and enticing words summon us.

Be happy! Wine and song and laughter beautify the night!

Let the new day find us in this paradise.

- Life is nothing but pleasure. - As long as one is not in love.

- Don't say that to one who does not know it. - That is my fate

- What is that? - Would you like to dance now?

What a pleasant thought! We all accept!

Let's go then!

- Oh! - What's the matter?

- Nothing, nothing. - Why do you linger?

Let's go! Heavens!

- Again! - Are you ill? - Heavens! What's the matter?

I'm trembling. But go along. I'll join you in a minute.

If you say so.

How pale I am!

You here!

Do you still feel bad?

I am better now.

If you go on like this you'll kill yourself.

You must take more care of yourself.

You think I could?

If I had the right, I'd be the guardian of our dear life.

What are you saying? Does anyone care about me?

Because no one in the world loves you.

- No one? - Except for me.

That's true! I had forgotten that great passion!

You laugh? Don't you have a heart?

A heart? Yes Perhaps. Why do you ask?

If you had, you would not make fun of me!

- Are you serious? - I am not deceiving you.

- Have you loved me for a long time? - For more than a year.

One day, happily, radiantly,

you shone upon me.

From that day on I have been trembling

with a love like none I knew before.

That love

is the heart-beat of the whole universe.

Mysterious, exalted,

pain and delight of the heart.

If that is true, flee from me.

I can only offer you friendship.

I cannot love nor can I bear such a great love.

I am honest and sincere. You must find someone else.

Then you won't find it difficult to forget me.

- What the devil are you doing? - We are enjoying ourselves.

All right, stay there.

No more about love. Do you agree?

- I do as you wish. I am leaving. - Has it come to that?

- Take this flower. - Why?

- To bring it back. - When?

When it has withered.

Heavens! Tomorrow?

Very well. Tomorrow.

I am happy!

- Do you still say you love me? - Oh, how I love you!

- Are you going? - I'll go now.

- Goodbye. - I'll ask for nothing more.

- Goodbye. - Goodbye.

In the sky the dawn awakens,

and it is time for us to leave.

Thank you, dear lady, for such splendid entertainment.

The town is full of parties,

this is the time for pleasure.

In slumber our strength will be restored for further joys.

How strange it is

His words are engraved on my heart.

Would a true love be a calamity?

What do you think, my troubled soul?

No man before has set you aflame.

Oh, joy I've never known!

To love and to be loved.

How can I reject it

for this jolly life of mine?

Perhaps it is he whom my soul,

lonely amidst all the tumult,

delighted to paint

in mysterious colours.

He who, modest and watchful, came to my house when I was ill,

and turned my fever into the burning flame of love.

That love is the heart-beat

of the whole universe.

Mysterious, exalted,

pain and delight of the heart.

Madness! Madness! This is a vain delirium!

Poor woman, alone,

abandoned in this crowded desert they call Paris.

What can I hope? What should I do?

Eniw myself!

Perish in the vortex of pleasure.

Eniw myself!

I must always be free to hurry from pleasure to pleasure.

My life should pass along the paths of delight.

At daybreak or at the end of day, always happy wherever I am,

my thoughts will ever fly towards new delights.

END OF ACT ONE

ACT TWO A country house near Paris

There is no joy for me when I am away from her!

Three months have passed

since my Violetta for me gave up riches, admirers,

and pompous parties

where she was celebrated by all who were enslaved by her beauty.

Now, happy in this charming place,

she forgets it all for me.

With her beside me I feel myself reborn.

And, revived by the breath of love,

I can forget the past, seeing her happy.

My passionate spirit

and the fire of youth

she has tempered with her calm smile of love.

Since the day she told me:

"I want to lead my life faithful to you,"

I have forgotten the world

and lived like in heaven.

- Annina, where have you been? - To Paris.

- Who sent you there? - My mistress. - What for?

To sell the horses, the carriages and her other things.

What are you saying?

It is very expensive living here on your own.

- Why didn't you tell me? - She said I must not.

Must not? How much do we need?

- 1000 louis. - You may go. I'm going to Paris.

Do not tell your mistress that we talked.

Everything can still be set to rights.

Go! Go!

Oh, my remorse! How infamous!

I lived so mistaken!

But the truth has woken me like a flash!

Just for a while keep still,

outcry of honour.

You shall have a sure avenger in me.

I shall wash away this disgrace.

I blush for shame! How infamous!

- Alfredo? - He has just left for Paris.

- When will he return? - Before it gets dark.

- He told me to tell you. - How strange!

- For you. - Very well.

Soon a man of business will arrive. Show him in at once.

Flora has discovered me and invites me to a dance tonight.

She will wait for me in vain.

- There is a gentleman here. - It must be the one I'm expecting.

- Mademoiselle Valéry? - That is me.

You see before you Alfredo's father.

- You? - Yes, of the foolish one

who's rushing into his ruin because of his infatuation for you.

I am a woman and in my own house.

Excuse me if I leave you, more for your sake than for my own.

What manners! Yet

There must be a mistake.

He wants to present you with everything he owns.