Day 39: Help! I'm a Fallen Woman, and I can't get up!

Hey everyone! Welcome to Day 39!

Today was devoted to Toscanini's 1946 recording of La Traviata, his belated first complete Verdi opera at NBC.


Verdi: La traviata - December 1st and 8th, 1946

I don't intend to use this blog as a forum for getting into gender politics, but the very nature of an opera like La traviata demands it, at least to some extent. Social mores can be a very confusing thing; they continue to linger and fester even when a powerful (and very popular) work of art like La traviata comes along that exposes their odious putridity.

The double standard that exists between men and women when it comes to sexual proclivity has been a stain on human society for a very long time; it was a serious problem when La traviata was first performed in 1853, and it will likely continue to exist in our society for some time into the future. Society has certainly made gains in the last 150 years, but whenever a new story comes out about an "honor killing" you wonder just how far we have really come as a species. I realize that honor killings are extreme examples of this vile double-standard, but the fact that they are tolerated by any segment of human society shows that it is still something that is in some way a part of our human character. This likely affects how we treat even the seemingly innocuous aspects of our daily life.

That even the very people who continue to perpetuate these social mores nod in agreement with La traviata shows just how powerful an opera it is. Violetta is one of the most sympathetic characters in all the world of theatre; the dilemma that Alfredo's father imposes on her (essentially forcing her to renounce her chance at having the life she has always wanted) is both heartbreaking and deeply hypocritical. Whatever Violetta may have made of her life up until that point, she as much as anyone else in the world has the right to make the most that she can of her life from that point forward. Most people would agree with this in principle, and that is why an opera like La traviata is so popular. But the fact that stories continue to be written about characters Violetta shows how far we have to go.

With these two 1946 broadcasts we finally get a complete (though with cuts) Verdi opera from Arturo Toscanini. Although this recording is well-respected by the opera community, it has not achieved the near-universal adulation that the Otello recording of one year later has achieved. This partly has to do with the somewhat uneven casting (as affecting as Licia Albanese is as Violetta, she is oftentimes vocally unstable in the role) and partly to do with the brisk pacing, which would be practically impossible to sustain in the theatre. There is truth to both of these qualms, although I don't think that should take away from the musical satisfaction that can be drawn from this performance.

It is true that the pacing is faster than what could ever be effectively done in a staged production of La traviata, but in a way that's fine. This is, after all, a concert presentation, and one that we can only listen to, minus any visual cues we provide from our own imagination. This may not be a theatrical performance, but it is a superb musical realization of the great works of social commentary that has ever been written for the musical stage.

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That's it for Day 39!

Check back tomorrow for some lovely French Shakespeare.