This is my 100th post - a modest count compared to others in the Concert Hall, but I wanted to post a piece of which I am particularly fond. This is Violetta's operatic soliloquy at the end of Act 1. A courtesan, she was unprepared for Alfredo's declaration of undying love. At first she sings "perhaps he is the one" but then her resolve changes and she declares that she will be "forever free". All the while, Alfredo's love song rings in the background.
Her resolve lasts right up to the start of Act 2, when they have set up house together.
I learnt the operas of Gilbert and Sullivan from an early age and came to Verdi later, so I did not know that Mabel's coloratura in the Pirates of Penzance was directly lifted (homage, not plagiarism, I think) from "forever free". When I first played La Traviata, I thought 'that's not how it goes on!'.
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