It's the conversation that sets the tone for the rest of their relationship. Violetta Valéry, feeling faint, has stepped away from her party to relax in the solitude of a nearby room, when a young man enters. His name is Alfredo Germont, and he's come to confess his feelings for her.

"One day, you — happy, ethereal — appeared before me, and ever since I've trembled with an unknown love, the kind of love that pulses through the entire universe," he sings in the duet "Un dì, felice, eterea."

But Valéry, a courtesan, is embarrassed by a declaration of such earnestness. Forget me, she implores in her response: All I can offer is friendship.

Tenor Stephen Costello woos soprano Nicole Cabell in our latest #OperaIsON streaming special, Giuseppe Verdi's "La Traviata," airing for free the weekend of January 30, 2021: [ Ссылка ]

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