Un dì, felice, eterea

“Un dì, felice, eterea” is a duet from the first act of Giuseppe Verdi 's opera La Traviata on Francesco Maria Piave’s libretto.

According to the plot of the opera, the duet is performed by the main characters of the opera: the provincial youth Alfred Germont ( tenor ) and the courtesan Violetta Valerie ( soprano ), during an evening party given by Valerie in his Paris salon. Alfred, who at first sight fell in love with charming Violetta, confesses her feelings to her, but receives a refusal.

The duet melody is an important melodic theme of the opera. As Alan Montgomery explains, the duet serves as an expressive example of Verdi's work with additional instructions for the performers: the composer marks the beginning of Alfred's part as a staccato to emphasize that the hero weighs each word ^[1] .

The duet was recorded by many prominent performers, as part of the recording of the entire opera or separately. Widely known, in particular, are the recording of Maria Callas and Giuseppe di Stefano ( 1955 ), the recording of the same Di Stefano with another soloist, Antonietta Stella ( 1952 ; as the modern critic points out, Alfred’s part “was never sung so touching, albeit with perfect self-control ” ^[2] ), interpretations of Joan Sutherland and Luciano Pavarotti , Anna Netrebko and Rolando Villasona ( 2005 ).

The music of the duo was used in the film " Pretty Woman " ( 1990 ). In 2004 , the duet (in the one-voice version) was recorded by David Byrne and entered his album “Grown Backwards”.