Verdi: “Brindisi” from La Traviata: Transcription for Cello

Here is the sheet music for a cello transcription of Verdi‘s famous aria “Brindisi” from the opera La Traviata (1853).

In this transcription the cellist is quite the megalomaniac, taking the vocal parts of the tenor, the soprano and the choir, all for our own glory and pleasure. Also, the piano accompaniment has been significantly “improved” from Verdi’s original orchestral score, with many of the little accompaniment passages being now in thirds with the cello rather than in unison. Oh well, this site is called “cellofun” after all …….. Orchestral reductions pose many problems for pianists: octaves and additional harmony notes can be removed or added freely according to the will of the pianist. It is definitely better for the pianist to play fewer notes (a more transparent texture) more accurately rather than risk handfuls of wrong notes just to try and match the heroic thickness of an orchestral accompaniment. For this reason, many passages that might traditionally be played by the pianist in octaves are presented here as single notes (without the doubling in octaves).

1. Edited Performance Version
2.   Clean Performance Version
3.   Easier Version
4.   Piano Score

A play-along audio of the piano accompaniment can be found here below. If we actually download it then we can play it at different tempi with the wonderfully useful and simple Amazing Slowdowner program: