01:55 pm
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I Lindale The Opera
So ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) firebreatherjen and I went to the opera Friday night. We decided to go, I'm not kidding, as an excuse for me to wear my new (and only) evening gown. (See previous entries for fuller detail.) So I came home from work, fed my friend Mel's cats (as I was cat-sitting), did up my hair -- quite a feat, as I at last managed an upside-down French braid -- and put on my new gown. firebreatherjen let me borrow her new black and crystal jewelry to go with my black gown. She looked fabulous in her gold dress. We went downtown to the auditorium and saw the opera. Afterwards, as we hadn't eaten dinner, we tried to find somewhere that would still be open and in which it wouldn't be too strange to be dressed so formally. We found a nice, ritzy Asian-food place where a four-dumpling platter costs nearly ten dollars.
It was kind of fun, though I felt almost the entire time that everyone could tell I didn't belong in that dress or setting, that I wasn't really able to pass off myself as a well-to-do, sophisticated woman. firebreatherjen seemed more used to such doings. She took it in stride when male strangers would pass our table and say, "You ladies look nice this evening." I would simply try not to choke too violently.
The opera itself was wonderful. I liked the title character, Floria Tosca, as soon as she appeared. She and her lover, Mario Cavaradossi, made a great pair, she with her jealous passion (as she accuses him, unjustly, of trysting with blond-haired, blue-eyes beauty he saw and painted as the Madonna) and he with his sincere, honeyed words of love (such as "what eyes can compare with your burning, dark eyes?").
The story is very dark, especially the second act, in which the villain tortures Cavaradossi in order to get Tosca to confess where Cavaradossi has hidden an escaped prisoner, then forces Tosca to agree to submit to his sexual overtures in exchange for Cavaradossi's life, then is killed by the knife-wielding Tosca. In the end, Tosca is tricked into letting her lover be killed and finally kills herself by leaping from the tower wall.
What I found perhaps most interesting about the opera was the contrast between the way that Cavaradossi sees and treats his beloved Tosca and the way the audience sees her. Before she even appears, Cavaradossi is singing about how her dark-haired, dark-eyes beauty contrasts with that of the fair woman he has painted as the Madonna. When Tosca appears, we see immediately that she is a firebrand, a passionate, strong personality given to voicing her opinions loudly, even when they are unfounded jealous suspicions. She is no meek, mild, maidenly girl, such as we might imagine the girl Cavaradossi has painted to be. We know at once that this is a woman capable of killing to save herself or her lover. Yet, Cavaradossi speaks to her with sweet words, praising her gentle hands that have killed, saying they were meant for gathering roses and not for murder.
What surprised me most was my reaction to this treatment of Tosca. I was not at all upset. Nor was Tosca. I did not feel at all that Cavaradossi was belittling or patronizing her. I began to think that maybe Tosca loves him because he makes her feel sweet and feminine. He is not intimidated by her passionate outbursts or her strong personality. He will still hold her and call her cara mia (as well as more titillating names, like "my siren").
(Incidentally, this idea that the man can treat the woman as if she were more sweet and docile and make her feel thus isn't purely my idea. I heard it from my Shakespeare professor Dr. Walton, who was applying it to Petruchio in The Taming of the Shrew. I think the idea more appropriate here, as Cavaradossi isn't "helping" the strategy by starving Tosca or keeping her from sleep in order to break her will. He's no jerky Petruchio.)
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Yes, it's been too long since I've updated. Every time I thought to do it, I would think, "But I haven't written what I'd said n my last entry that I would post next." It seems I can't wait until I write my planned essays, or I'll never post. Perhaps they're still to come.
Current Mood:  mellow
Tags: appearance, opera, review, tosca
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