Wednesday, August 20, 2008

can we all just agree that "ariodante" is a totally ridiculous opera? (spoiler alert!)

a little while ago i got a free ticket to a preview performance of "ariodante." it was really fun to get to see the show, the costumes were cool, and most of the singing was pretty good too...but the plot was unlike any classical opera i've ever seen.

the body count: one. only one. (WHEN DOES THIS EVER HAPPEN IN AN OPERA?)

the bad guy: he ended up being the one who died. he was slain by the older brother of the protagonist, and get this: he confessed his entire nefarious plot as he was dying offstage, and he apologized for it.

the lovers #1 (the pair who couldn't stop singing about how happy they were and how great things were and how the heavens smiled upon their union): things worked out fine, even though it looked for awhile like it was going to be a romeo and juliet situation, because she thought he had died and was going to kill herself and then it turns out he wasn't dead but he takes a billion years to shut up and go tell her.

the lovers #2 (the pair where the man was hopelessly devoted to the woman even though she was head over heels for the bad guy who was, of course, just using her): also come out just fine! she realizes that she loves him after all, or something!

also, several key male roles were played by women, and it confused the heck out of me because it was hard to remember who was who anyway. and that is what happened.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

ALERT!
------
STATUS QUO:THREATENED

>INITIATE COUNTERMEASURES

LOADING:
SNOW FALLING ON CEDARS
RAMBO 3
RAMBO 4
KILL BILL VOL. 1
KILL BILL VOL. 2
TERMINATOR 2
THE BIRDS

>RE-ESTABLISH GENDER ROLES

OPPRESSING...DONE

>UP BODY COUNT

MORE CORPSES...DONE

>FOIL HAPPINESS

VOTING REPUBLICAN...DONE

STATUS QUO REPAIRED.

sarah said...

no silly, it's not that i object to the low body count...it's just that in operas, people always die. especially people in love. being in love is fatal at least 65% of the time, if you live in operaworld.

i was so nervous the whole time, thinking, "oh man! you two are way too happy! now you're gonna die! aw crap, even your father the king approves of your relationship! NOW you're gonna die for sure!" etc etc etc.

Anonymous said...

oh, i know. it's such a departure from the usual style; i was really surprised just to read about it.

sarah said...

yeah, next time i go to the opera i'm going to figure out the plot first. then i won't be anxious that someone's about to die for being in love.