Recently, I saw a link posted on Facebook to an article
dated December 5, 2017 in the Paris Review titled “Opera in a post-Weinstein
World” in which the author reframes his conception of opera, defining it as “a
harmonization of voices wrung from women’s suffering.” The analysis is somewhat
disturbing because it seems to be celebrating women as victim rather than
survivor in their personal relationships.
Aida: the title
character is a foreigner, an Ethiopian princess who is an Egyptian prisoner of
war. She falls in love with the Egyptian general Radames. Aida’s father, the
king of Ethiopia, manipulates her into getting Radames to commit treason against
Egypt. He is sentenced to die and Aida chooses to die with him out of love.
Carmen: the
Spanish gypsy, who craves the attention of Don Jose, the one man who has no
interest in her. She uses her seductive wiles to get him to release her when
she is arrested after causing a fight at the cigarette factory. He then falls
in love with her and ends up in jail for helping her. By the time he is
released, she has moved on to Escamillo, a bullfighter. Don Jose’s jealousy causes
him to impulsively stab Carmen to death.
Madam Butterfly:
the title character is a young Japanese geisha who marries a visiting American
naval officer. She truly loves him and is even willing to sacrifice her
religion for him, but he does not share her depth of feeling and eventually
abandons her to return home and marry a wife from his own culture. When she
learns about his marriage after he returns to Japan three years later, she
commits suicide by stabbing herself.
Tosca: the title
character is in love with the painter Cavaradossi, but is manipulated by the
Chief of Police, who is obsessed with her, to believe that he is having an
affair with another woman. The painter is arrested but Tosca is led by the
Chief of Police that she can save his life if she tells him the hiding place of
a political prisoner that Cavaradossi has been helping. Deceived and betrayed
in the end, she jumps off a wall to her death.
These are just a few of the cases in which the heroine is shamed
and victimized by a man, either an indifferent or jilted lover or strict father,
leading to suffering and often a tragic ending.There are other examples of women in literature who make
tremendous sacrifices in the name of love, either for family or a romantic
partner, which doesn't always end well: Antigone by Sophocles, who, in giving her brother a proper burial,
dies because for choosing love over duty to the state. Ophelia in Hamlet,
Juliet in Romeo and Juliet, Desdemona
in Othello, Hester Prynne in the Scarlet Letter and the Little Mermaid,
who in Hans Christian Andersen’s original version, obtains a human soul to
pursue the object of her love and throws
herself into the sea when the Prince rejects her rather than killing him to
regain her mermaid identity. Less esoteric are Broadway productions like Fantine in Les Miserables and Kim in Miss
Saigon.
In each instance, love, the emotion that is supposed to
generate the greatest happiness, paradoxically causes the greatest damage. It’s
no wonder that many women think that loving someone means
losing their individual identity for the sake of the other person. In his
article, Daniel Foster says that opera “encourages their passion even in the
face of difficulty and defeat.” A certain amount of sacrifice is essential in
any loving relationship, but not at the complete expense of the self. In Hamlet, Polonius counsels his son
Laertes: “To thine own self be true/And
it must follow as the night the day/Thou canst not then be false to any man.” It was advice his daughter would have
benefited from as well.
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