La Rondine vs. La Traviata
Jan. 29th, 2008 02:47 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
polutropeAs a disclaimer: because La Rondine is the only opera that has more than one recording and no libretto online, I haven't read it, but I know what happens. It is entirely possible that the librettists screwed it up entirely.
Anyway, when summarizing Rondine, the first thing everyone says is that it's a "watered-down Traviata. Magda, like Violetta, is a courtesan with a heart of gold, but at the end, instead of dying, she turns and walks away from her lover. Now, OperaChic says that that's "terrible anti-climactic."
I suppose it is - but it resonates for me, perhaps because renunciation and sacrifice are the Themes that practically guarantee that I will dissolve in tears, unless (and sometimes even if) it's done really badly.
Further, Violetta dies. She doesn't have to deal with the consequences of her noble sacrifice. She doesn't have to grow old and realize that M. Germont was wrong, she hasn't found anyone else; that she's alone and misses Alfredo. She doesn't have the time to reconsider her choice - is some strange girl's marriage worth the love of her life? She dies, which solves problems both for her and Alfredo (although not in the Dumas - we meet the Alfredo-character when he digs up Marguerite's body so he can see her one last time).
So, I think that Magda's choice, without death, is possible more heart-wrenching, at least for me, and it's an ending without the high melodrama of a Traviata.
(This is not to say, of course, that La Rondine is a better opera. It's not at all, but I don't think it's fair to dismiss the ending as anti-climactic.)
Anyway, when summarizing Rondine, the first thing everyone says is that it's a "watered-down Traviata. Magda, like Violetta, is a courtesan with a heart of gold, but at the end, instead of dying, she turns and walks away from her lover. Now, OperaChic says that that's "terrible anti-climactic."
I suppose it is - but it resonates for me, perhaps because renunciation and sacrifice are the Themes that practically guarantee that I will dissolve in tears, unless (and sometimes even if) it's done really badly.
Further, Violetta dies. She doesn't have to deal with the consequences of her noble sacrifice. She doesn't have to grow old and realize that M. Germont was wrong, she hasn't found anyone else; that she's alone and misses Alfredo. She doesn't have the time to reconsider her choice - is some strange girl's marriage worth the love of her life? She dies, which solves problems both for her and Alfredo (although not in the Dumas - we meet the Alfredo-character when he digs up Marguerite's body so he can see her one last time).
So, I think that Magda's choice, without death, is possible more heart-wrenching, at least for me, and it's an ending without the high melodrama of a Traviata.
(This is not to say, of course, that La Rondine is a better opera. It's not at all, but I don't think it's fair to dismiss the ending as anti-climactic.)
