Here at Welsh National Opera, we’re celebrating St Dwynwen’s Day; a day of romance that celebrates Wales’ Patron Saint of Love. To mark the occasion, we are, of course, putting an operatic twist on things and exploring some of opera’s most outrageous moments in love, lust and everything in between. Forget ‘happily ever after’ - opera has yet to learn that phrase!
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Fidelity...? Never heard of it!
Never one to shy away from love's messier areas, in the world of opera, everyone is having affairs! Unfortunately, death often follows an operatic affair, take Puccini’s Madam Butterfly or Bizet’s Carmenfor example, and some operas even hold religious warnings, like in Mozart’s Don Giovanni, where he is dragged to the pits of hell for his adulterous crime of bedding 2065 women. But, there are more comedic positionings of unfaithfulness, like we see in Mozart’s Così fan tutte, where Ferrando and Guglielmo put their girlfriends to the test by donning disguises and trying to seduce each other’s partners! In fact, the plot of our upcoming production of Mozart’s comedy, The Marriage of Figaro, is largely driven by Count Almaviva’s infidelity and how the servants’ attempt to teach their employer a lesson in loyalty!
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The number one fan of a tragic love story? Opera.
It’s textbook opera – love at first sight, a passionate love affair, a tragic death. And guess what – it gets us every time! Many of the most popular operas in history follow this exact trope, such as Verdi’s La traviata and Puccini’s Madam Butterfly with La bohème, also by Puccini, being performed approximately 500-600 times per season globally.
This storyline is not always exclusive to romantic love, either. In Verdi’s Rigoletto, we see a similar type of tale of a couple falling in love, albeit it’s more one-sided here, but instead of a romantic partner grieving the death of a loved one, it’s a father grieving his daughter instead.
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Love? Ych-a-fi, no thank you!
From Love is Blind to Married at First Sight – dating reality shows have spiked in popularity in recent years as hopefuls compete to find their one true love. But Puccini’s Turandot makes dating shows look tame and boring! Admittedly, Princess Turandot is not the ideal candidate for a dating show as she’s firmly in her independent woman era and has sworn off men completely. That doesn’t stop the men from competing for her affections. The challenge they face? Solving three impossible riddles. The consequence if they can’t? Decapitation. Slightly more deadly than Love Island!
Love is... bizarre.
Operatic love stories always manage to unfold in unexpected ways, but sometimes, the plot takes a turn that is entirely bizarre. Take Prokofiev’s The Love for Three Oranges, for example, where a prince is cursed and fated to forever be obsessed with a love for three oranges. Yes, the fruit. Or in The Marriage of Figaro, when Marcellina demands Figaro repay a debt by marrying her...only to later discover that Figaro is her biological son!
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Evidently, nothing loves love quite like opera. From heartbreak to lust, you can always count on love making an appearance in an opera plot. This Spring, dive into a whirlwind of love and tangled affairs as our period-set production of Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro heads out on tour between 6 February – 6 June.