Sometimes it seems that modern life has already successfully overcome all the tragedies of the past. Still, our emotions and our feelings are still the same, and theatre is a way to show us how deeply we are connected with our ancestors.
Evergreen Traviata by Germont is a story of a rotten woman – would we ever care about this kind of reputation today? And what about the characters of the classic – Otello opera – Iago and Cassius, Desdemona and Otello?
They must look funny, odd, stupid figures, because they are just overwhelmed with feelings so it’s much easier to drive them to their destiny. Passions make them blind, and passions are their curse.
So what are we when? Aren’t we driven some way we don’t know? Even if we’re absolutely pragmatic and even over-civilized, there are some forces we can’t ignore. Love. Hate. Fate. Simple coincidences – we might call them this way but it will hardly change the result.
We can’t control everything and we find it exciting to wait for an unexpected surprise in the future. That is why there’s still eternal Traviata of Germont on the scene. This is a story of being naive, a story of being sincere and a story of a social struggle. Who in the whole world would call this story old fashioned?
In fact, it would be better if every little girl knew this classical story – it’s a pill covered with sugar, a warning hidden in magnificent music. Is it a moralist’s thing, then? Not at all! Effectively, the heroine is attractive just because she dared to face the difficulties. She’s a heroine just because she’s able to love and took her risks to try, no matter if it was absolutely desperate, absolutely futile.
Probably, that’s the ideal that we lack today in our practical world. It is love, existing just for love, love without reason, and sometimes love with no hope.
Sometimes this ideal love is stronger than death and definitely stronger than human mind. Such characters as the ones we find in Otello opera – Iago and Desdemona, Otello himself – show us, that wild forces of nature are still hidden within us. Every movement of compassion to what we can see on the stage is a sign. This is a warning, but it is also a possibility.
Classical music in fact is quite famous for its ability to wake up inner movements of human soul. When it collaborates with appropriate classical plot, we can see even more dramatic effect: we know what is about to elevate from the depth of our nature and we can’t resist it.
Because it’s only opera. And, moreover, it’s too beautiful to be true. Still it is. Opera is a way to show us how beautiful we really are.