I recently saw an opera I’d never seen before, Puccini’s “La Rondine” (a lovely production at San Francisco Opera with Angela Gheorghiu and Misha Didyk). The story is not an unsual one. Magda, a beauiful worldly woman who is the mistress to a banker, falls in with an ardent, naïve young man. She leaves her glamorous life in Paris and runs off with the young man. She doesn’t succumb to consumption like Violetta in “La Traviata,” but when her young lover proposes and starts talking about taking her to meet his mother and raising children, she decides she’s too damaged to be his wife and leaves him (in a stunning, poignant aria).
Magda is just the sort of heroine I always find myself wanting to have a happy ending. I’ve always thought “fallen women” make some of the most interesting heroines–there’s so much history and potential conflict (not to mention that they often get to wear the best clothes; I noticed that even before I was quite old enough to understand what a “fallen woman” was :-). Rakish heroes often reform and settle down with virtuous young girls. Even if they think their past makes them unfit to touch the hem of their beloved’s gown, the heroines can usually persuade them otherwise (a couple of lovely scenes from Georgette Heyer’s “These Old Shades” and “Venetia” come to mind). But the double standard ensures that the rake’s female counterpart seems doomed to a tragic ending in most stories.
This double standard in literature and opera plots of course mirrors society and repercussions such couples would face. A rake like Eugene Onégin could marry an innocent young girl like Tatiana without causing a scandal and being thrown from society (that Onégin rejects Tatiana in the Tchaikovsky opera and the Pushkin novel upon which it was based is because he doesn’t recognize the woman she will grow to be and perhaps because he wishes to spare her disillusionment). But Violetta if married Alfredo in “La Traviata” (if they even openly continued to live together) it would spell ruin not only for Alfredo but for his innocent young sister, as Alfredo’s father explains to Violetta in one of opera’s most heartbreaking scenes.
Magda in “La Rondine” faces no such ultimatum. Her beloved, Ruggero, doesn’t know about her past, and his family is ready to welcome her as his bride. But Magda seems (so far as I could make out from the supertitles) to feel she is “tainted” and cannot be his wife and the mother of his children. Watching the opera, I realized that like Magda, Mélanie in “Secrets of a Lady” would certainly be viewed as “tainted” if the truth of her past were known. Mélanie has a moment where, like Magda, she wonders if the honorable course of action would be to leave the man she loves. “If she were honorable in the best British tradition, no doubt she would disappear onto the Continent and leave her husband and children to get on with their lives. But even in the guise of Mrs. Charles Fraser she had never fiully embraced the values of her husband’s world.” On the contrary, Mélanie is quite prepared to use whatever leverage she has to prevent Charles from keeping their children from her.
Driving home from “La Rondine,” I tried to think of “fallen women” heroines who had happy endings. I couldn’t think of any in opera (of course, opera has a dearth of happy endings in general). I also couldn’t think of many in literature. Lady Barbara Childe, in Heyer’s “An Infamous Army,” is rumored to have had lovers. Whether or not the rumors are true is never made explicitly clear (her younger brother says “I’m ready to swear she’s never gone beyond flirtation”). Marguerite in “The Scarlet Pimpernel” has been an actress who moved in bohemian, republican circles, but at least in the books it’s explicitly stated that she hasn’t had a lover or even been in love before Percy (some of the adaptations change this).
What do you think of “fallen women” as heroines? Can you thnk of any interesting examples from books or plays or operas or movies? Any with happy endings? Mélanie touched on the same subject in this week’s additon to the Fraser Correspondence, a letter she writes to Raoul.
November 18, 2007 at 5:58 pm
…of course, opera has a dearth of happy endings in general…
That’s one of the reasons I love opera. They die so beautifully. 🙂
Can’t come up with a happy ending for a woman with a past, either. Maybe there are contemporaty romances, but I rarely read those.
November 18, 2007 at 6:17 pm
So nice to talk to someone else who loves opera, Gabriele!
There are some heroines with a past who have a happy ending in romances that have been written in recent years, but I’m blanking on titles. Hopefully another poster will mention some.
November 18, 2007 at 8:21 pm
I’m in love with opera ever since I sat at my father’s feet listening to a radio performance of Boris Godunov at the tender age of four. Or maybe it even started with my mother seing Aida while pregnant with me. What my parents got out of it was a girl with an alto voice who sang everything from Ritorna vincitor to Nessun dorma and In diesen heilgen Hallen all day long. 🙂
It’s weird but I don’t read many books with contemporary settings these days, be it romance or mystery or literary, though I don’t mind reading those genres if they’re 19th or early 20th century. Urban Fantasy is another matter (and that genre often has romance), but else it’s historical Fiction, Fantasy and some SciFi most of the time. And the good ol’ stuff like George Eliot, Henry James, Thomas Mann et al.
November 19, 2007 at 12:28 am
“Sleeping Beauty” by Judith Ivory.
Heroine is a former courtesan. And she’s different from the rest in that she:
1) was actually a real courtesan, not a virgin who pretends to be, or:
2) a heroine who sets out to be a courtesan but ends up married to her first lover, the hero. How convenient.
3) a heroine who was one man’s mistress because she was forced to, and has given up her money to Make Up For Her Past;
4) a heroine who wanders around with her head bowed in shame; she became a courtesan to become rich, and dammit, she enjoyed it!
Then there’s “Fortune’s Mistress”, a good book, but the heroine was a little too ashamed of herself.
There is also “Bliss” by Judy Cuevas; her heroine is not a courtesan, but definitely not a virgin; she is a filmmaker in the early 1900’s who has had lovers.
November 19, 2007 at 8:27 am
How wonderful that you can sing, Gabriele! I too grew up on opera. My grandmother and my great-aunt (my maternal grandfather’s sister) were both singers and my mom loved opera. I used to like to be read stories from her books of opera plots at bedtime (though I liked to make up happy endings :-)). When I was quite small, I would say I wanted to be an opera singers when I grew up, but I can barely carry a tune. I moved on to acting and writing and doing volunteer work around the opera, as well as going to performances. I listen to a lot of opera when I write.
I mostly read historical novels as well, in all sorts of genres, as well as classics actually written in historical eras. But I do read some contemporary-set books, particularly myseries. Elizabeth George is one of my favorite writers.
November 19, 2007 at 8:28 am
Thanks, JMM! I’ve heard lots of good things about both “Sleeping Beauty” and “Bliss”, but I haven’t read either one. Who wrote “Fortune’s Mistress”?
November 19, 2007 at 7:56 pm
I would love to read some good fiction about courtesans, after Katie Hickman’s biography of four such women in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries – now, these were the real heroines! Shrewd, beautiful, charismatic, witty and fatal, ladies like Elizabeth Armistead and Cora Pearl of the ‘demi-monde’ had it all for a time, and were famous for their ‘talents’, but usually came to an unfortunate end over one particular man; left with nothing enduring after their beauty faded.
I have read one fictional ‘biography’, ‘Garden of Venus’ by Eva Stachniak, full of beautiful language and a tragic heroine who enjoyed her life as a celebrated mistress, and I would recommend it.
November 19, 2007 at 8:07 pm
Thanks, Sarah! I’ve read Katie Hickman’s book about diplomats’ wives, but not the one about courtesans–must look for it. “Garden of Venus” sounds very interesting–whose life is it based on?
November 19, 2007 at 8:38 pm
Lol, I didn’t say my singing way any good. 😀 Nay, it wasn’t bad and I took some lessons when my voice had matured, but I’m not good enough to make a career out of it (and with the pseudo-intellectual and political way opera is presented on stage in Germany, I didn’t even want to).
I listen to opera a lot when I write, too. Though I sometimes have to revise my dialogue later. 😉
November 20, 2007 at 3:00 am
Oh, oh, oh!
I almost forgot:
“Thief’s Mistress” by Gayle Feyrer and
“Heart of Deception” by Taylor Chase
(Actually, “they” are the same author)
TM – Robin Hood and Maid Marian; Marian is a ruthless spy for Queen Elinor.
HoD – set in Elizabethan times, the heroine is a ruthless mobster.
Both of them have such… atmosphere and great heroines!
November 20, 2007 at 8:14 am
From the sound of it, your singing’s worlds better than mine, Gabriele! I actually like a lot of European opera productions–a lot of them bring out aspects of the music and story I hadn’t seen before. Some seem to be fighting against the music and story, but I find that’s also true of some traditional productions. Btw, I saw a fabulous production of “The Rake’s Progress” this evening–set in 1950s Hollywood, and it really worked (it’s an opera I love too, and i’ve seen a couple of fabulous 18th century=set productions of it).
November 20, 2007 at 8:15 am
Thanks for the further recommendations, JMM! Gayle actually used to be in the RWA chapter I was in. She’s a fabulous writer and a very nice person. I read her first book and really enjoyed it but missed these two and need to track down copies.
November 20, 2007 at 9:13 am
‘Garden of Venus’ is based on the life of Sophie, a Polish Countess in the early nineteenth century, and her family. I’ve always been fascinated in literature by beautiful, entrancing women and the men who worship them! O, the power! 😉
And of course there are stories such as Carmen, Marguerite and Armand, and the film Moulin Rouge, which are all variations on a theme: a beautiful, fatal courtesan who finally falls in love, but suffers at the hands of male pride and jealousy, before dying – the heroine may be ‘punished’ for her life, but I’ve always found the woman to be the strongest character.
November 20, 2007 at 6:21 pm
Thanks, Sarah, “Garden of Venus” sounds fascinating! I agree such heroines make fascinating characters and are often the strongest character in the story. (“La Rondine iß also a variant on the Marguerite/Armand story (which becomes ViolettaAlfredo in “La Traviata”). I just wish they sometimes had a happy ending!
November 20, 2007 at 7:54 pm
That’s me, confusing stories and stage productions – I meant ‘The Lady of the Camellias’ (‘Marguerite and Armand’ being the ballet), and La Traviata is probably closer than Carmen, you’re right (although Carmen is in the same vein, in that the woman is punished for being exactly what attracted her ill-matched suitor to her in the first place …)
November 20, 2007 at 8:20 pm
It’s confusing that the names change in the opera. And then the movie is “Camille” which could be a man’s name or a woman’s but in fact refers to neither of them. You’re right, “Carmen” is in the same vein, except that instead of nobly leaving her lover for his own good (like Marguerite/Violetta and Magda in “La Rondine”), she falls ou of love with him. But she still ends up dead.