After many vicissitudes
of an operatic nature
the couple sing the famous duet
‘Oh happy happy fate’,
and this would be a good moment
in my view
for the curtain to come down,
but there is another bit,
because the couple’s loving parents
have several things to say,
culminating in a chorus
at the end of which
we appear to have reached
an appropriate juncture –
but no
there is another bit
as the news is brought
that the hero’s cousin
has wounded the heroine’s brother
in a duel,
and this is discussed for some time
in recitative
if that is the right word,
after which
the couple sing the famous duet
‘Oh cruel cruel fate’
including all the repeats
removed by the 19th-century editors,
and this is not the end,
it is not even
the beginning of the end,
for there is another bit
as the news is now brought
that the heroine’s brother
has died of his wounds,
whereupon she sings
the coloratura aria
‘Oh tragic tragic destiny’,
and tells the hero
that she cannot now marry him,
to which he responds
with a bravura performance
of the famous masterpiece
‘Oh heartless heartless fortune’,
following which
there is another bit
involving Father Time,
a role not included
in the original libretto
but interpolated
by an inventive director.
And then there is another bit.
And the fat lady
nowhere in sight.
