# Opera and fiction



## Lukecash12 (Sep 21, 2009)

Have you ever wondered about which operatic works would flesh out nicely into a fictional novel? What was suggestive enough that you could imagine all kinds of filler for the blanks? How do the great operas hold up when thought of purely in terms of writing?


----------



## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

_Dialogues des Carmelites_ comes quickly to mind.
_Eugene Onegin_ is another.
_Andrea Chenier_ is yet another.


----------



## Sloe (May 9, 2014)

Considering that most operas are based on novels, plays or other literary sources I would say most operas.


----------



## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

Fidelio could be quite interesting as a novel.


----------



## sospiro (Apr 3, 2010)

Nice idea for a thread :tiphat:

_La traviata_ would be good. It has blanks which could be fleshed out.

_Tosca_ but that might involve a slight re-write along the lines of 'Did Tosca Survive?'


----------



## The Conte (May 31, 2015)

nina foresti said:


> _Dialogues des Carmelites_ comes quickly to mind.
> _Eugene Onegin_ is another.
> _Andrea Chenier_ is yet another.


The first two are already novels (or a memoir in the case of Dialogues).

N.

Don Carlo is based on a play, but both the play and the opera could be adapted into a wonderful novel.


----------



## The Conte (May 31, 2015)

sospiro said:


> Nice idea for a thread :tiphat:
> 
> _La traviata_ would be good. It has blanks which could be fleshed out.


Perhaps this should go onto your Amazon wishlist if you have one:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Dame-Caméli...51737791&sr=1-2&keywords=la+dame+aux+camelias

Dumas also wrote it as a play (and I think it's the play the opera is based on).

As a novel it's ok, I haven't read the play, but I think the best versions of the story are the opera and Ashton's ballet Marguerite and Armand. (I haven't seen the Neumeier ballet, though).

N.


----------



## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

I think Tippett's _The Knot Garden_ could work as a novel, as the opera is essentially about a group of characters with their own individual "issues" being played off one another by a psychiatrist whose own intentions are open to interpretation.


----------



## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

To reverse the question: I have always thought that Emile Zola's _Germinal_ would make a fabulous opera.


----------



## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

The Conte said:


> Perhaps this should go onto your Amazon wishlist if you have one:
> 
> http://www.amazon.co.uk/Dame-Caméli...51737791&sr=1-2&keywords=la+dame+aux+camelias
> 
> ...


Dumas's original novel is based on life events, I believe, and the character of Marguerite Guatier based on the real life courtesan Alphonsine DuPlessis.

There is also a classic movie, called "Camille" with Garbo, based on the play of course and back in the 1980s, Pam Gems wrote a new version also called "Camille", which was really excellent, and, like the Ashton ballet, had the Liszt Piano Sonata woven through it.


----------



## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

GregMitchell said:


> Dumas's original novel is based on life events, I believe, and the character of Marguerite Guatier based on the real life courtesan Alphonsine DuPlessis.
> 
> There is also a classic movie, called "Camille" with Garbo, based on the play of course and back in the 1980s, Pam Gems wrote a new version also called "Camille", which was really excellent, and, like the Ashton ballet, had the Liszt Piano Sonata woven through it.


A little aside: Maria Callas, unsurpassed as Violetta on the opera stage, said that Garbo was an inspiration to her. For me Garbo in _Camille_ gives the most exquisite performance I've ever seen on the screen, a worthy counterpart to Callas in _La Traviata_.


----------



## The Conte (May 31, 2015)

Woodduck said:


> A little aside: Maria Callas, unsurpassed as Violetta on the opera stage, said that Garbo was an inspiration to her. For me Garbo in _Camille_ gives the most exquisite performance I've ever seen on the screen, a worthy counterpart to Callas in _La Traviata_.


I saw the film years (I do mean years ago) and I thought it was just about ok, but I should see it again as I was a kid at the time I saw it. I certainly don't trust my hazy recollection of it now.

N.


----------



## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

The Conte said:


> I saw the film years (I do mean years ago) and I thought it was just about ok, but I should see it again as I was a kid at the time I saw it. I certainly don't trust my hazy recollection of it now.
> 
> N.


As a film it's just a well-made Hollywood period weeper. Garbo single-handedly lights it up like the aurora borealis and makes it classic.


----------

