01161 - promises

[VLoB]

 

Back in November 2012 I finally saw Madama Butterfly, my all time favourite opera, live. There were evidently a few in the audience who had never seen it or even know of the story - during the applause for the performers, the singer who had the role of B.F. Pinkerton was heckled. In jest, ofcourse.

 

Then I got to thinking why it is that I like this opera so much. Why do I gravitate towards heart shattering "love" stories where the heroine almost invariably dies (mortally or spiritually) for a man who, on reflection, can more or less be described as the embodiment of fluff... read: Swan Lake (my favourite ballet), The Little Mermaid (the original Hans Christian Andersen story that i first read as a child, not the Disney-ised crap).... Is it because in mortal or spiritual death I can believe that the purity of these heroines' love is preserved?

 

B.F. Pinkerton offered Cio Cio San nothing but a fog of unreal romance - petals, bubbles, rainbows, glitter... promises of forever, undying love, integrity, songs, poetry... beautiful but fleeting and ultimately insincere.

 

Why do lesser men, with sweet tongues but with false hearts, attract such extreme devotion and sacrifice? Lately I've been wishing that Cio Cio San had a chance to exact vengeance on Pinkerton...

 

♫

 

You took my heart and you held it in your mouth

And, with a word all my love came rushing out

And, every whisper, it's the worst, emptied out by a single word

There is a hollow in me now

 

So I put my faith in something unknown

I'm living on such sweet nothing

But I'm trying to hope with nothing to hold

I'm living on such sweet nothing

And it's hard to learn

And it's hard to love

When you're giving me such sweet nothing

Sweet nothing, sweet nothing

You're giving me such sweet nothing

 

It isn't easy for me to let it go

Cause

I've swallowed every single word

And

Every whisper, every sigh

Eats away at this heart of mine

And there is a hollow in me now

 

So I put my faith in something unknown

I'm living on such sweet nothing

But I'm trying to hope with nothing to hold

I'm living on such sweet nothing

And it's hard to learn

And it's hard to love

When you're giving me such sweet nothing

Sweet nothing, sweet nothing

You're giving me such sweet nothing

 

And it's not enough

To tell me that you care

When, we both know the words are empty air

You give me nothing

Done