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Lyrics - Stephen Sondheim
Opened - 1994
Main characters - Giorgio, Fosca, Clara
Plot - Giorgio is a soldier in 19th century Italy who is having an affair with a married woman, Clara. They are very happy together until Giorgio is called away on service. They keep in touch by writing every day. Giorgios lieutenant has his sick cousin, Fosca, staying at the camp because he is her closest family left. Fosca instantly sees something different in Giorgio to the other soldiers, and she soon grows to love him. Giorgio is very kind to Fosca but cannot love her. When Fosca is close to dieing Giorgio visits her and she gets him to write a love letter from him to her. Later Foscas obsession with Giorgio causes him to become ill and he gets sick leave. During this time he asks Clara to leave her husband but she won't, and this leads to them breaking up. The lieutenant finds the love letter Giorgio wrote and, enraged by it, challenges Giorgio to a duel at dawn. That night Giorgio visits Fosca, having realised that he does love her, and they spend their one and only night together. In the duel Giorgio is seriously injured. When he regains some sanity several months later he reads a letter from Fosca, sent on by her doctor, who says she died 3 days after the duel. In her letter Fosca says that for her last days she was happy, happy to know that she had been loved by someone.
Songs (With marks out of 10) -
1.Happiness (10)
('Passion' only contains a few songs, most of it is sections of music)
2.I wish I could forget you (9)
3.Loving you (10)
4.No one has ever loved me (9)
Favourite song - Happiness
Favourite character - Giorgio
Favourite quote -
"Loving you is not a choice, and not much reason to rejoice. But it gives me purpose,
gives me voice, to say to the world: This is why I live, you are why I live."
- Fosca, trying to make Giorgio understand her love, 'Loving you'
Comment - I bought 'Passion' because it has Michael Ball as Giorgio, and Maria Friedman as Fosca, and they both have wonderful voices. I was very pleased I did because there is some gorgeous, touching music here, and a very moving story. 'Passion' is odd in that it doesn't have much shape, and contains only 4 or 5 songs. But the sections of music have some wonderful moments in them, and the whole score is rich and easy to listen to. It also introduced me to Sondheim, which I'm very grateful for!