La Traviata

I went to see the opera last night. I had no idea that Moulin Rouge was inspired by Verdi. It had to have been- the plot was the same. If not, it would be plagiarism. A consumptive courtesan finds her true love, she leaves her current partner (who happens to have a title of nobility), her father-figure convinces her she must go back to her old life, she convinces her love that she doesn't love him, he follows her, throws money at her for her services, they make up, and she collapses dead in his arms. Same plot for both. So it was a little strange, but a pleasant surprise that I was watching a less-sexed version of Moulin Rouge. The only thing was, it was also less emotional, and not in my native language. So I enjoyed it for the memories of Moulin Rouge that it brought to mind, but not for La Traviata itself. Which only makes me want to watch the movie again. But still... I felt cultured last night. I went to Intermezzo at Cooper with some friends, so I had a nice dinner. Then I changed into something a little bit dressed up (meaning not blue jeans) and watched an opera in another language, understanding the parts that were not drowned out by the orchestra. It was relaxing. I needed to relax. So it was good. I don't think I've been completely relaxed in a while.

PS. If you are mad at me because I ruined the plot of either the movie or the opera, don't be. The first line in the movie is, "This is a story about love. The woman I loved is dead." So I didn't really ruin the plot there. And now that you know its the same plot as La Traviata, then the movie ruined the plot of the opera, not me. Not like it really mattered, though; since the opera was less emotional, her death was sort of non-important when she collapsed.

PPS. That makes me think about emotions. I never really noticed how important they are until yesterday afternoon, when I began to think about all the important memories in my life. I realized that the days when nothing happened emotionally are the days that sort of blur into the past, but the highly emotional days seem to be landmarks in my memory of my life. I think that if we turn off emotion completely, we won't remember anything about our past. Could be why I can't remember 9th and half of 10th grade. It sounds like a basic concept, and I sort of already knew it, but this is the first time I put it into words. Its very interesting.