Passion ~ Themes etc.

I watched Passion again today, and like always I found it devastating and gorgeous, but I still cannot get a grasp on the relationship between Giorgio and Fosca. I always found Giorgio to be taking advantage of Fosca's weakness, and that their relationship is ultimately due to Giorgio's need for power, but several lyrics in the show contradict that. I was hoping that others might be able to provide some insight into the overall purpose of the show in general.

Well that's just my interpretation, which is why I was hoping that you or someone else could share their own.

Interesting. I'm not sure I've ever thought about Giorgio having a need for power as a driver in his relationship with Fosca.

Others no doubt will have more detailed insights than me, but I think when Giorgio sings "No one has ever loved me ... " he's articulating the transformation that has happened in his view of Fosca and her obsession with him.

For me, the show illuminates questions related to the definition of love, who we choose to love (or feel we have no choice but to love), and how we express and act on our love and commitment to them.

“No one has ever loved me
As deeply as you.
No one has truly shown me
What love could be like until now:

Not pretty or safe or easy
But more than I ever knew.
Love within reason -
That isn't love.
And I've learned that from you..”

Updated On: 2/14/16 at 06:56 PM

Actually it's Fosca taking advantage of Giorgio, this is made very clear in the novel, where love is presented as an illness and at the very beginning Giorgio says he's not gonna tell a love story, but the story of an obsession. In the musical Fosca is not the "vampire-like" lady of the novel, but she stills stalks Giorgio until he gets sick.

Updated On: 2/14/16 at 07:33 PM

Before you read, I'm willing to admit I might be wrong if so many people disagree with me, but this is just my interpretation.

 

I'm honestly a bit surprised nobody else agrees with me. Basically I find Fosca to be emotionally crippled, and not of sound mind or body. She is unable to form proper feelings for him. Instead, being the raw nerve ending that she is, flinging herself at him. Giorgio is frequently very rude to her and flaunts his happiness in her face. Then he writes the letter to her and sleeps in her bed and then abandons her again. If we think of Fosca closer to a child than a fully fledged adult, we can see that she really has no idea how to process her feelings and that Giorgio is basically playing with her. By the end, as soon as he turns to her they have intercourse. He takes no time to actually do anything with her. His display of love is only physical, whereupon he leaves her forever. At several points in the show, Fosca is literally on her knees telling him that she is devoted to him. I dunno, doing something like that to someone who is so emotionally crippled feels like taking advantage to me. I feel devastated because of my sorrow for Fosca and because it is one of the saddest shows I've ever seen.

Updated On: 2/14/16 at 09:45 PM

Interesting thoughts... have always found Passion to cause deep reflection.  Saw the original production the matinee before the Tony's and have seen the various broadcasted versions and all the recordings of it, so it is definitely (score wise) probably my favorite of Sondheim's musicals.

Story wise, to me it all comes back to "I never knew what love was..."  At the beginning Clara and Giorgio think they've found it - when what they're experiencing is passionate pleasure, attraction, lust even?  Giorgio trying to explain love to Fosca (who also doesn't know what love is) soon realizes that his and Clara's relationship isn't as loving as he imagined.  She's being unfaithful, they're lying, hiding about their relationship... it becomes more about satisfying their pleasure.

Only gradually, painfully, excruciatingly painful that it's at times difficult to watch - does Fosca and Giorgio eventually come to discover the truth of love is in sacrificing ones self (pleasure, desire, etc) for the beloved.

With respect, I think it's an error to judge the characters of PASSION as if they were guests on a very special episode of MAURY.

 

For example, the point isn't that Clara is "unfaithful" to Giorgio--she's married to someone else, after all. The point is that she is practical. She will leave her husband to be with Giorgio, but only when her child is grown and she won't lose custody in a divorce. Now realistically, this is a perfectly reasonable, even admirable position for a mother to take. Who among us would blame her?

 

But Giorgio's response is that practicality is incompatible with passionate love. True love--he has learned from Fosca--is rash, immoral, beyond rational calculation. Of course he's being unfair to Clara, but that's a realistic concern and outside the argument of the play. The play's argument is that TRUE love eclipses everyday concerns such as etiquette and a balance of personal power.

 

Moreover, I think the OP makes the mistake of seeing the entire play from Fosca's point of view. Giorgio isn't "flaunting" his happiness to hurt Fosca; he's merely discussing his life with someone who doesn't yet seem to him a potential romantic option.

 

In PASSION, love isn't "nice" or pleasurable or even satisfying, it's an obsession, unattractive and uncomfortable, particularly when it is unrequited.