I was listening to this song, and I remembered that WW2 AU you described awhile back, and I was like ‘omg Siena totally knows and sings this song at some point…’
BUT ALSO…
‘Bella Ciao’ is probably best known as the Italian partisans’ anti-fascist anthem, but there was an earlier version that was a workers’ protest song from the late 19th century. Bridgerton takes place few decades prior, but the show’s already anachronistic af with Siena’s songs, so… can we please imagine Siena busting this out during one of her performances at the ton’s private parties, and everyone is just, “Goodness, what a lively tune! My those Italians… always so passionate!”
OMG, YESSSS. I loooove this headcanon, both for the WW2 AU and Bridgerton. I need Siena taking a dig at the ton and singing it during one of their parties. And, besides Colin, can we get a flustered Anthony too because Siena has told him about the song so he knows the meaning?
Siena: You and your brother seem to be the only ones bothered. Tell me, how much are those Italian tutors charging you lot per lesson? I think you may have been swindled.
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I was listening to this song, and I remembered that WW2 AU you described awhile back, and I was like ‘omg Siena totally knows and sings this song at some point...’
BUT ALSO...
‘Bella Ciao’ is probably best known as the Italian partisans’ anti-fascist anthem, but there was an earlier version that was a workers’ protest song from the late 19th century. Bridgerton takes place few decades prior, but the show’s already anachronistic af with Siena’s songs, so... can we please imagine Siena busting this out during one of her performances at the ton’s private parties, and everyone is just, “Goodness, what a lively tune! My those Italians... always so passionate!”
I do think you make your own luck to an extent, but I also have a great team and an amazing support system at home. So I spend a lot of time on my preparation and I love to create a world and a past for my character. I can’t just rock up to an audition; I will go through a script with lots of coloured pens, annotating and analysing what a scene is really about. Whether that is researching growing up on a German farm before the First World War or whatever.
Takes place pre-series, about 2-3 months after Santhony met. TW for mention of sexual exploitation. If this bothers you in any way, anon, just simply prompt me the same thing again and I’ll put the line in a different context.
When Anthony Bridgerton conducted business with the well-to-do, especially those men from outside of London, he was more than happy to invite them to join him in his box at the theatre. Particularly on nights when there was an opera. Business or no business, he never missed an opportunity to watch his favorite soprano perform. He lived for the moment at the end when she spared a smile in his direction, which he returned with a wave. And even more so for running down to her dressing room with a bouquet of roses to steal a kiss.
These were rituals they carried from the dawn of their relationship, even though after Anthony was finished with business he would be coming home to her regardless. He counted himself among the luckiest men in Britain, to be falling asleep next to Siena Rosso and waking up next to her, too. She owned his whole heart, and he, for one, didn’t care who knew it.
Which was what made that smile she gave him, albeit ever so discreetly, onstage in front of hundreds of patrons all the sweeter.
But tonight, Anthony realized, something was different. Siena wasn’t looking out at the crowd as she performed. Not even during her closing song. Her eyes had a glassy, disconnected look, like she wasn’t really there.
Something was wrong.
The man with whom Anthony was doing business that day nudged him.
“Did you hear me, my lord, about my investment in scrap metal?”
“Yes, of course.”
Anthony’s eyes drifted back down to Siena, who sang the final note of her song. Her singing was perfectly executed, but there was something clinical about it. It lacked her usual spark.
“And did I ever tell you that I once owned a substantial amount of stock in the Paris opera house?” asked Anthony’s associate. “I saw many excellent singers perform. Discovered a few myself.”
As the audience applauded, Siena raised her trembling chin just slightly. This was normally when she would look up at his box. She didn’t.
Something was definitely wrong.
“Including that gorgeous young ingenue right there.”
Finally, Anthony looked up at the other man.
“What did you say?”
The man grinned, his beady blue eyes seeming to shrink back into his skull.
“I discovered her.”
“How so?”
“She was training in an Italian theater, a small place not particularly well-known. But she had a great teacher, my lord. And at fifteen, was the prettiest of her class.”
Anthony looked back down at Siena. As she had been doing the entire evening, she cast her eyes downward as she exited the stage.
“I approached her and made her an offer.”
“What exactly did this offer entail?” Anthony asked the other man.
“She performed. She was rewarded.”
It was absolutely plain from the look on this stranger’s face that her performance had extended beyond the frame of the stage.
“How old did you say she was?” asked Anthony.
“Fifteen.”
Anthony’s sister Eloise was sixteen. Eloise still raced their younger siblings in the yard and made faces when she ate vegetables. She still believed that babies were made with wedding vows and prayers.
Eloise’s hems still hung just below her knees. Her womanly frame still partially formed. For all her wit, her smile as fresh as a raindrop.
What had Siena looked like when this man old enough to be her father had spotted her across a room? When he had decided to tell her that she might at last become bigger than the nearest city to the village she’d been born in…but only if she indulged his desires?
“Are you quite all right, my lord?”
In later days, Anthony would begrudgingly count himself fortunate that the other man’s back had been to the door of his box rather than the railing.
Because surely, it would have been more worse-and much more noticed-had he fallen over the edge of the box when Anthony punched him, rather than simply slamming into the wood.
“We will not be doing business together, sir,” said Anthony. “And your presence in London is no longer required. See to it that your departure is quick and seamless.”
Not even stopping to grab the red roses he always carried with him to his box, Anthony stormed down to the stagedoor and entered without even knocking. He didn’t wave or acknowledge any of the cast or crewmembers he knew, but instead made a beeline for Siena’s dressing room.
“Have you forgotten how to knock, my lord?” Siena asked, having jumped with such a start she’d nearly bumped into the couch.
“My apologies,” said Anthony. “I just wanted you to know he was gone. That man who was in my box is leaving London, and I shall see to it that he never comes back.”
Siena opened her mouth to say something, then stopped.
“Are you crying?”
“No.”
As he said it, he felt the beginnings of tears pricking at the corners of his eyes. He blinked them back.
This isn’t about you, idiot, he said to himself, in the same mocking tone one of his sisters might have used.
“What did he tell you?” she asked softly.
Anthony swallowed, scrunching up his face as though he’d swallowed a mouthful of fish oil.
“He said that he…that he did…how young you were…and he offered…”
He stopped talking when Siena folded herself into his arms and leaned her head on his chest, her ear pressed to his heart. Anthony embraced her gently, as if she were breakable, one hand on the back of her head.
“You shall never see him again. I swear to it.” He swallowed. “I’m sorry, Siena.”
“You have nothing to apologize for, Anthony.”
He froze. She had never called him by just his first name before, and he didn’t dare point it out lest she should never do it again.
“I forgot your roses.”
Siena tilted her chin and looked up at him.
“I count myself among the luckiest of women,” she said, “To be adored so much that a man would buy me roses twice a week just to steal one single kiss several hours before you’re to have me in our bed.”
having your favorite character be a minor character is like being a proud mother at a school play and cheering every time your kid comes on stage even though they’re playin the part of tree #3
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“When others demand that we become the people they want us to be, they force us to destroy the person we really are. It’s a subtle kind of murder... the most loving parents and relatives commit this murder with smiles on their faces.”
At this she feels another wave of love for him, and has to close her lips against dangerous words. The kind that are hard to take back once they have been spoken. Maybe impossible.
When Anthony Bridgerton was 12, his father had called him into his office to have a talk. That talk that every father must have with his boy about the facts of life and the meaning behind a young man’s urges. How he was too young now, but one day, Anthony would have the opportunity to know scores of women. How his instincts, whatever they may be, were natural and normal.
“We don’t share any of this with the ladies, you understand. It would be improper for a young woman to learn of such things from anyone other than her own husband.”
After his father’s passing, Anthony had that same talk with Colin. And sooner or later, he would need to have it with Gregory. His sisters got a different talk, from their mother. The girls learned how to approach a young gentleman who caught their eye. The telltale signs of affection and devotion. What it would feel like to find themselves falling in love.
Boys learned about sex. Girls learned about romance.
That suited Anthony just fine. Until the day that the rug was swept out from under him by a gorgeous soprano with a voice like the harps of a thousand angels, a face that must have been sculpted by god himself, and a smirk in the corner of her lip that made him feel like he was falling. That was, on the rare occasion that she blessed him with a glance in his direction.
I think they hate Siena so much because Siena makes their lives difficult by not actually being hateful.
Look, I will criticize the Br. writers all day long over their decision to include Siena in the show for the sole purpose of giving Anthony some man pain and a spicy/sympathetic storyline for season 1, only to discard her. That's gross, and a series that's hyping itself as a progressive alternative to your average historical romance should know and do better.
However, I will never deny that they (and Sabrina Bartlett) killed it in terms of portraying Siena as a deeply sympathetic woman who is just doing her best to find some safety and happiness and make a life for herself in a world where the odds are hugely stacked against her.
Unfortunately for KA/book stans, in a romance genre story like Br., the 'right' continuation/conclusion of Anthony and Siena's story feels like it should be them finding their way back to one another and getting their HEA. I think a lot of people sense this. That's why those who haven't read the books are left going '...Oh. : ( ' and feeling vaguely disappointed when they learn that Siena and Anthony aren't endgame, and KA shippers probably don't feel too great when they see that reaction in fandom spaces.
In short, the writers goofed. Big time. On multiple levels. They miscalculated the impact Siena and her story would have on the audience and on the fictional world, itself. It isn’t the fault of book stans’ or KA shippers. It isn’t the fault of Siena/Santhony fans either, but I suppose we're more accessible than the show runners, so we and Siena get to bear the brunt of their displeasure.
So, yeah. The writers didn't make Siena a conveniently bad and thus ignorable person, so the KA stans have to do that for themselves with their fandom content. I guess it's their version of fix-it fic?
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#your tags!!!#i'm feeling things#their whole talk is genevieve making sure siena snaps out of it#but siena didn't like anthony right...#anyway#get you a friend like genevieve delacroix (via @sienarosso )
Yes!! That’s absolutely going on during their talk, imo. It happens in your gif set and then later in that same scene where Siena questions whether or not she could wear a dress made of such fabric as she’s ‘no innocent debutant’ and Genevieve’s like ‘And Thank God For That!’
Unlike the innocent debutants, Siena’s going through the world without a social or financial safety net. She doesn’t have the luxury of being able to let herself fall apart.
Excuse me while I go and scream some more about how the characters Siena portrays onstage get to live out their emotions in ways that Siena can’t in her real life.
do you ever want to just shield your favorite characters from certain people because they just don’t get them and therefore shouldn’t even be allowed to look at them let alone talk about them
folks, someday you are gonna be writing, and you're gonna put something on paper and hear a voice say "i know this is what you want, but will people like it?" and im here to tell you that is the DEVIL talking and you do whatever you damn well please
If fandom has taught me anything it has also taught me that there are at least five people in the world who will want it regardless of what it is, and they will find you.
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[persiena] This is way, way off our usual topic, but I've been meaning to say that I enjoy how often you reblog gifs from "Barefoot in the Park". I once played Corie in a stage production of it, and it was such a great experience, and I always get a happy little buzz whenever a gifset of the film crosses my dash. <33
OMG, that must've been awesome!! I'd love to watch a stage production of it! Also, I'm now thinking that you, in addition of being so insightful and lovely, is also really pretty and talent to have played Corie *heart eyes all over*. Barefoot in the Park is really one of my favorite comfort films, I could watch it over and over again and never get tired of it. <33
It WAS awesome!! Everyone involved was so nice and so talented and they actually cast a woman as Velasco which gave the character’s scenes with Corie’s mom extra oomph. Every performance was so much fun. Man, I miss that show. XD
Can we just talk about how 100% done siena is with him. She hasn’t even opened the door yet but she KNOWS who it is. You can see it on her face when the door opens. It can only be one idiot
