#carlotta

Omg…it’s a goat….baaah

I have expressed sympathy for characters like Jekyll/Hyde, The Frankenstein Creature, and Erik himself. These are people with actual body counts who have varying levels of misogynistic views. I don't have to like Carlotta or think she's a good person (I don't) but I am obligated to give her the same consideration and depth of analysis as I am all of the other characters. I have to think about the context of her work and what it means for her to be replaced when I judge her actions. I don't really have any strong reason to dislike her if I"m being completely honest. She's mean to the main character. So what? She does it in a way that makes the story more interesting and adds narrative tension. I don't care if she's a good person, I care that I didn't get bored reading about her. I also don't think her diva behavior is even out of place given the context of her background. The performing arts have always been a ruthless place, especially for women and even today it hasn't broken away from the idea of women having an expiration date. In the 19th century it was even worse. Being an actress was already scandalous and if you didn't make it big on stage you risked not being able to find other work because being an actress was only slightly more respectable than being a prostitute and there was quite a lot of overlap between the two professions if you happened to be poor. You also didn't become an actress if you wanted to be a respectable wife or mother. The only cases where the stigma of being an actress could be overcome or where an actress carried some respectability were cases where the actress made a name for herself or worked for a prestigious venue. Carlotta has managed to achieve that level of fame and is considered by the population at large to be a brilliant soprano. What undoes her time and time again isn't a lack of talent, it's her ego. That is her fatal flaw. Carlotta losing her career in her prime would have been devastating not just financially but also to her reputation and her future prospects. It's not shocking that she would want to make sure her rivals are completely destroyed because there is legitimately a lot to lose and she knows it. And she is paranoid as fuck about having hidden enemies everywhere. "She thought herself, at that time, the victim of a thousand jealous attempts and went about saying that she had a secret enemy who had sworn to ruin her." And the current mess she's in is her own fault because her hubris got the better of her. She puts herself in jeopardy by overplaying her hand and pretending to be sick as a way to throw her weight around only to get a harsh reality check. So of course she over-corrects and doubles down on trying to make herself the only option again. There's actually a lot you could get into about her relationship with Christine since Christine was her understudy and the two would have had to work together pretty closely. I honestly think it would be kind of interesting to see how Carlotta ended up the heartless and soulless monster she became. She's in an industry where at any moment everything she's worked for could be snatched from her and finding out you were so much smaller than you thought you were has to be a devastating blow. This is an interesting character. There is a lot of untapped potential here and her story could be a good one if played from the right angle. But no one ever really has an interest in exploring her as a character in her own right.

Phantom +1 ....... Carlotta -1

江夜kiri

ザンニー / カルロッタ by Cliov [Twitter/X] ※Illustration shared with permission from the artist. If you like this artwork please support the artist by visiting the source.