Opera plot: Local Noble realizes that his affections for Pretty Village Girl have a rival in the form of Honest Laborer. Having read enough romances to know that a girl asked to choose between a rich man and a poor man will always pick the poor man, whereas in a love triangle between two rich men it's anyone's game, he decides that his chief object must be to elevate his rival's wealth and status as quickly as possible. What the Compte de Genre-Savie over here forgot to account for, however, was the overwhelming power of the Pygmalion Effect, and now he has to deal with watching two people he's in love with develop ever-stronger feelings for each other. Eventually all of this resolves via...I don't know.
#first of all: ''comte de genre-savie'' is PERFECT. just great. absolutely no notes.#I would love an opera with this exact plot. bonus points if the comte is genuinely genre savvy#he keeps bringing up opera tropes only for the other characters to look at him like he's insane.#the score is diagetic to him; when he points out reoccurring themes or transitions to minor keys#the other characters ask him what the hell he's talking about. the whole chorus gets together to sing about how#comte de genre-savie is going mad. the comte tries to sneak away and keeps getting pulled back in.#I wonder if you could even push it further - have it so that only the comte can speak or 'hear' spoken words;#all other characters communicate in recitativo secco or formally composed songs#then you can have scenes where the comte is speaking but the other character in the scene can't hear him.#this can be played for laughs (the comte tries to order something from a shopkeeper; the shopkeeper walks away as he's talking)#and for dramatic effect (the Honest Laborer is singing a heartfelt duet with the Pretty Village Girl#and neither of them can hear the comte saying 'I love you' in between their lines)#........I am into this actually. I had to convince myself that this wasn't just cyrano de bergerac but no. it isn't. I'm into it.#upon the stage (via @notbecauseofvictories)
I read this one story once, no idea what it was called, where there was a girl in love with a poor man who also had a rich suitor. Her father was rich in his own right, and didn't have access to the men's finances but wanted his daughter to marry as rich as possible.
She pointed out to him that it's not always easy to tell how rich people are on a limited timescale; some wealthy people live frugally by choice, and a poor man can borrow a great deal of money to impress a girl's family if he feels like he's being investigated for such a thing. Tracking down their friends and interrogating their social circles would be a faux pas and very time consuming. The best way to tell, she suggested, would be to give both men a massive gift of money and see what changes it made to their lifestyle. Someone who already has lots of money will probably not think that much of the gift and not change much, whereas to a poor man (even one borrowing money to look temporarily better off) it would make a huge difference and the increased standard of living would be clear. That way, he gets a good idea of how wealthy the two suitors are and instead of looking nosy and money-obsessed, he looks incredibly kind and generous.
The father praised this ingenious strategy and gifted both men a huge sum of money. The daughter eloped with her true love the next day, now that they had enough money to start a new life together somewhere else.
