Letters of Passion

TW: trauma, depression, death from illness.

Creatives of musicals have often utilised letters to stage correspondence between the figures on stage. Letters have featured in musical adaptations of novels such as Jane Eyre (1847) and War and Peace (1869), which was adapted into Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812. Letters became an integral aspect of Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s adaptation of Iginio Ugo Tarchetti’s novel Fosca (1869), which had also previously been adapted into Ettore Scola’s film Passione d'Amore (1981). Their musical Passion is set in 1863 Italy and follows soldier Giorgio. During his romantic involved with the married Clara, Giorgio is transferred to a new military outpost where he meets Fosca, a woman who develops an obsessive passion for him. The love triangle between Giorgio, Clara and Fosca unfolds through their letters, in which Sondheim musicalises the epistolary form. In ‘Look, I Made a Hat’, Sondheim himself notes that, ‘As far as I know, Passion is the only epistolary musical ever written’[1]. As each of the central trio reads the other’s words, audiences are drawn into this complex love triangle as the relationships crumble and strengthen. Following their first scene, Giorgio and Clara’s relationship is predominantly presented through their love letters.

The first four letters in the musical are correspondence between Giorgio and Clara. These letters follow the ‘post-coital duet in celebration of physical beauty’[2], after which Giorgio leaves for his new post. The pair are physically apart for most of the musical, signifying both the importance of the letters in maintaining their relationship and the lack of synchronisation which will ultimately lead to their separation. Clara gives voice to her letter to Giorgio, stating ‘I thought about our room, our little room / Where we were happy / And where we shall be happy again / Someday’[3]. These words exist in both the past and present. They travel from Clara’s pen, are delivered to Giorgio, and then are repeated in his mind here and throughout the musical in Sondheim’s leitmotif. Sondheim frames Clara’s view of her romantic entanglement with Giorgio with what at first appears as a blindly idealistic sheen. She dreams of the ‘little room’ where they can live in peace, isolated from society’s view. Yet, it is evident that Clara understands her limitations and works within them to achieve some happiness. Whilst Giorgio can proceed with the affair within fear of society’s judgement, Clara is married with a son. In the nineteenth century, ‘women of the period struggled to overcome not only pseudo-scientific perceptions of their biological nature but also the legal restrictions which limited their realm of activity to the domestic domain.’[4] As such, Clara has little agency and would ordinarily be resigned to the domestic sphere but in her ‘little room’ with Giorgio, she can live for her satisfaction. Ultimately, Sondheim and Lapine convey that Clara’s relationship with Giorgio is unravelling through their written correspondence. Their letters, initially saturated with memories of their ‘little room’ and romance, become tense. In one of their final letters Clara writes, ‘Perhaps when next we meet / I'll be a sorry sight…Time is now our enemy!’[5]. Evidently, Clara fears that she will become undesirable without her youth and suggests that she senses that their relationship is not as stable as it once was.

Whilst feeling isolated in the military outpost, Giorgio finds connection through written text. He struggles to connect to his fellow soldiers, stifled in the military world. Sondheim reveals Giorgio’s inner world through his letters to Clara, juxtaposing the harsh realities of his occupation with his sensitivity. In his first letter, he writes that after leaving her he wept, commenting, ‘Imagine that, a soldier who cries’[6]. Here, Sondheim suggests Giorgio’s feelings of alienation in his environment and presents masculinity to be a spectrum. His fellow soldiers are characterised as misogynistic throughout, mocking, ‘But nobody is that brave’[7] when discussing the possibility of a romantic entanglement between Giorgio and Fosca. Meanwhile, Giorgio is characterised as sensitive and more emotional. In an interview, Jere Shea, who originated the role of Giorgio on Broadway, explained his interpretation that, ‘people do in life…squeeze themselves into roles that they…don’t quite feel comfortable in’[8] and that Giorgio was ‘pressured into the military’[9]. As such, the out-of-place Giorgio finds solace in the world of the page, whether this is letters or books. Whilst his relationship with Clara is sustained through letters, Giorgio begins to connect with Fosca through reading. Having read the Rousseau novel he lends her, Fosca explains that she, ‘read[s] to dream’[10]. Their immersion in the words of the page spiritually joins the two, as Giorgio reads Clara’s letters to be transported back to her embrace. Yet, to the soldiers, Giorgio remains professional, rejecting their offer of community: to play cards[11]. Indeed, Giorgio’s romantic nature is to be found in the letters he composes to the women in his life, suggesting that he is not able to express himself comfortably in the claustrophobic world of the soldiers. Ultimately, Giorgio’s letters reveal his psyche intimately, revealing the sensitivity recognised by Fosca. As such, we can perceive both Fosca’s emotional intelligence and draw them together as two soles misunderstood by their community.

Throughout the musical, Fosca speaks directly to Giorgio in person, only sending one letter, which is read posthumously. Meanwhile, Giorgio only sends Fosca one letter of his own volition, in which he rejects her, writing that, ‘My heart belongs to someone else’[12]. Whilst on one level the lack of letters between Giorgio and Fosca suggests that Giorgio is more comfortable expressing himself through letters, these letters hold weight in their relationship. Indeed, the dictation of the letter in ‘I Wish I Could Forget You’ conveys Fosca’s desires and leads to Giorgio’s duel with her cousin. Furthermore, Fosca’s legacy is captured in her final letter. Fosca writes that, ‘These past two days since you have left, since we were together, have been a revelation’[13]. Evidently, the period of depression she had been experiencing since being deceived by Count Ludovic had finally been overcome in the final days of Fosca’s life. She depicts her spirit as being reborn thanks to her ‘revelation’, recognising the beauty in the world, to which Giorgio has opened her eyes. Discussing Fosca, historian Esther Terry stated that ‘Fosca hover[s] between destruction and healing[14]. In her final letter, Sondheim and Lapine signify that the depression which has caused such ‘destruction’ in Fosca’s life has subsided to an extent in her new appreciation for life. In education documentation, Jamie Lloyd, who directed the London revival of Passion in 2010, stated that, ‘Fosca forces [Giorgio] to confront his ignorance, to examine the depth of his feelings’[15]. Whilst Fosca certainly impacts Giorgio as such, their shared passion for one another is just as essential to the musical, with Fosca’s final letter portraying Fosca’s transformation. Ultimately, the contents of the letters in the musical, at first full of romantic poetry, become the form for which Fosca lives on. Indeed, the dreams she previously dictated to Giorgio in ‘I Wish I Could Forget You’ come to fruition.

Ultimately, utilising letters in the musical allows for the underlying tensions in the peace to simmer until they are brought to the surface. Evidently, the secrecy of Giorgio and Clara’s relationship ensures that we primarily view this romance through their letters. Although Giorgio’s inner thoughts are most clearly expressed through his letters, Clara’s concerns are revealed. As previously discussed, Clara expresses this in the ‘Sunrise Letter’, exclaiming ‘Time is now our enemy’ as she fears her beauty diminishing. Yet, in an interview Marin Mazzie, who originally portrayed Clara in the original Broadway production, suggested that Clara cannot ask Giorgio about Fosca due to society’s expectations of women. She stated that, ‘From that time, especially from a woman’s point of view, women were expected to say certain things’[16]. As such, with this interpretation, Clara’s letters to Giorgio conceal a developing anxiety of their relationship, which reaches a climax when she confronts him in person. She admonishes, ‘You constantly write to me about her, speak of her when we’re together’[17], recognising Giorgio’s unspoken feelings for Fosca before he realises them. As for Fosca, she is initially depicted as disruptive. She cuts through Giorgio and Clara’s domestic bliss as they narrate their letters and as such disrupts the etymology style of the musical. This is evident in the ‘Garden Sequence, during which Giorgio narrates, ‘All the while as we strolled’[18], and Fosca interrupts to state, ‘I'm not afraid of death.’[19] Yet, as discussed, the fact that Fosca is the least connected to letters throughout most of the musical ensures that the letters she does send are all the more significant. Whilst academic Gary Konas has suggested that throughout the narrative Giorgio is ‘becoming Fosca, to the point of taking on her physical infirmity’[20], Fosca is also impacted by Giorgio. Indeed, her final words come in the form of a letter to him, expressing how her mindset in her final days reflected his sensitivity to the world’s beauty. As such, the letters in Passion reveal truths about their authors and express the undercurrent of their longings and anxieties.

Sources [1] Stephen Sondheim, Look, I Made a Hat: Collected Lyrics (1981-2011), with Attendant Comments, Amplifications, Dogmas, Harangues, Digressions, Anecdotes and Miscellany (New York: Virgin Books, 2011) p. 177. [2] Vincent Canby, ‘SUNDAY VIEW; Admirers and Fans Take Note: 'Passion' Will Divide You’, The New York Times, 15 May 1994, p. 5. [3] Stephen Sondheim, ‘Fourth Letter’, in Passion Original Broadway Cast Recording (USA: Angel Records, 1994). [4] Catherine Ramsey-Portolano, Nineteenth-Century Italian Women Writers and the Woman Question (UK: Taylor & Francis, 2020), p. 4. [5] Sondheim, ‘Sunrise Letter’, in Passion. [6] Sondheim, ‘First Letter’, in Passion. [7] Sondheim, ‘Soldiers’ Gossip (#2)’, in Passion. [8] You’reGonnaLoveTomorrow, Passion Interviews - Donna Murphy, Marin Mazzie, Jere Shea, online video recording, YouTube, 1 July 2017, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfRuczntviI> [9] Ibid. [10] Sondheim, ‘I Read’, in Passion. [11] Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine, ‘Late for Breakfast, Captain Bachetti…’, in Passion 2013 New York Cast Recording (USA: PS Classics, 2013). [12] Sondheim, ‘Trio’, in Passion. [13] Sondheim, ‘Finale’, in Passion. [14] Esther Terry, ‘Musical Storm and Mental Stress: Trauma and Instability in Contemporary American Musical Theater’, in Mental Illness in Popular Media: Essays on the Representation of Disorders, ed. by Lawrence C. Rubin (USA: McFarland & Company, Inc., 2012), pp. 130-45 (p. 134). [15] Jamie Lloyd, ‘My Passion for Sondheim’, in Study Guide for Passion, ed. By Rosie Dalling (London: The Donmar Warehouse, 2010), pp. 14-16 (p. 15). [16] You’reGonnaLoveTomorrow, Passion Interviews - Donna Murphy, Marin Mazzie, Jere Shea, online video recording, YouTube, 1 July 2017, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfRuczntviI> [17] Sondheim and Lapine, ‘I’m Only Staying Four Days…’, in Passion 2013 New York Cast Recording. [18] Sondheim, ‘Garden Sequence’, in Passion. [19] Ibid. [20] Gary Konas, ‘Passion: Not Just Another Simple Love Story’, in Stephen Sondheim: A Casebook, ed. by Joanne Gordon (Oxon: Routledge, 2000), pp. 205-222 (p. 213).