Line #15 Theatre/TheConsul


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/b040cc84_b0fb_4395_8398_3b723e4e3694.jpeg]]
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3	''The Consul'' is an English-language opera by Gian-Carlo Menotti, first performed in 1950.
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5	The action takes place in an unnamed European PoliceState, alternating between the home of the protagonist, Magda Sorrel, and a foreign consulate where Magda attempts to obtain an exit visa for her husband John, who is on the run from the secret police.
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7	!!This work contains examples of:
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9	* CityWithNoName: The opera is set in an unnamed city in an unnamed European country.
10	* TheDeadCanDance: In the final scene, Magda (soon to be dead) has a vision in which her mother (already dead) dances with John (not dead yet but obviously doomed).
11	* DeathOfAChild: Magda and John's child falls ill and dies.
12	* DownerEnding: Magda's mother-in-law and child die of an illness. Worn down by the consulate's obstructive bureacracy, Magda commits suicide. John is recaptured by the secret police.
13	* DrivenToSuicide: Magda Sorel, having failed after many visits to get the Secretary to give her something besides paperwork, gasses herself to death at home.
14	* DyingDream: In the final scene, Magda (soon to be dead) has a vision in which her mother (already dead) dances with John (not dead yet but obviously doomed).
15	* EvilSoundsDeep: The Secret Police Agent is a bass-baritone, and the main antagonist.
16	* TheGhost: The Consul appears only as a distant, inaudible shadow. As with [[Theatre/WaitingForGodot Godot]], the protagonist waits for him in vain.
17	* GratuitousItalian: The record player. The Foreign Woman's lines are all in Italian.
18	* IronicNurseryRhyme: Mother's Lullaby, sung by John's mother to her ill grandchild.
19	* IWantSong: "When Shall We See the End of All This?" for the Mother and "To This We've Come" for Magda Sorel.
20	* LaResistance: John is involved in one of these, which is the main source of conflict.
21	* ObstructiveBureaucrat: The only visible employee of the consulate is a secretary who gives people trying to obtain exit visas an endless series of forms for them to fill out and sign, if the documents she asks them to provide are all in order. Many are made to wait for months on end. The secretary views them as numbers rather than as people with names, because "otherwise, how can one do any work?"
22	* PoliceState
23	* RummageFail: The StageMagician pulls out many things, but, alas, not the papers the Secretary wants.
24	* ScareChord:
25	** There is a nasty chord at the climax of the Act II NightmareSequence.
26	** In the final minute, Magda is rudely awakened from her DyingDream by the telephone ringing, and each ring is followed by a discordant slam which is the pianistic equivalent of SymbolSwearing (though only loud in comparison to the preceding diminuendo).
27	* StageMagician: Nika Magadoff, one of the other people trying to obtain a visa.
28	* VillainSong: The Secret Police Agent has a pretty terrifying aria in the first act, where he attempts to intimidate Magda Sorell into giving up her husband.
29	* WeHaveWaysOfMakingYouTalk: The Secret Police Agent says this to Magda:
30	-->'''The Police Agent:''' We have strange ways to make people talk. Oh, not at all the way you may think. All we have to do is to quicken the beat of your heart.

Context Theatre / TheConsul