I used to work for an opera company, and one of my duties was writing synopses for operas. I enjoyed it, and I soon warmed to the glorious stylistic traditions of opera synopses. Where else, but in an opera synopsis, do you find words like “lascivious,” “impugns” or “absconds”? And thanks to my years of experience, the following synopsis for a yet-to-be composed opera pretty much wrote itself:
Don Trumpo, ossia il tiranno arancione – an opera in three acts.
Act l: The corrupt and lascivious Don Trumpo slanderously impugns the honour of Donna Ilaria, called "La Clintona," claiming she is in possession of compromising letters. Although innocent, she is disgraced, and an angry mob calls for her to be thrown in the dungeon. Don Trumpo is crowned as the ruler of the nation, and he begins a tyrannical reign from his magnificent White Palace.
Act II: Four years later, a plague has fallen on the unhappy land. La Clintona is avenged by an unexpected champion: Giuseppe Bidena, an old man of humble birth. With the help of the learned Dottore Fauci, Bidena reveals Don Trumpo to be a charlatan and the cause of the plague's severity. The peasants choose Bidena as their new ruler.
Act III: Don Trumpo’s long-suffering wife, Donna Melania, urges him to accept the peasants’ decision, but he refuses. As the nobles meet in their Great Hall of Debate, Don Trumpo urges his lackeys and henchmen to thwart Bidena’s rightful ascent to the throne. They invade the Great Hall, bringing death and destruction, but are repulsed. Two weeks later, before an assembly of nobles and commoners, Bidena is crowned as the nation’s new ruler. He takes up residence in the White Palace, as the deposed Don Trumpo absconds, vowing to return.
© Colin Eatock 2021
Don Trumpo, ossia il tiranno arancione – an opera in three acts.
Act l: The corrupt and lascivious Don Trumpo slanderously impugns the honour of Donna Ilaria, called "La Clintona," claiming she is in possession of compromising letters. Although innocent, she is disgraced, and an angry mob calls for her to be thrown in the dungeon. Don Trumpo is crowned as the ruler of the nation, and he begins a tyrannical reign from his magnificent White Palace.
Act II: Four years later, a plague has fallen on the unhappy land. La Clintona is avenged by an unexpected champion: Giuseppe Bidena, an old man of humble birth. With the help of the learned Dottore Fauci, Bidena reveals Don Trumpo to be a charlatan and the cause of the plague's severity. The peasants choose Bidena as their new ruler.
Act III: Don Trumpo’s long-suffering wife, Donna Melania, urges him to accept the peasants’ decision, but he refuses. As the nobles meet in their Great Hall of Debate, Don Trumpo urges his lackeys and henchmen to thwart Bidena’s rightful ascent to the throne. They invade the Great Hall, bringing death and destruction, but are repulsed. Two weeks later, before an assembly of nobles and commoners, Bidena is crowned as the nation’s new ruler. He takes up residence in the White Palace, as the deposed Don Trumpo absconds, vowing to return.
© Colin Eatock 2021
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