Consequence Of Innocence [revised] Poem by Margaret Alice Second

Story of the opera ‘The Power of Fate’ - an insistence on
personal honour surely is a curse as the opera illustrates
by means of ill-omened lovers and wild intrigues

Did Verdi choose these themes to make one realise the
foolishness of false values and the bitter consequence
of youthful innocence in simply accepting them?

Violetta gives up love after a life as courtesan to save the
honour of Alfredo’s family & to revenge the family honour
Don Carlo attacks his sister’s lover but stabs her to death

Verdi’s operas teaches everyone must learn the meaning of
true honour and stop the sad cycles of revenge that drove
Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet to their death in his play

Verdi’s music is heavenly, melodramatic when Violetta dies –
but FATE has no power at all, it’s simply a personal choice
Verdi & Shakespeare show fate is only a human construct

To be overcome by clear thinking, accepting responsibility;
“I am the master of my fate” Nelson Mandela declared as
he facilitated reconciliation between greater enemies than

Montagues and Capulets - the different races held apart by
500 years of suppression in Africa; the message of these
artists changed my world also with special thanks to Nelson

Mandela who did not exact foolish revenge to obtain justice
for his oppressed brethren - instead dreaming a new world
into being - I am sure these artists are proud of him!


[La forza del destino (The Power of Fate, translated as
The Force of Destiny) is an Italian opera by Guiseppe Verdi]