Saw the opera Iolanta by Tchaikovsy not too terribly long ago. It struck a chord with me in a particular way, and I figure I’d record my two cents on it for posterity. It’s a fairly obscure opera, it seems. As of today, no full-length recording of it with English subtitles exists on Youtube. More commentary may exist in Russian, but I don’t speak a lick of the language. It was the last opera composed by Tchaikovsky, and his brother wrote the libretto (lyrics) for it. It’s based heavily on a Danish play called King René’s Daughter, by Henrik Hertz. Synopsis available on Wikipedia, of course. Like most operas, the pacing is glacially slow. The aria by Ibn-Hakia, the “Moorish doctor” character is the best part. So between that and reading the synopsis, I don’t think you’re missing out on much if you never see it….
Plot summary, if you’re too lazy to read Wikipedia’s: Our titular character, Princess Iolanta, is blind, and grows up locked away in her father’s palace. He requires that nobody reveal to her that she is blind, because he is a terrible parent. The king finds a doctor from an exotic land who says he can probably whip up a cure for the girl’s blindness, but the trick is that it will only work if she is made aware of her blindness, because reasons. The king, insistent in wanting to conceal his daughter’s affliction, refuses. Iolanta is betrothed to a duke named Robert, who comes to the royal estate with his buddy Count Vaudémont. In one of the easiest love-triangles ever, Robert totally doesn’t actually want to marry Iolanta, and Vaudémont inadvertently falls in love with her. Vaudémont finds out that Iolanta is blind, and explains the concept of sight to her. The king walks in and finds out what happens; the doctor brings up the treatment again, and Iolanta isn’t sure. This lack of sureness suggests that she is still not ready to be healed. The king then decides to threaten to kill Vaudémont unless Iolanta decides the wants to see, to motivate her to want the treatment. Iolanta agrees, the king nullifies the old marriage arrangement, and Vaudémont and Iolanta get married instead. The treatment works, and she adjusts to the new sensation, and then sings about how great sight is. The opera ends with the whole court celebrating.
I took the opera as a metaphor for converting a non-believer to Christianity. To the point where, by the third act, I thought they had given up bothering to be subtle about it. Iolanta is obviously the non-believer who is going through life “blind”. She needs cured (to believe), but the only way she can be cured/believe is if she is willing to be cured/believe. That is, you can’t just say “I believe in Jesus”, and bam!, you’re a Christian. You have to want to believe in Jesus. “Let him into your heart”, as the cliché goes. Otherwise it doesn’t work. The king is neurotic about how to best approach the conversion. If he tells her about Jesus and she rejects it, then he’s condemning his daughter to Hell because of the ineffectiveness of his pitch. Vaudémont, who is not held back by this neuroticism, goes ahead and tries to convert her. He sings to her of how wonderful sight (religion/faith/God) is to have in one’s life. She’s attracted to this idea, but doesn’t buy it outright. The king’s worries are validated. In his neuroticism, he does not have enough faith in his religion to be able to win his daughter over by honest conversion, so he concocts the scheme to trick her into wanting to believe, to manipulate her into believing. The king threatens to have Vaudémont killed, which distresses the girl terribly. Likewise, the threat of eternal Hellfire can be used as a motivating factor in converting someone. If you don’t believe, you’ll burn. “If you died tonight, where would you spend eternity?” Manipulation and lying is okay, if the end goal means someone comes to Jesus, after all…. The girl acquiesces to this manipulation and takes the cure/converts. She finds happiness in her new faith, and the whole court/congregation welcomes their new convert.
