So Much Happiness!?

Relationships are endlessly fascinating. In today's musical theater moment the opening scene to Stephen Sondheim's exploration of Love the musical PASSION based on the movie directed by Ettore Scola intense film Passione d'Amore lays bare the raw emotions sparked by  "...that day when two glanced at each other In the park" falling under the spell of connection, surging forth feelings of love and that intangible hard to put into words-- something else.

In his master work Sondheim offers a mature look at Love with all its complicated twists and turns.



Lyrics from the opening scene reveal the uncertainty, the questioning and the pain bubbling under the joy of union and recognition...

Clara

That we ever should have met

Is a miracle

Giorgio

No, inevitable -

Clara

Then inevitable, yes,

But I confess it was the look

Giorgio

The look?

Clara

The sadness in your eyes

That day when we glanced at each other

In the park.

Giorgio

We were both unhappy.

Clara

Unhappiness can be seductive.

Giorgio

You pitied me...

Both

How quickly pity leads to love.

Clara

All this happiness

Merely from a glance in the park

So much happiness, so much love... 

Giorgio

I thought I knew what love was.

Clara

I wish we might have met so much sooner

I could have given you -

Giorgio

I thought I knew what love was.

Clara

- my youth.

Giorgio

I thought I knew how much I could feel.

Clara

All the time we lost...

Giorgio

I didn't know what love was.

Clara

I've never known what love was.

Giorgio

But now -

Clara

And now -

Both

- I do.

It's what I feel with you,

The happiness I feel with you.

Clara

So much happiness -

Giorgio

You are so beautiful...

Clara

- happening by chance in a park.

Giorgio

Not by chance, by necessity -

Clara

Surely, this is happiness -

Giorgio

- by the sadness that we saw in each other.

Clara

- no one else has ever felt before!

Both

Just another love story, that's what they would claim.

Another simple love story - aren't all of them the same?

Clara

No, but this is more, we feel more!

Both

This is so much more!

(Smiling at each other)

Like every other love story.

Some say happiness comes and goes.

then this happiness is a kind of happiness

No one really knows.

Giorgio

I thought I knew what love was.

Clara

I'd only heard what love was.

Giorgio

I thought it was no more than a name for yearning.

Clara

I thought it was what kindness became.

Giorgio

I'm learning -

Clara

I thought where there was love there was shame.

Giorgio

- that with you -

Clara

But with you -

Both

- there's just happiness.

Clara

Endless happiness...

As always Sondheim's turn of words breaks open the truth, asks the questions and reveals the huge gap in the love manual most humans are operating under.

It brings to mind Sinatra singing How Little It Matters (How Little We Know)...

The clues are everywhere, the journey never ending with love remaining the constant and everything else just the imaginings of the dream which creates the anxieties and pain.

Hope you enjoyed Wednesday's musical theater moment. As Jewish lyricist Yip Harburg once commented, “A song is the pulse of a nation’s heart, a fever chart of its health. Are we at peace? Are we in trouble? Do we feel beautiful? Are we violent? Listen to our songs.” In recognizing the songs you are relating to, you understand your pulse. What songs are you hearing now? and on a different level what song is waiting to be born?