just one of many moments of Women Being Awesome Together In Opera in honor of Women’s History Month: Kate Aldrich and Sofia Fomina as Fidès and Berthe in the Toulouse 2017 staging of Le prophète
while unfortunately, I couldn’t capture this moment with sound, neither of them sing in this clip: it’s just two women being adorable together and loving each other (their characters are in a would-be-mother-in-law/daughter-in-law relationship).
Fidès and Berthe are both absolute badasses: neither of them is willing to just sit idly by and let fate mess with them. they both go out, stand up to the guys around them, and work as best as they can to live (and sadly, eventually, in both cases) die with their dignity and their principles intact. plus, they both have badass music to sing, particularly a great duet in Act IV where they catch up with one another after several months apart and eventually decide to team up against the prophet who has wrecked their lives and the lives of many, many others. of course, things go horribly wrong, given that it turns out that Fidès’ missing son and Berthe’s fiancé Jean is actually the prophet, but as I already said, both women manage to keep their dignity and their principles to the end while also being badasses and standing up to Jean and telling him what’s what and eventually bringing him back to the good person he was before.
and I think that’s beautiful.
once again, Happy Women’s History Month, everyone!
