Portal:Opera/Selected picture/69
Poster for Verdi's La forza del destino. Based on a Spanish drama, Don Álvaro o la fuerza del sino (1835), by Ángel de Saavedra, 3rd Duke of Rivas, La forza del destino tells the story of two star-crossed lovers who fate turns against at every turn. The man attempting to throw a gun away as a sign of good faith causes it to shoot the woman's father. The woman's brother, having joined the army under an assumed name, gets given papers to destroy by the man, also under an assumed name – and thus learns his identity and goes on a mad quest to destroy him. And, in the end, when forced to duel the brother and winning, an attempt to save the brother's life results in the man finding the woman... and when they go to help him, the brother stabs the woman in the heart.