“A Fantastic Woman” is a film filled with dark and dreary moments. It kicks off with the bliss of love between Orlando and a transgender woman, Marina. Moments after experiencing their joy we see Orlando die and Marina forced to overcome his discriminatory family (and society) just so she can say goodbye to him.
We experience Marina’s journey through these challenges until she eventually manages just one moment of true intimacy moments before Orlando’s body is no more.
It’s quite breathtaking and beautiful in its impact, but what happens next is even more so
After so many challenges and difficulties, we hear Marina stand up in front of an audience and perform “Ombra mai fu” from Handel’s “Serse.”
The aria kicks off the opera with King Xerxes pondering the beauty of a favored tree. It is one of opera’s most famed melodies, it’s melody relaxing for the listener, matching the mood of the text in which Xerxes asks that “Never was a shade of any plant dearer and more lovely, or more sweet.”
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