The Force of Destiny

The action takes place in Spain and Italy in the late 18th century.

Act I - The House of the Marquis of  Calatrava.
The Marquis enters to bid Leonora, his daughter, goodnight. He hopes she has forgotten her ‘foreign lover’. What he does not realise is that with the help of her maid, Curra, she is planning to elope, despite some misgivings.


Don Alvaro enters. After initial joy at his arrival, doubts and fears overwhelm Leonora, and she asks him to wait one more day. He assumes she is now rejecting him because of his Inca background, but she finally overcomes her fears, and they prepare to depart, declaring that ‘no fate can part us’.
However, the Marquis and servants burst in and stop them leaving. Don Alvaro protests Leonora’s innocence and purity, and rather than fight her father, Don Alvaro throws down his pistol, which fires accidentally, fatally wounding the Marquis. The Marquis curses Leonora with his dying breath. In escaping the two lovers are separated.

Act II
Scene 1 - The Inn at Hornachuelos
The local peasants and muleteers have come for an evening of celebration.


Leonora enters disguised as a young man and realises to her horror that her brother, Don Carlo, is also there. He is also disguised, as a student, and is suspicious about the young man. He quizzes Trabuco, a muleteer and pedlar about him, but is interrupted by Preziosilla, a gipsy fortune-teller. Preziosilla has come to rouse the crowd to patriotic fervour to join the Spanish army and go to fight in Italy.


Don Carlo again questions Trabuco and then tells a not wholly accurate version of the events surrounding his father’s death. He does say that he has sworn to avenge his father’s death, that he will exact retribution on his sister and the Inca ‘slave’ who, he claims, has ‘fled o’er the sea. The peasants are impressed with his story and hail him as a hero, but Preziosilla is less impressed. She realises he is no student and that his professions of love for his sister are unconvincing.

Scene 2 - Outside a Monastery in the Mountains above Hornachuelos
Leonora, still disguised as a man, enters hoping to find refuge, in despair having overheard her brother saying that Don Alvaro was still alive but that he had fled overseas.


She receives unsympathetic treatment from Brother Melitone, but is dealt with more considerately by Father Guardiano, to whom she confesses that she is a woman. He agrees to her request to be allowed to live out her life in isolation in a hermit’s cave, a little way from the monastery, so that she can seek God’s forgiveness. The monks bless the unknown hermit and are forbidden to approach the hermit’s dwelling place.

Act III
Scene 1 - In Italy. A Spanish Army Camp.
Don Alvaro, now a Captain in the Spanish Army under an assumed name, sings of his life of sorrow, of his noble origins and of his love for Leonora, who he assumes is dead. He saves the life of Don Carlo, also in the army under an assumed name. Unaware of each other’s identity, they swear eternal friendship.


In the battle that follows, the Spanish are victorious but Don Alvaro is wounded and thought to be dying. He asks Don Carlo to burn a bundle of letters. Already suspicious of Don Alvaro’s true identity, Don Carlo discovers a portrait of Leonora and hopes that his enemy will survive so that he can finally avenge his father’s death and restore the family honour.

INTERVAL

Act III
Scene 2 - In Italy. A Spanish Army Camp.
Don Alvaro has survived. He greets Don Carlo with gratitude for the care he has shown him, but Don Carlo challenges him to a duel. Don Alvaro is overjoyed to hear that Leonora is still living and resists the challenge but is finally provoked into a fight, which is broken up by some soldiers.


A celebration of victory follows with soldiers and camp-followers, led by Preziosilla. The celebrations are interrupted by Trabuco, a pedlar, and later by Brother Melitone, who berates the crowd for their dissolute behaviour.

Act IV
Scene 1 - In Spain. Outside the Monastery
Some years later, Brother Melitone is reluctantly distributing soup to the poor. After Melitone has chased them off and been admonished by Father Guardiano, Don Carlo appears looking for a monk, Brother Raffael. Raffael, is, of course, Don Alvaro. Don Carlo again challenges Don Alvaro to a duel. They leave the precincts of the monastery to fight elsewhere.

Act IV
Scene 2 - Outside the Hermit’s Cave.

Leonora laments that death will not come to release her from her sorrow. Don Alvaro and Don Carlo appear fighting their duel. Don Carlo is mortally wounded and appeals to the hermit to give absolution to the dying man. Don Alvaro and Leonora recognise each other. She goes to help her brother who stabs her fatally. Alvaro curses God and fate but Father Guardiano and Leonora persuade him to kneel and pray. Reunited at the moment of her death, Alvaro holds Leonora ‘made holy by her suffering’ in his arms.