KATE PINKERTON: LACOMBE STYLE

The "another woman" in Puccini's geisha opera had been a non-entity to me... until Benjamin Lacombe reimagined her, from her lieutenant husband's first-person POV, as an extraverted and fiery suffragette. Now I understand why he married her, and I put this character on my personal list of badasses!

(PS. The English translation below is my own)


KATE PINKERTON: LACOMBE STYLE


...ma douce Kate, ma vraie femme, ma femme...
Kate était libre, rieuse, franche, avisée. Je l'avais rencontrée alors qu'elle militait devant le Parlement pour le droit de vote des femmes. Elle tenait sa petite pancarte à la main avec une dizaine d'autres militantes en jupons, et me regardait d'un air frondeur. J'en étais tombé immédiatement amoureux.
Le droit de vote des femmes!

--Le lieutenant Pinkerton n'est pas seul. Il est accompagné de sa femme, lady Kate Pinkerton.

Kate réagit avec la sensibilité d'une femme, comprenant la peine...

--Je suis l'innocente cause de votre malheur. Pardonnez-moi! supplia Kate, au bord des larmes.

--¿Pourrez-vous me pardonner? demanda Kate, la voix temblante.
«Sous la grande arche du ciel, il n'existe pas de femme plus heureuse que vous. Restez-le toujours.


.....................................................................................................


...my sweet Kate, my true wife, my wife...
Kate was free, cheerful, outspoken, clever. I had met her for the first time when she was demonstrating outside Congress for women's right to vote. She was holding her little banner in hand, with ten or so other suffragettes in petticoats, and she was looking at me with that rebellious air of hers. I instantly fell head over heels in love with her.
Women's right to vote!

--Lieutenant Pinkerton is not alone. He is accompanied by his wife, Lady Kate Pinkerton.

Kate reacted with a true lady's sensibility and sensitivity, understanding the sorrow...

"I am the innocent cause of your misfortune. Pardon me!" Kate pleaded half in tears.
"May you pardon me?" asked Kate with a tremulous voice.
"Under the great arch of the heavens, there is no woman more fortunate than you. May you thus be forever."