Canons and counterpoints

"Yet Carmen and Gilda seemed perfect together. They blended and supported each other like the voices of a canon, and like the voices of a counterpoint, they complemented each other, even though they expressed different things, in a continuous and silent dialogue of love and respect." Carmen and Gilda are mirrors of one another. The former is instinctive and passionate, the latter rational and measured. It is precisely because of this apparent distance between them that an intense relationship - both carnal and intellectual - comes to life, but it is held back by the conventions and respectability of the provincial people, who are strongly anchored in tradition and a distinction of roles that today has no real connection with reality. In this sense, the words of Anita Sonego, who wrote the preface to Canoni e contrappunti, are even more significant: "The essence of this writing is the most radical and ruthless sincerity. It is the laying bare of feelings, even when they seem - and perhaps are - illogical, uncomfortable and full of frustration. Through the story of Carmen, the completely and utterly successful protagonist, she tells us not only about an intimate and private affair, but also about the limits of a society that remains too attached to its origins and stubbornly and absurdly denies love between two people of the same sex.