Carlotta Celestia Giudicelli SEE CLAIMS NOTE

[Carlotta Celestia Giudicelli]

CARLOTTA CELESTIA GIUDICELLI

"You took a snub, but there's a public that needs you"

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Player Name: Kristine (hi again! XD )

Years Roleplaying: 8 years, fool!

Gender: Still female

Contact me: see Christine account

Anything else?: 3rd account FTW!


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Basic Information

[/b][/color] Carlotta Celestia Giudicelli

Age: 32

Canon or OC?: The Phantom of the Opera 1986 Andrew Lloyd Webber Stage Musical

Note: will alter to be an OC Carlotta if necessary. See character claim note. Since her history is extremely different than what one would typically associate with a Carlotta character, I can alter her to play her as an OC Carlotta to play 1986 Christine if (and only if) Pau is unable to play her, as she stated in chat that she was not sure if she would be still role playing here.[/size]
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Appearance

[/b][/color] 5'4

Body type: Pleasantly plump with a certain confident air about her. She's the example of "big and beautiful"

Eye color: A deep, dark, grey-green

Wardrobe: Carlotta is a massively splendid woman and wears outfits to match it. Rich velvety fabrics and colors, along with expensive furs are the norm for her. She is a woman of very refined tastes, and is not afraid to show it. She loves elaborate hats, gowns, jewelry, etc. She wears mostly dark colors like greens, burgundy, black, gray, etc.

General Appearance: Carlotta is a large woman, but drop dead gorgeous, and she knows it. She's the personification of the big, beautiful diva. She is about average height, fair-skinned, with fiery red naturally curly hair. She keeps her appearance very neat, nails perfectly filed, not a single hair left out of place, all pinned up and primped up. Her deep green almond-shaped eyes normally reflect her absolute confidence in her own abilities as an actress and a musician. She has thin, defined eyebrows and lips. She has strong cheek bones, despite her face being a bit flabby, has a strong chin and also has a button nose.

Played By: Wendy Ferguson
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Personality

[/b][/color]Carlotta is quite the attention whore, always needing to be in the limelight no matter what the situation. She loves receiving praise and glory for her work in the opera and gorges herself upon it whenever possible. This seems to backfire on her on occasion, as there are times when she gets attention she might not want so much, such as the attention of the infamous Opera Ghost -- and not the good kind at all! In fact, it's more of the "I loathe you and want to ruin you in every way possible" sort of attention.

Carlotta is extremely confident in her own abilities, which is quite necessary when one is in the position of prima donna asoluta. She is a talented, strong woman, and not afraid to make that known to the world. Unfortunately, with this confidence also comes haughtiness and a bit of conceit on her part, and in turn, when combined with her constant need for attention, "divatude" a pleanty!

Beneath this thick hide of confidence, conceit, and need for attention, deep down underneath, Carlotta is really a romantic and artist. Besides her music, she is also quite skilled in painting, a hobby which she took up when she was younger and still living with her family at their vineyard in Tuscany. She likes to dance, albeit she does so very poorly. She wants to find a man who will treat her right -- like a princess, that is -- and shares the same love for the fine arts (and if he had a bit of cash on him, that wouldn't hurt either).



Dreams and Goals: Carlotta has been a renowned diva for some time, particularly in Paris, and aims to keep it that way until she feels that she is ready to retire. She also hopes, some day, to find her one and only true amore who will treat her like the principessa she feels she deserves to be. She also has the motto "follow where the limelight leads you," inspired by an old painter she knew when she was growing up, who inspired her to pursue her own passions rather than standing in anyone else's shadow.

Strengths:

• an incredibly powerful dramatic coloratura voice
  
• strong diction characterized by her native Italian accent
  
• is fluent in Italian, French, German, Portuguese, Spanish, and English from her various operatic endeavors
  
• Is secretly quite skilled as a painter.
  

Weaknesses:

• Her acting tends to be a bit overdone
  
• Has a short temper
  
• Is a bad dancer
  
• Easily becomes jealous
  

Fears:

• the "Opera Ghost" sabotaging another of her performances
  
• losing her voice
  
• rats
  

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The Past

[/b][/color] Vittorio Giudicelli (father), Vanessa Giudicelli (mother), Cristina Giudicelli (sister)

History: Carlotta Celestia Giudicelli was born on July 26^th, 1848 on her family's vineyard in the rolling Tuscan countryside to parents Vittorio and Vanessa Giudicalli, who already had a daughter a few years older than Carlotta by the name of Cristina.

Now, Cristina was a pretty, talented girl whom her parents thought could do no harm, but that was not the case. She liked to tease and torment her younger sister, Carlotta, on top of clearly being the parent's favorite. Carlotta always received hand-me-down clothing from her older sister, which Cristina got to choose several fine dresses. Their parents praised Cristina for having a pretty voice and being able to dance well, and all of the young boys in the nearby town wished to gain Cristina's hand.

Little Carlotta was pretty like her sister, but a bit on the... well.... on the chubby side. She was the short fat girl, who couldn't dance to save her life, but she did sing, and she sang very well. Her parents, however, always seemed too wrapped up in what Cristina was doing to take notice to their younger daughter's talents.

Besides singing, Carlotta liked to go outside and sit among the vines and trellises with nothing but a canvas and a pallet and paint. She would get these supplies from an old painter she had met in the nearby town by the name of Edgardo Giapetto. She liked to look at all of Signore Giapetto's paintings in his little studio, and he would often ask her how her painting was going, making sure that she practiced her brush strokes. Carlotta often considered him her only real friend, for the mere reason that he seemed to be the only one truly interested in her talents rather than those of her older sister.

One day, as she was browsing the paintings in Signore Giapetto's studio, she was singing to herself an old Baroque aria she had learned from playing around with the piano and one of her sister's music books. The aria was called "Non disperar" from Handel's Giulio Cesare. Edgardo heard little Carlotta and was very impressed by her voice, and told her so. Carlotta said that she wasn't really very good, and that it was really her sister who was the singer.

Signore Giapetto frowned at this and asked her how long she was planning on playing second fiddle to her older sister. Carlotta told him that it didn't matter whether or not she tried because Cristina would always be the favorite.

Seeing as he was very old, his health was also beginning to deteriorate. Carlotta still went to go visit him until one day when she went, he had become very very ill. He asked Carlotta again about why she continued to let her sister have all of the limelight and made her promise him that someday, she would step out of her sister's shadow into the limelight and shine like the star she really was. This was the last time that Carlotta say her friend, old Signore Giapetto, because he was dead the next day. Carlotta never forgot her promise that she made to the old painter.

A few years later, When Carlotta was sixteen years of age, Cristina married. it was a grand wedding, once again reminding Carlotta of how her sister seemed to get everything she wanted and was their parents' favorite. By this time, Carlotta had grown rather bitter of her sister Cristina and loathed even hearing the name. But there was some good which came out of this wedding. The wedding meant that Cristina was no longer living at the family vineyard, but had instead gone off with her new husband, which left a gateway of new opportunities open to Carlotta which had hitherto been reserved for her sister.

Finally being able to prove to her parents her musical talent, Carlotta enrolled in the Milano Conservatory of Music in order to begin her training in opera, and advanced quickly in her studies. Being one of the top students there, naturally, there was a great amount of praise and attention that came with it -- exactly the sort of praise and attention which Carlotta had craved her entire life, the kind which she constantly saw her older sister receive. It was then that what Signore Giapetto had said to her finally clicked in her head: "Step out of her shadow and into the limelight." This was the limelight. And it was then she made yet another oath to herself, in honor of Signore Giapetto: "Follow where the limelight leads you."

And the limelight led her many places. She went on to sing on some of the most prestigious stages in all of Europe: Il Teatro Alla Scala in Milan, Her Majesty's Theatre in London, São Carlos Theater in Lisbon, Teatro la Fenice in Venice, Teatro Verdi di Pisa in Pisa, Teatre dell'Opera in Rome, the Saxon State Opera in Dresden, Teatro Real in Madrid, the Opéra de Lyon in Lyon, the Théâtre Lyrique in Paris, and finally the Opéra Populaire in Paris where she has remained prima donna asoluta for the past five seasons straight.

During her time traveling across Europe, performing on all of these stages, she continued to receive praise and acclaim for her performances, so much that she became almost dependent upon it and was quite accustomed to receiving it wherever she went. It changed her so much, that no one who knew her back on her parent's vineyard would ever have recognized her as "Cristina's little not-quite-as-pretty, not-quite-as-talented sister."

For the first couple seasons, all went well at the Opéra Populaire. She had the manager, Monsieur Lefèvre, eating out of the palm of her chubby little hand, and all of Paris falling at her feet, praising her brilliant performances upon that stage. This was exactly the sort of attention that she had been craving her entire life. She had followed where the limelight had led her, and was quite pleased with the results.

It was her third year with the company, however, that things seemed to take a turn for the worse. Now, the Opera had always had problems with a certain "ghost" by the alias of O.G. who seemed to constantly harass Monsieur Lefèvre about a box and salary. Because this did not effect her directly, Carlotta never gave much thought to it. After all, the ghost was a silly legend invented by the stage hands to frighten the little ballet rats. But in her third year of singing as the House's prima donna asoluta, strange things began to happen. At first it was little things, like a score going missing, or the seamstresses making her costume just a little too tight, but then, the occurrences began to grow and grow -- and to become more frequent. Set pieces would fall, costumes stolen or torn to shreds, toads would appear in her dressing-room.... To put it rather bluntly, lots of bad things happened and Carlotta was not pleased about it one bit!

However, despite these "technical difficulties," Carlotta continued to sing, seemingly unfazed by the occurrences, other than a little tantrum along with a threat to leave here or there, which immediately resulted in Monsieur Lefèvre begging her to stay, which she always did. After all, she obviously still had him twisted around her pretty fingers and that was what she desired most from this whole position at the opera: the praise! the attention! the ability to have anything she desired with the snap of a finger, all because she was the one on top!

But despite her seemingly calm (in relativity, considering the fact that she was constantly being harassed by this "ghost"), the tension was building up inside of her. It kept building and building until one day, in dress-rehearsals for a new production of Chalumeau's Hannibal, Monsieur Lefèvre announced to the cast that he was retiring and introduced the new joint managers of the opera house, Messieurs Richard Firmin and Gilles André. Carlotta (naturally) sought to be in good bearings with the management as soon as possible, seeing as most of her attention off-stage and outside of rehearsals came from the management. The first of them, Monsieur Firmin, didn't seem like he was very interested in the arts at all, which of course disgusted Carlotta. However the second of the two, Monsieur André, seemed to be more of the artistic type. He immediately came up to Carlotta upon introduction and kissed her hand fervently, explaining how he had had the immense pleasure of experiencing all of her finest roles. At first, Carlotta was extremely pleased with the immediate attention received from this new manager, and even more pleased when he asked her for a "private rendition" of Elyssa's aria in Act III of the opera, a request to which Carlotta happily obliged and so began that fatal moment.

It started off quite well, she began singing the aria, and it was turning out quite flawlessly, as she had expected. Monsieur André seemed almost enamored with her and her performance, and so she decided to play off of his feelings by using her feminine charms (she was a pretty woman after all, despite her weight) against him, hoping to wrap him so tightly around her fingers that not even if her hands were cols and dead would you be able to pry his favor from them. She draped her sash about his shoulders as she sang, and then teasingly pulled it away with her as she walked ever so slowly away from him, the man's eyes adoring her every movement. Seeing this sort of reaction from him so easily was an enormous boost to her ego and so with excelled confidence, she began the second verse of the song. It was during this second verse, however, that one of the backdrops suddenly fell and several of the ballet rats went screaming, one excruciatingly irritating one in particular by the name of Meg Giry, who immediately started raving about "The Phantom of the Opera." Monsieur André immediately tried to reassure her that "these things do happen," but this... THIS had pushed Carlotta far over the edge this time. Out of all of the times when this could have happened, it had too be as she was making her first impression upon the new managers of the opera. The woman was in tears! And now, this man, who had been here for all of five minutes had the audacity to tell her that "these things do happen? For the past three years, these things had been happening, and Monsieur Lefèvre had done absolutely nothing to stop it! And now, here were these two new managers assuring her that it was absolutely nothing, just as he had! Well, Carlotta wasn't going to take such incompetence for another minute!

Telling the tenor, Ubaldo, to come with her, she left the rehearsal room then and there. Now, Ubaldo had been singing at the Opéra Populaire since a bit before Carlotta had arrived there. When she had first came, the man was barely capable of performing a role and quite honestly, should not have been on the stage at all, but since she had arrived, he had done everything he could to try to catch her eye on occasion, including upping his level of performance. Carlotta thought him rather silly to be quite honest, but enjoyed the adoration and attention, not to mention the occasional gifts he would give to her, so she enjoyed keeping him around as a sort of "posse"... or really like a little puppy that constantly clung to her heels, wanting nothing more than to please her.

Carlotta went home after that to try to recuperate and convince herself once again that the opera company needed her. After all, they had no replacement for her -- no one at the opera could replace her, for she was La Carlotta, widely renowned soprano, and (be contact) their "prima donna asoluta." After all, that was where the limelight had led her and vecchio Signore Giapetto had told her that it was in the limelight where she belonged -- and Signore Giapetto was never wrong! She did a little painting to help herself to clear her mind of all of those wretched occurrences and then went to bed to get a good night's rest and hopefully be able to sleep it all off.

She had managed to reassure herself until that morning when several more strange things occurred. She read the title in that morning's paper: "Diva sends in resignation; Cover has a Moonlight Flit." Cover? What cover? As she read through the article, she learned the name of this so-called "cover" -- Christine Daaé. Of course, Christine. Even now that Carlotta was finally rid of her, her older sister Cristina somehow still managed to find a way to ruin poor Carlotta's life and steal the attention once more. This "Christine Daaé" apparently had disappeared just after the night's gala, soon after the new patron of the opera,Vicomte Raoul de Chagny, had met her in her dressing-room, and it was believed that the two were involved in some sort of romantic rendezvous. It was as she was finishing reading this that the mail came and she receives a strange letter, written in ominous red ink which read the following:

La Carlotta,

Your days at the Opéra Populaire are numbered. Christine Daaé will be singing on your behalf tonight. Be prepared for a great misfortune should you attempt to take her place.

There was no signature anywhere on the letter or envelope. Clearly (since the press is always right in their gossips, especially about "moonlight flits between wealthy and influential opera patrons and substitute ingénues) Monsieur de Chagny was attempting to further the career of his pretty little soubrette by preventing Carlotta from singing that night, so the girl could shine once more. Quickly telephoning Signore Ubaldo Piangi, Carlotta told him to come to the opera with her in order to "discuss" the situation with the new management and straighten some things out there, especially about contracts. Taking up the horrid letter she received, she went back to the Populaire with Piangi.

When she arrived at the Populaire, the managers were there, as well as their new patron, Monsieur de Chagny. She took no time for formalities and cut straight to business, demanding of their "precious patron" that he give her an explanation for that horrid letter, which the man promptly denied ever writing. Immediately after which, the old ballet mistress, a woman by the name of Madame Giry, came bearing yet another note, which she claimed came from the Opera Ghost. The note read as follows:

Gentlemen,

I have now sent you several notes of the most amiable nature, detailing how my theatre is to be run. You have not followed my instructions. I shall give you one last chance. Christine Daaé has returned to you and I am anxious her career should progress. In the new production of Il Muto, you will therefore cast Carlotta as the pageboy and put Miss Daaé in the roll of countess. The role which Miss Daaé plays calls for charm and appeal. The role of the pageboy is silent, which makes my casting, in a word, ideal. I shall watch the performance from my normal seat in box five, which will be kept empty for me. Should these commands be ignored, a disaster beyond your imagination will occur.

I remain, gentlemen, your obedient servant,

-O.G.

Christine! Of course! This was all a ploy to help Christine! And the vicomte must be behind it. What could Carlotta do if the man responsible for a large portion of the Opéra's funding was the man responsible for all of this? She did the only thing she really knew how to do in this sort of situation, and that was to throw one of her tantrums, to which she got the much anticipated reaction which she always liked to hear, and that was the groveling of the management before her, begging her to stay and for the prima donna to enchant them all once again.

Everything was working. The new managers were ignoring the Vicomte's letters and were going to keep Carlotta as the countess and cast "Christine" as the pageboy. Even the sound of that name, so similar to that of her sisters, made her bitter. Carlotta was so caught up in the adoration and delight, that after she had changed into her Countess outfit for the evening's performance, she was holding a high note, thinking to herself, "I bet that dreadful Christine cannot hold out such a flawless whistle tone as I and for so long -- assuming she can hit the note at all!" And she held it so long that she forgot to breathe and ended up passing out.

It was not long after this that Carlotta opened her eyes to find herself lying on the floor in the Manor.

RP Sample

"Would you not rather have your precious little ingénue?" Carlotta asked dryly after the new joint-managers, Messieurs André and Firmin, insisted that they needed her to perform that evening in the role of the countess. After they confirmed that it was her and not Miss Daaé whom the public wanted to hear, Carlotta gave a satisfied little smirk. It was working, just like it always did. She had them eating out of the palm of her hand.

However, she was not about to let them on to this so quickly. She rather enjoyed the groveling. It reminded her who really ran things around here -- her! She listened as all three of them -- André, Firmin, and that pathetic Ubaldo -- continued to fawn over her and worship her. It was only after some time of them treating her as if she were a goddess, that Carlotta finally agreed to sing for them.

Oh, granted she took a snub the night before when she had been replaced on a moments notice and her replacement had received such acclaim, but everything would soon return to normal. As she was being dressed in her costume for that evenings performance, she began to sing, feeling gracious enough to bless those before her, with the sheer splendor of her vocal brilliance!

She was the diva and she new it -- and loved it! Her confidence began to grow even more as they adorned her with all of the glamorous gauzy, sequined fabrics of her costume (which thankfully fit this time).

Christine Daaé... bah! Who was Christine Daaé. She didn't care. She doubted that the girl had even close to the same training, experience and sheer talent that she did. She wondered if the girl could even really sing the role of the countess. It was a rather taxing tessiatura, and only the most skilled of sopranos could sing it well.

Carlotta was one of those skilled. And, she could prove it. She soared to the top of her range, holding the pitch, lingering there as if she could hold it forever, and she probably could have, except for one minor detail which she had forgotten: the fact that, eventually, she needed to breathe.

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[|ADMIN LEFFIE|]

I just... I can't find a flaw. None. Carlotta is just practically amazing. Her backstory is perfect, her personality is perfect, everything connects, just... Take it. Take this character and RUN! RUN LIKE THE WIND AND NEVER LOOK BACK!

*stamps approval*