Don't offer me that large of a promise, Balthier. One day I might collect.

[Those words were whispered though, his attention more on the operetta, trying to follow the plot. Which he already knows perfectly well.]

The point of the play is, in some ways, the absurdity of it. Operas, almost more than anything, like to fall hard into the two categories of either comedy or tragedy. So if you're going for even a lightly funny premise, even with a romance, it's going to have to be absurd.