La Forza del Destino is a popular opera that the Baudelaire parents attended on one known occasion. It is described by Lemony Snicket' as a play in which "various characters argue, fall in love, get married in secret, run away to monasteries, engage in duels, and drop a gun on the floor, where it goes off and accidentally kills someone". According to Snicket, the end and the denouement occur simultaneously, and "the characters recognize and destroy one another over the course of a single song".