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[calamitys-child]

Just rediscovered potentially the funniest thing I’ve written in recent memory

[calamitys-child]

Imagine if people wrote all their Les Mis modern aus in the style of Victor Hugo

[calamitys-child]

An excerpt

[starlightandscrolls]

I swear if you have a deep bass voice your attractiveness level goes up 1000% and if you sing in that voice I will just strip right there. (I’m not saying I have a voice thing, but I super have a voice fetish) 

[count-di-luna]

bass: my wife doesn’t love me and I can’t sleep and also I lowkey want to die

opera fandom: LET ME LOVE YOU

[raspberryhunter]

bass: also I want to kill my son and I am really mean to my wife and might end up killing her too, also mean to random Flanders people

me: ...just sing some more with that cello, will you? LOVE.

On the other hand:

bass: I am a nice guy and really love my wife!

me: TOTALLY SOLD FOREVER

[raspberryhunter]

Don Carlo :D

:D------After hearing Carlos' plea that the King allow him to go to Flanders, Elisabeth said to him, "Prince, if the King is pleased to accede to my prayer …  you will be able to depart tomorrow for Flanders, entrusted by him to your hand."

She did not want him to go, and yet she knew it would be the best thing, for him, and also for her. She had managed not to say anything compromising, anything that referred to their previous love -- but she was not sure if she could keep from it, if he said more.

Carlos looked as if he were going to say something more; he even opened his mouth, with a miserable expression on his face -- and then he closed it again. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Finally he said, "Well. Thank you."

She closed her own eyes and said a brief prayer of thanksgiving that Carlos had said nothing more. "You are welcome, my son."

He made an almost violent motion at that name for him, but then he shook his head again, bowed to her, and left. She was aware there were tears streaming down her face, though she made no sound. Silently, the Countess of Aremberg came to her, put her arms around her, and handed her a hankerchief.

"The King!" came Thibault's high voice.

Philip said to Elisabeth, "I am happy to see you, madame, in the company of your lady-in-waiting."

"Sire," said Elisabeth, "I too rejoice to see you, for I crave a boon in the name of your son."

"Speak," said Philip.

"He desires to go to Flanders, with the Marquis of Posa his friend. He desires to leave as soon as possible."

Philip's brows came together. After a second he ventured, "He wants to leave the court? And you, madam?"

"Me?" asked Elisabeth blankly. "What, leave the court? Why would I do that?"

Philip exhaled. "I see no reason why he should not go. Yes, let him spend some time with his aunt Margaret. That will be good for him." He put a hand on her shoulder. "Will I see you tonight, my queen?"

His voice was soft, more tender than it had been in some time, and she leaned her head against his hand. Had he thought --? Why, the man was ridiculous, and she smiled a little. "Of course, should you wish it."

[raspberryhunter]

All right, I've wanted to do this for a while:

The problem with operas is that they're too long. By which I mean, if anyone in them was sensible they'd all be at most half the length.  I mean, possibly still tragic (if it's the villain who was sensible), but at least shorter!

So: send me an ask with an opera (*) and I'll respond with a short fic snippet of a canon-divergence AU where the opera is Much Shorter. Warning, of course, that at least some of the characters will be wildly out of character. That is to say, probably much more sensible. :)

(*) If it's an opera I know, you'll get the ficlet much sooner. If it's one I haven't watched yet, I'll put it on my list to watch and you'll get the ficlet once I've watched it. This is a good opportunity for you to get me to watch your favorite opera, since after I finish Norma with Caballé I'm gonna go back to RL opera friend and ask for more DVDs! (Though given my previous track record, this might also take a while.)

(cross-posted to DW)

[elucubrare]

this is seriously my favorite thing in the world

[sigaloenta]

It’s weird to me that the LA opera promo stuff for their Titus doesn’t mention Elizabeth DeShong/Sesto at all??? Like why would you ignore one of the MAIN ROLES and how worried shoud this make me?

[raspberryhunter]

On the other hand, the LA Opera promo stuff for Don Carlo, as far as I could tell, was all COME SEE DOMINGO AS RODRIGO, as if Rodrigo was the main character and there were no other important characters...

(I want to hear all about Titus!! I am so bummed I won’t be able to go)

[sigaloenta]

A basic plausibility problem in opera is that – vocal ability being equal – has anyone ever found a tenor’s voice more attractive than that of either the mezzo or the baritone/bass?

[raspberryhunter]

yesssss -- um, but only when the tenor is Ian Bostridge or Anthony Rolfe Johnson, which kind of restricts the range to Baroque opera and Britten. (I, uh, have been mainlining ARJ this last month or so.)

Verdi, yeah, the baritone/bass is always more attractive :P

[reconditarmonia]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

Happy New Year, everyone! Now that reveals have happened, I can share that for this year’s Yuletide, I wrote this massive Turandot-based text adventure game.

[raspberryhunter]

this is pretty great

[parmandil]

Amélie Niermeyer’s Otello at the Bayerische Staatsoper

[raspberryhunter]

All right, you convinced me, I guess I’m gonna try to watch this if I can

https://www.staatsoper.de/en/staatsopertv.html?no_cache=1

[myjetpack]

for New Scientist

[raspberryhunter]

I would totally watch all of these :P

[raspberryhunter]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

Chapters: 1/1 (9649 words) Fandom: Don Carlos | Don Carlo - Verdi/du Locle/Méry Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Carlos/Rodrigue, Rodrigo & Elisabeth, Elisabeth & Eboli, Philip & Rodrigo Characters: Rodrigue | Rodrigo, Élisabeth de Valois | Elisabetta di Valois, La princesse Eboli | La Principessa Eboli, Philippe II | Filippo II, Carlos | Carlo Additional Tags: Fix-It, fix all the things, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Extremely Ahistorical, Save Flanders, Trick or Treat: Treat, Treat, Rodrigo/Flanders, Elisabeth/Philip - Freeform, Carlo/Elisabeth, Loyalty, Trust Summary:

Rodrigo and Elisabeth, Elisabeth and Eboli, Philip and Rodrigo, Carlos and Rodrigo: together, they can strengthen each other; together, they can save the ones they care for.

SO HERE IS LONG (for me) FIX-IT. I FIXED ALL THE THINGS. Gosh, Verdi/du Locle/Mery really made it difficult -- there are so many things working against Our Heroes, and at one point I had this whole list and diagram of all the things that had to be fixed and what order they had to be fixed in because if one didn't do it in the right order it all fell apart.

It's extraordinarily, unrepentantly ahistorical, and I super don't care because Verdi didn't either :D I also did the opera thing of pulling things from Schiller when I felt like it and cheerfully ignoring Schiller when I didn't :)

Thank you to @iberiandoctor and sprocket for very helpful betas!

[raspberryhunter]

So I was kind of holed away pretty much all of October (and not watching any interesting opera either) partially because Kids and Approaching Holidays Aaaargh, but also partially because I was frantically Writing Opera Fic. Here are two out of the three (the third gets its own post ).

The shortest one: "ma confiance fut trompée" (352 words), Don Carlo. Philip is told about the traitor of Flanders. Philip/Rodrigo; tagged "sex makes everything worse," which probably what you need to know about it before reading :D

The next shortest one: "Führt Liebe ihn zur Pflicht "(1681 words), Die Zauberflöte. The last meeting of Sarastro and Pamina's father. Tagged as "Friendship," "Music," and "Canon-typical misogyny." Angst but no bad guys in this fic :) I really like imagining Sarastro and Pamina’s father as best friends, connecting by music. Thank you to sprocket and @justplainsavannahd for beta!

[raspberryhunter]

Hi, I recently got into Don Carlo and I just wanted to ask if you could maybe recommend me some good fanfics (the sadder the better)? Since you seem to be well oriented in that area :D

:D Hi! (I, uh, recently got into Don Carlo too and got completely overwhelmed by it.) To be honest, there isn’t much fanfic for Don Carlo, at least on AO3  (I have no idea whether there is fanfic of it elsewhere). But! I would love to rec my favorites! :D Except I will warn you that my favorites are not super sad (except in context). Hmm, the fic as a whole, now that I’m looking at it, doesn’t tend to skew super sad. Maybe there needs to be more sadfic written? :)

My absolute favorite fic in the fandom is PlinytheYounger’s “The Virgin Soil of the Spirit”:  a younger Carlo has to be saved by Posa (sound familiar?) - one-sided Carlos/Rodrigo - the fic itself is not particularly sad, but it is bittersweet, especially when one knows what happens in canon. Lots of great early-Christianity humor if you like that sort of thing (I do very much, which is part of why it’s my favorite). Very well written.

My second favorite is “Provision for the Flesh” (acaramelmacchiato): from the summary: “Carlos has loved Rodrigo his whole life and no one in this story finds it creepy except him.” One-sided Carlos/Rodrigo, obviously. Pre-canon (up to canon start). Again not overtly sad, but bittersweet.

Since I have written, um, a fifth of the fic in the fandom as of today, I will go ahead and rec my own favorite (and probably most overtly sad too) of my fics: “His noble words revealed to my soul a new world” : a partial fix-it where Rodrigo manages to fix some things after his death by (what else) sending a letter. Gen. Sad, but not quite as sad as canon? Iberiandoctor remixed it : her remix is Philip/Rodrigo and rather sadder (although Philip deserves it).

If you’re looking primarily for sad, the saddest fic in the fandom is probably widevibratobitch’s “Dio che nell'alma infondere amor volesti…” which is a retelling of Rodrigo’s death scene, so, yeah, sad. Carlo/Rodrigo.

(Also, I am about to write a tumblr post on the two Don Carlo fics I just wrote, which may also be of interest to you, one of which is very short but worse than canon, the other of which is blatantly everyone-lives fix-it so maybe less interesting to you, although there is certainly enough angst along the way.) Thanks for the ask! 

[confessions-of-a-cellist]

REBLOG IF YOUR BLOG IS CLASSICAL MUSIC RELATED

please. I need to follow more. my dash is severely lacking in musicy posts

[raspberryhunter]

Some opera fic that got posted recently that some of you might be interested in :) (None of these are mine, although I’m pretty sure I know the authors of all of them. I’ll post about mine in a couple of days.)

Don Carlo(s): https://archiveofourown.org/works/16434131 “The Sorrows of the Earth.” @the-sun-of-rome-is-set, remember when we were talking about what might happen if Rodrigo showed up instead of Carlo V? Well, here you go!

Les Contes d’Hoffmann: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16399625 “Catching the Lark,” Dapertutto and Giulietta. @justplainsavannahd I know you just watched this :)

Eugene Onegin: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16435772 “Coaching the Princess: A Zombie Epilogue in Verse” -- you guys these are in Onegin stanzas, be still my heart! @the-sun-of-rome-is-set it’s all about how awesome Gremin is :D 

[consumptive-sphinx]

Concept: the Silmarillion, in the style of Lemony Snicket

[consumptive-sphinx]

“Stealing, of course, is a crime, and a very impolite thing to do. But like most impolite things, it is excusable under certain circumstances. Stealing is not excusable if, for instance, you are in a workshop and you decide that the Silmarils would look better in your crown, and you simply grab the Silmarils and take them there. But if you were very, very hungry, and you had no way of obtaining money, it would be excusable to grab the Silmarils, take them to your fortress, and eat them.”

[consumptive-sphinx]

“Finrod was an Arafinwean, a word which here means ‘lithe blonde twink who, for some reason, everybody in the entire world except for Celegorm seems to underestimate.’

Curufin was smitten, a word which here means ‘not Celegorm.’”

[consumptive-sphinx]

“Now, “in the dark” is a term meaning that one is not aware of something that is going on, and has very little to do with physical light, or the lack of such a thing. If it is a bright sunny day and you are sitting in a park and you have no idea that buried beneath your picnic spot is a treasure chest then you are in the dark not in the dark, and if it is the dead of night and you are traipsing through the woods and you are entirely aware that you are being followed by a troupe of ballerinas then you are not in the dark in the dark, and if you are sitting at your kitchen table working and you are so intent on your work that you do not even realize night has fallen then you are in the dark about being in the dark in the dark, until you look up and find yourself no longer in the dark about being in the dark in the dark. And immediately after Melkor extinguished the Trees, all of Valinor found itself very comprehensively in the dark.“

[consumptive-sphinx]

“Fingolfin was an optimist, a word which here means ‘attempting to make amends with his half-brother who has just threatened him with a sword.’

Fingolfin was an optimist, a word which here means ‘willing to trust his half-brother to bring him across an ocean in the boats they have just stolen together.’

Fingolfin was an optimist, a word which here means 'about to cross an ice bridge, having previously turned back because such a thing was clearly impossible.’

Fingolfin was an optimist, a word which here means 'about to charge an evil god and stab him with a sword.’

Fingolfin was an optimist, a word which here means 'dead.’”

[consumptive-sphinx]

"If you are allergic to a thing, it is best not to put that thing in your mouth, particularly if the thing is cats, or, in Finrod’s case, werewolves.”

[jillbearup]

Turns out people really like me waffling about Narnia on Twitter.

So here’s a more hopeful spin on Susan Pevensie. (From the author’s pen to your eyeballs.)

[raspberryhunter]

...this makes me feel so much better about Susan. And about C.S. Lewis, for that matter.