#k misc

[chlorophanes]

four non-selfie photos from your camera roll! tagged by @exitvelocities, tagging @datubooty, @kyleraiyner, @vechter & anyone else who would like to do it!

[chlorophanes]

i will always have a soft spot for tosca because of the memories i associate with seeing it, but also i think scarpia has one of the juiciest (?) & evilest "i want" songs... like look at these lyrics — illanguidir con spasimo d'amor... (illanguidir is such a 🤌 word choice...) "tosca, you make me forget god!" he exclaims, amid a choir singing te deum...

imo the most well-interpreted scarpias are shocked when the choir interrupts — remembering at last where he is, the sacrilege he has committed, the confession he has made in whose house, within whose omnipresent hearing — & yet he joins the choir to finish the prayer...!! i always enjoy when tosca stabs scarpia (most often with a crucifix...) while shouting her own name — asserting her will & personhood, but in my heart it's also so it'll be ringing in his ears when he goes to hell 😊

[chlorophanes]

dick, donna, roy?

in balanchine's serenade there is a segment (~22:38 in linked video) where The Man walks onstage locked in The Dark Angel's embrace — his eyes covered by her hands; his own outstretched, groping through the dark — & The Dark Angel leads him to the crumpled form of The Waltz Girl; The Dark Angel's arms extend as wings, The Man's arms descend, The Waltz Girl's arms rise... this position is later revisited & modified (~28:26) such that it evokes canova's famous sculpture of cupid revived by psyche's kiss

anyway: this, to me, is the essence of dick, donna, roy: dick & donna, like inosculated trees — wonder twins, twin wonders; mirror, foil, reflected light, in conversation even as one is above, the other below; roy's dark angels, parenthetical valves of a shell, blood & breath, chambers of his psychosexual heart

[chlorophanes]

what i would give to hear hilary hahn play sibelius violin concerto in d minor live

[chlorophanes]

absolutely obsessed with modern vice boots right now

[chlorophanes]

saw the frankenstein ballet this past weekend & jasmine jimison is truly one of my favorite dancers of all time... i've seen her in several ballets before/after she was promoted to principal (giselle, swan lake, manon) & she is such a consummate character actress on top of having just the most beautiful, luxurious rubato/legato quality, yet incredible speed when she needs it... as elizabeth she has this enchanting delicacy/ballón, like a little bird, that i prefer to just about every other (recorded) adaptation i've seen — she's so sweet, & loving, & generous with her love, compared to the more measured elizabeths, who are kind & caring but absolutely, unmistakably "ladies of the house" first, very genteel, more reserved than this careless, effusive wellspring of joy — the perfect counterbalance to victor's obsessive nature... it is so much easier for me to believe that the creature wants to be jimison's elizabeth, who embraces justine fully, who envelopes victor in her warmth, who touches his face so gently, than the elizabeth who walks through the world with a lady's gait & sense of propriety

[chlorophanes]

thinking always about giselle the ballet & narratives of doom — narratives that doom... what causes doom? what makes doom "inevitable"?

i think it is a popular present-day interpretation to view giselle's doom as a manifestation of an inner friability or the proclivities ("weaknesses") of her gender, as per misogynist social conventions — but giselle's doom is also bound to (if not caused by) class dynamics & the social pressures therein... that is, one cannot forget that giselle is a peasant maid, & albrecht a titled nobleman. it's not just albrecht's deceit that's scandalous: it's who he is, & who she isn't.

compare giselle to the 1777-78 ballet ninette a la cour, wherein peasant maid ninette also finds herself the object of a king's affections — but rather than reciprocate his affections, ninette reaffirms her class status: she successfully diverts the king's attention to a suitable comtesse, while ninette herself marries her peasant boyfriend colas.

why doesn't ninette die? — she has vested her heart in a man of appropriate station. giselle hasn't & doesn't, despite hilarion's willingness & availability; & so giselle must die, if her heart cannot be swayed, for order to be maintained. the existence of giselle's (socially disruptive) love is itself impossible, in that it cannot be consummated: not in the christian sense, as she cannot be wed to albrecht as he is already engaged; & not in the dynastic sense, for even if albrecht weren't engaged, the marriage would be morganatic, meaning that any children would be excluded from the line of succession among other inheritance rights. it's no coincidence that giselle reminds albrecht to be faithful to bathilde before she ascends to heaven — that is your duty (to bathilde, to your blueblooded lineage); that is your place, & this is mine.

(hilarion is a "window dressing" character in the sense that his narrative purpose isn't immediately apparent, but i think he serves two quite important functions: 1) to demonstrate that giselle has an appropriate non-albrecht option, whom she spurns; 2) to demonstrate albrecht's fate should giselle—not albrecht—fail the spiritual test of defying myrtha... more on #2 later probably)

[chlorophanes]

never thought i would want to make a sideblog but now i am extremely considering making one to post pics of my cats' cute little feets. and the user would be some variant of pussyfootin'