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I finally got around to making an actual copy of Silent Opera, and I think it turned out really good!! Almost looks like a real book 👌
And also the bonus of seeing Dear Fellow Traveller and Silent Opera side by side and seeing how much THICKER Opera is, is just absolutely nuts.
I don't even know what my top albums of the year are, but here are some I discovered this year that I really liked, so that I don't come across as ONLY a hater. Linking my fav track, or one of my fave tracks, on YT every time.
Molllust - Mother Universe (A glimmer of hope in the irradiated wasteland that is symphonic metal at present. Also one of the four female-LED metal bands I know. Like with a female composer! Such wow!)
Knights of Heliopolis - Ferrum Fero Ferro Ferror (ditto about the hope thing. Also they have an operatic bass frontman and holyyyyy shiiiit that is the best thing ever! I keep fangirling about this band but they used to be called "Phoebus the Knight", so that's the tag that's in.)
Nostra Morte - Sin Retorno (A flicker of light from the NON-wasteland that symph was 12 years ago)
Silent Opera - Immortal Beauty (ditto. Oh how I wish for soothing rain and some fucking OPERA VOCALS in the fucking OPERA GENRE. Why is symph metal full of COWARDS and CASUALS? I know I sound like Holden Caulfield, but that's because he's right and my role model.)
Nanowar - Dislike to False Metal (Power Metal, Nanowar being awesome as usual. I link perhaps one of their less surprising songs bc I'm a sucker for that Rhapsody stuff but plz listen to the whole album, it also has tracks like this - great variety really, and greater wtf! I gently pat Gatto's head and wonder what he will do next, clearly he's called Cat for a reason.)
Elina Garanca - Habanera (These are just some famous arias, but her voice is really nice! Dark-voiced mezzo-sopranos rule the world!)
Snowy Shaw - White is the New Black (I have been listening to this so much lately. Somehow I always ignored his solo work after the Notre Dame stuff except for some of his singles, but this album is actually really really cool! I don't know which genre it is lol. Metal Archives says "Heavy Metal", but that doesn't really describe it so well. Snowy has a lot of personality, and so does his music. Just click! You may not even regret it!)
Wolfenmond - Can't pick an album... Galdra (EP!) I guess. Folk metal or medieval rock with a woman who doesn't get forced to sound cute.
Grendel's Sÿster - Myrtenkranz Heavy metal / folk metal with a woman who REALLY doesn't get forced to sound cute. As SATW said, women should be respected, but sister Germany should be feared. Damn straight. This is an EP, same music first in English, then in German.
Kornalyn - Intemporel (French acoustic folk, revolutionary communist and anarchist songs. This guy is a folk song recording MACHINE and I like almost everything he releases.)
Therion - Leviathan 3 (I still wrestle with this album. A lot! I also know from past experience that in retrospect I'm more likely to regret not including it than I am including it.)
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I also watched like 20 operas this year in an attempt to be a little less of a poser in the genre. I don't know which I would recommend the most. Wagner's "Die Walküre" touched me the most, both in terms of story and of pure epicness of the music. Kinda wiped the floor with everything else :/ It seems Wagner is the only one in opera who isn't shit at plots. Lohengrin also had a good story! Vivaldi's "Juditha Triumphans" (not technically an opera but an oratorio, but really I don't care, it's basically an opera) and Bizet's "Carmen" (I'm not linking that, there are 8945098340 good recordings, just find one that looks appealing to you) had the most pleasant music.
I also liked Alessandro nell‘Indie by Leonardo Vinci (no relation). I link my favourite scene. Don't worry about the lack of English subs, the plot is 4 hours of soap opera. They did a very traditional staging of this, like back in 1730, which means it's all countertenors and sopranists, half in drag. Thus it pairs nicely with the all-female Vivaldi one above. Back when women were real men who led armies and men had fake boobs or danced under falling rose petals singing about love, LIKE GOD INTENDED! TRADITIONAL VALUES!
Varigo Week: Future
“Just give it time,” he assures. Right. Time. He could do that. They had all the time in the world, now.”
I may be a day late, but @littlemisslol-fic ‘s Silent Opera is an absolute masterpiece and I think about it everytime I close my eyes
I cannot thank you enough for bringing this fic into existence
@littlemisslol-fic silent opera chapter 16: an incomplete summary
Congrats to the fabulous @littlemisslol-fic for completing another banger of a fic!!! If you haven’t already go read Silent Opera!! And as tradition dictates in celebration of completing this masterpiece I come bearing a silent opera themed meme!!
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
you’ve heard of the Silent Opera? get ready for the SAD Opera
(aka the angsty drabble fic i wrote months ago for @littlemisslol-fic as an au where Hugo misses his chance and Landis and Varian get married. Mind the tags kids she short but she a gut punch)
Hope you don't mind me asking more questions about it, but, we're there any aspects of Socria (culture, government, climate, ect) that you came up with and thought about, but didn't have reason to write in? (And secondary question, does Landis have a specific age? I only recall he was "a year or two older than Hugo"). Apologies, my Tangled hyperfixation returned in full force xD
SHIT IM SO SORRY THIS IS LATE (i moved this week so I have been Offline as fuck)
And yeah!! I have a few that never made it in, just little things that got left behind when a "the gang goes to Socria" plot thread ended up dropped (too complicated, dragged the third act into boring territory).
Basically in my head Socria is a lot like fantasy-Russia, wherein they struggle a lot with colder climate and the supply issues that come with that. Socria in turn has a history of invading other bordering countries to try and get some of that sweet sweet farming land/freshwater that isnt frozen/etc, and that's why everyone kinda low-key doesn't trust them for shit.
Their current king, Landis' uncle, is kind of trying to turn their shit around on the international stage by encouraging trade and offering a lot of new deals with other countries to try and wave a big green "I PROMISE WE'RE NORMAL NOW" flag, to mixed results. Socria is a country that values personal might over everything else, so the idea of playing nice with the neighbors is a little dividing (and Landis himself fucking haaaaates the idea, which is why he's so set on winning the Halistude and earning kingship).
WHICH SPEAKING OF: In my head Socria is split into a handful of provinces, currently ruled by Sevim (Landis' dad) and his brothers/sisters. The largest is Kaivell, which traditionally goes to the oldest son (in this case Sevim), and is the southern most part of the country. I never did name the others but I was going to have about 4, including the Capitol city which kind of runs as its own city-state.
So long story short is that Landis' dad/aunts/uncles all have their provinces, and that's what they're normally in charge of, but when the king/queen dies all the 18+ members of the youngest generation (in this case Landis and his cousins) all roll up and duke it out for the right to rule, which is the Halistude. It's mostly just a tournament, fighting, jousting, etc, but it does have a section for war planning, tactics, and a lil state craft. Essentially Socria is a "earn your place" kinda system, so though Landis is still a nepo baby if he wants to move up hes gotta win.
This is also why theres a looooong ass history in Socria of a royal family actually keeping in power. Theyre one of the oldest ruling families, because unlike "first son rules" systems there is no guaranteed outcome when a ruler dies, so they really don't have much of a reason to turn on each other until the Halistude actually hits. All the drama is saved for one week every few decades 😂
Socria imo is a very feast-or-famine kinda history, depending on how whatever war they're in was going. Like if they'd just invaded some country and annexed a bunch of farmland? Hell ya we're doing great!! Lost a pivotal trade passage? Fuck we're gunna die. Lotta high-highs and low-lows.
Fenrir (Landis' uncle/current king) wants to establish a more solid, consistent future through trade and commerce, mainly with mining. Socria has a shitton of mines but they've never really gotten into the export game since moving all that shit was a logistical nightmare. I'm thinking that "modern" (for tts) technology, especially cargo shipping, has advanced to where exporting heavy materials long distances is becoming more feasible.
Also Landis is like 23/24, so not that much older but enough that he's out of the frat bro era and into his nepobaby-working-at-dads-company arc.
I think thats all I got lol, I tend to think of a lot of my worldbuilding on the fly so sorry if this is mostly "just vibes" level of information fjgjdjf hope it helped!!
just so you know the silent opera drives me insane i think about it five times a day even though im barely part of the fandom anymore
SCREAMS AHHHH thank you!! That's so good to hear omg, that fic was a labor of love so I'm so happy to know it's still sparking joy even after so long 💕💕 IM SMOOCHING UR FACE
