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deafeningwizardsquare · 8 months

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I AM HERE

Well I finally finished my Orion x Murphy art that I started like 3 weeks ago, I procrastinated on making it a little, cause I was scared it won’t turn out good, but I think it actually looks nice at the end ^^ I had this idea that Orion took Murphy for his first flight, idk if that would actually work but the idea was cute :} I dedicate this piece to all the Orion x Murphy shippers (which is me and 3 other people in this fandom) and to my lovely friend @deafeningwizardsquare <333

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deafeningwizardsquare · 9 months

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@beckmessering you summoned me and I am here.

About the Italian opera...

The language used for most of the Italian opera is the vulgar...Mostly.

It was unified much later on in history than the born of the opera, but to summarise a little bit this complex situation what they used on a stage wasn't what you would find on a street, and between intellectuals there was mostly two factions: the purists (like cardinal Bembo, and if we go way much back we can can say it all started with the Humanists and Petrarca, which ironically became famous writing and Italian vulgar instead of is beloved Latin.), who used mostly Latin and tried to incorporate a large part of the language in the vulgar and the innovators.

The camerata dei bardi (fun fact: Galileo Galilei's father was one of the members) in Florence traditionally started the Genre of the melodramma, with only one objective: making the Greek tragedies live again through the same language, the same structure and the same playing roles,

For example- in L'Orfeo, Monteverdi plays a lot with basic principles of platonic philosophy, uses more naturalistic figures and if only copyright was a thing Dante Alighieri's heirs would probably be rich, since some parts are copied from the Divine Comedy.

The whole "Vi ricorda oh boschi ombrosi" gives you that impression. EVen the message is the quintessential of greek pessimism so go for it!

Now, take all this speech and trew it on the fire with l'Incoronazione di Poppea when there is no moralism at all but it establish Italian composers favourite occupation.

Taking words from Latin, still going and strong in vulgar and re-using them ON LOOP.

Three examples used quite a lot that will give you an idea:

Numi means gods, lights but also EYES (mostly of a pretty lady);

Imbelle means incapable of begin serious and comes from bellum- war;

Pugnare from Latin...Pugnare, which means to fight but incredibly aulic.

Not to mention the reused formulas like "idolo mio", "maggior mi fa", "perfida gelosia" ecc...

Rossini for istance takes a lot from french, since he arrived in an historical period were the language was contaminated thanks to the spreading of French in the past century. (To indicate a thing that is incredibly dumb, he uses the word bagatella. Plus, especially for his opera buffa, he uses an overly exaggerated quantity of disguises since it is a trope that the ancient Romans like oh so much, Plauto docet)

Verdi works more on the morals of the defeated, thus using a language more clear but overall very poetic. Plus, no politics, no party.

There is just an opera for everyone: if you feel like going to India just because of a very rudimentary Trivago system, watch "Alessandro and Indie", "l'Orlando" or "Artaserse vince", if you want to see a glassarmonica in action "Lucia di Lammermoor" will work just as fine.

But overall, I would suggest:

1) Il barbiere di Siviglia (overrated? Nah. Just find a very good production- aka the Abbado's one- and it will five you a nice time with memorable arias)

2) Turandot (one of the greatest opera ever written. Trust this post).

3) La Cenerentola (Rossini n.2 and rich of great scenes, humor and find a very good production- aka the Abbado's one- with one of the best basso buffo ever, Paolo Montarsolo;

4) L'Orfeo (Vi ricorda oh boschi ombrosi. Just saying)

5) La Norma (beautiful orchestration and moving plot)

6) La serva padrona (proto- parent of the opera buffa)

7) Aida;

8) Il trovatore;

Hope this was helpful! :D

Hey, new to your blog and to opera, and first of all I want to thank you for sharing all your informative, comprehensive and entertaining takes with us. Theatre fandom is so much richer for it! Secondly, I wondering if I might trouble you for some resource recommendations and some advice r.e. understanding opera technically and artistically as a newcomer to the genre. Myself, I only have highschool/College rudimentary orchestral (flute) skills and sadly cannot write music, sightread or sing well (would love to and have tried in the past to teach myself, but it's very difficult and hasn't...really taken well), so while I enjoy so much of the opera music to which I've been exposed, I feel so much is going over my head. What's more, though I have a theatre degree and poetry qualifications, my background is more performance Art and modern non-musical stage, so again I feel I'm missing so much nuance as I take in opera and the glitzy mad world around it. One of my tentative goals is to one day write a libretto, so it's important to me to figure it all out, however I know this will potentially be a long process. The podcasts Opera After Dark and Aria Code have helped somewhat with my understanding, but more knowledge and simpler breakdowns can only help more. Am interested in particular to know how you'd approach educating someone in opera, as you are so well-versed. In about a month I'm going to a screening of Rheingold, which is very much the scary deep end for me (I'm a fluffy French opera fan), so I'd like to go in forearmed haha. Thank you so much for reading and for your content, looking forward to the new season!

hey hey! first of all, sorry for taking half a century to respond to this ask - this is so sweet of you to say, i'm really touched 🥹

about the advice - first, to all the opera friends who see this, feel free to reblog with your own advice and ideas! i don't feel like the most qualified advice giver (lol) because for much of my knowledge, i don't quite remember how i got it. i played classical piano for twelve years, but i never "properly" studied operas anywhere, so most of my learning is and was autodidactic. i think i spent a lot of time on the internet reading interviews with my favourite singers. i also once joined an opera club/society at my university, where i learned more about practical aspects of rehearsals and performing. if you have the chance, going to any kind of open rehearsal is also great to learn about how music, staging, and acting end up together. then, it kind of depends on what you specifically want to discover about the operas you hear, whether it's music theory or aspects of stagings, etc.

i think i can say a bit, though, about how to approach a first-time rheingold (or a first-time wagner?). the most important thing is: the veil of seriousness that seems to surround wagner operas does not exist. at least it doesn't exist for me. it can be no less funky and fun than any other kind of opera. especially rheingold.

it depends a bit from which side you're more prone to approaching something: if you enjoy analysing music to get closer to it or if you feel you have to get closer to it first in order to want to analyse it. i am of the second type, which means i try to drop all worries before going to see something new and approach it with a "yeehee fun!!" mindset. something i find extremely worthwhile in wagner operas, especially because the words and the story are so old, is putting yourself in the characters' shoes and treating them as if they were real people. this helps if you tend to look at everything through the emotional lens - feeling emotionally close to the story in some way, either through understanding the relationships or properly relating, can help with appreciating the music and developing an understanding of why it was written this way. i'm no huge music analyst by choice myself, though, i have to admit. however, rheingold specifically is a very fun opera because it illustrates its own setting quite nicely with the music - there's a lot of atmosphere in the music and there's a lot of tone painting going on, like music that sounds like diving through a river, giant threatening footfalls, sounds of a smithy, and such. several of these reappear multiple times throughout the opera, so one thing i enjoyed playing around with while and after my first ring cycle was this playlist:

it has all the ring leitmotifs the heart desires and it's quite fun to play auditory bingo with them - you can either listen before you go or afterwards and then check out a recording.

as you were in orchestra, perhaps buying/borrowing a score and reading along would also be an option for you? i do this only for the works that really, really interest me, but i feel it does wonders for the amount of things i hear in the music, especially for wagner, because sometimes you can recognise motifs by sight on the page first and then you actually hear them better. i'd suggest doing this after the screening, though, if you liked it.

i'm not sure if this advice is any good, lmao - if you have any more questions, absolutely don't hesitate to be in touch! :) hope that rheingold goes well (which one will you be seeing, btw?) and i'd be curious to find out your opinion at the end!! :D

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deafeningwizardsquare · 9 months

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So it is the day of the update and I am honestly happy like a child? I grew up with Hogwarts Mystery and to see them becoming adults with me is insane.

...Yes, drawings are coming :D

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deafeningwizardsquare · 9 months

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There are two kinds of Slytherins: