prajwalb4u-blog

[supercantaloupe]

tagged by @notyouraveragejulie, ty!

1. are you named after anyone? - a great grandfather, i think. middle name after my father. russian name scheme innit. my hebrew name unsurprisingly comes from the tanakh

2. when was the last time you cried? - last week when my cat passed

3. do you have kids? - ...no?

4. do you use sarcasm a lot? - yeah

5. what sports do you play/have you played? - i was a field hockey goalie for six years. i hate basically every other team sport lol

6. what’s the first thing you notice about other people? - clothes, i guess

7. what’s your eye color? - blue (i know. sorry.)

8. scary movies or happy endings? - happy endings i guess? i don't watch scary movies but i also don't watch many movies period. i prefer a satisfying ending over anything else, whether that means happy or not

9. any special talents? - finding four leaf clovers

10. where were you born? - i'm from the mid atlantic and that's as specific as i'm going to get on a tumblr post.

11. what are your hobbies? - music (listening and creating), writing, drawing, cooking, being weird about theater

12. do you have any pets? - i consider the two cats at home mine still. the dog is my parents, i don't claim her lol. but i also don't live at home full time anymore. my roommate just got a kitten at our apartment tho i'm excited to meet him

13. how tall are you? - 5’5/165 cm

14. favorite subject? - music history

15. dream job? - music preparation/librarian or artistic operations with a professional orchestra or opera company. it would be very cool to be able to perform full time for a job but that's never going to happen

tagging @tragedyposting @yardofblondegirls @grasslandgirl @kingfisherkink @tempestclerics @theresa-of-liechtenstein @malcolm-f-tucker and @nablah if you'd like

[stoportotouch]

for the ship bingo: any combination of the raoul/nevers/valentine/marguérite quartet

all four! why not!

[infinitelytheheartexpands]

good morning, paradise

[opera-shitpost]

You: Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy?

Me: È sogno? o realtà?

[malusienki]

9 People You Want To Get To Know Better

thank you to @notyouraveragejulie for the tag!!! :]

favorite color: any light blues and pinks !

currently rereading: i’m reading opera 101 by fred plotkin

last series: uhhhh does wendigoon’s conspiracy theory iceberg series count…..

sweet, savory, or spicy?: it depends on how i feel but if i had to choose one, savory.

currently working on: details for my oc stories [mainly cecila] and also trying to switch a drama class to french class and failing miserably at it

tagging: just nine of the people i’d love to know more, in no particular order— @mimi-croissant [pretend like we don’t know eachother irl] @bluberimufim @respectablecapers @revedebeatrice @gabriel-shutterson @smile-at-the-stars @ladymacbethgf @chengdu-zone @malcolm-f-tucker

(apologies if you didn’t want to be tagged!! :’] )

[princesssarisa]

As long as people are doing opera preference polls, I may as well contribute.

@leporellian, @supercantaloupe, @tuttocenere, @ariel-seagull-wings, @notyouraveragejulie, @simone-boccanegra

[monstrousgourmandizingcats]

I was tagged by @marzipanandminutiae to name 10 songs I like with names in the title!

"St. Teresa," Joan Osborne

"Morning Elvis," Florence and the Machine

"William Taylor," which is a folk song with a number of variations

"Stagger Lee," another folk song—yes, this is someone's name

"Suzanne," Leonard Cohen (covered beyond belief, but mostly these days the original is listened to)

"Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring," a Bach piece that is only dubiously a song but that I'm including because I got made fun of for listing it as a favorite song in elementary school

"Basil," Mark Knopfler

"Bilitis," Nakamori Akina

"Hello, Minnie," which is an absolutely insane moment from Puccini's infamous (in some circles; said with utmost love for it) yeehaw opera La fanciulla del West. You know that "firing a rifle into the air while balls deep in a squealing hog" Cards against Humanity card? Yeah, that, senza hog, is how this opera INTRODUCES its main soprano.

"Eärendil was a mariner" from The Fellowship of the Ring but specifically the Adele McAllister setting.

Tagging @wedding-shemp @clarascuro @mayasaura @s1mpl1fe @itsallwearecalledtodo @absynthe--minded @stracciatellino @sagebrushed @notyouraveragejulie @staghunters

[socialshakespeare]

Reading 2: Saturday November 18

The second read-through of The Winter's Tale.

(Most of you are double or triple cast, so double check which lines you have to read.) You can look up the lines of the characters here. The names listed below all go with the Folger Edition.

Please submit your confirmation or any request to understudy here. If you’re in any doubt, please ask.

Times and time zones:

EST (US): 2:00 PM CST (US): 1:00 PM MST (US): 12:00 PM PST (US): 11:00 AM GMT (UK): 7:00 PM AEDT (AU): 6:00 AM (Sunday, November 19)

Leader: @cobbled-vibrance

Leontes, Dorcas: @enbymoomin Paulina, Mopsa: @theshakespearetrash Camillo, 1st Lady, Sailor: @hollishasatumblr Polixenes, Cleomenes, Emilia: @lanternheart Autolycus, 2nd Lady: @maveriquemagpie Perdita, Antigonus, 3rd Gentleman: @notyouraveragejulie Hermione, Servant, 2nd Gentleman: @cobbled-vibrance Florizell, Mamillius, 1st Gentleman, Officer: @amysterywrappedinanenigma Shepherd's Son, Dion, Archidamus, Jailer: @shatouto Shepherd, Lord(s), Chorus: @saintrots Understudy: @trashprinceofdenmark

Please submit your confirmation here - liking/reblogging this post does not count!

Read the Guidelines. To avoid the differences between editions that make for confusion and missed cues, please use the Folger edition of The Winter's Tale during the read-through.

Be on time, be prepared, and make sure you know which lines to read. Good luck!

[spghtrbry]

tagged by @malcolm-f-tucker and @notyouraveragejulie :) im always shy abt posting these tag games jlsdfkjlsd idk why.. favorite color: black. green + red

currently reading: im that type of person who reads 23423 books at the same time lol. rn im reading frankenstein and re-reading schiilers wilhelm tell

last song: björk - bachelorette. i am SO NORMAL about this song

last series: the wire

sweet, savory, or spicy? savory...

currently working on: hmm... im going to send a package to my friends in another country and rn im working on it slkdjfljsdkf if it counts

tagging: uh. im just gonna tag my friends😭😭 @ihateornithologists @vitarrf @not-a-21st-century-girl @radrezi @deathbypickles @partyinthemysterymachine

[yurious-george]

Piccrew meme!

Tagged by my lovely mutual @nablah!

Picrew here. Tagging @theoandmoon @smile-at-the-stars @twelvecrumbs @grinningnightmare @the-grollican @notyouraveragejulie @an-aura-about-you @dabwax @randomyetnot @tesstesstesstess @teenyjellyfishy @cute-cotylohrynchus @stars-in-a-jam-jar

Don’t feel obligated. Do it if you find it fun!

[supercantaloupe]

how are you doing?

👍

graduated this morn. had a great lunch out at a nice restaurant w my folks. finally heard back from one of my job apps and they wanna do a phone interview on monday, also i may get a fellowship offer for my old youth orchestra's summer program if there's money for it. my roommate has people over for a grad party but i've just been hiding in the basement since i got home mostly cause my social batteries have been depleted already. bit chilly atm i might grab a blanket

[shredsandpatches]

@notyouraveragejulie sent me this: my sweet midwestern cinnamon bun Michael Spyres singing the only actual aria that Gounod gives the title character in Faust. It is delightful, of course! I don't think Spyres has done a full production of the Gounod version, although he has done the Berlioz numerous times (I was in the chorus for one of them!), and I'd really like to see that because I think his natural ability to be sympathetic and adorable would lend some interesting depths to Gounod's shallow-fuckboy take on the character.

(also he should totally reunite with John Relyea for it because they were both in the Berlioz performance I was in and had fantastic chemistry)

[infinitelytheheartexpands]

decided on a whim to take a side trip to the closest state park, 10/10 would do again

[theresa-of-liechtenstein]

@keepthemacramesecret tagged me which reminded me that i was also tagged by @cjflint to post the first 9 photos that show up when i search [name]core on pinterest! i have a board called ‘emcore’ already but i actually did the search lol

tagging @sircarolyn, @stoppablethetramstory, @malcolm-f-tucker, @supercantaloupe, @leporellian, @notyouraveragejulie, @smile-at-the-stars, and @dreamofpeppermints (no pressure, of course)

[malusienki]

shuffle your 'on repeat' playlist and post the first ten tracks, then tag ten people! thanks to @theresa-of-liechtenstein for the tag :]

i have a playlist that i dump all songs into so i’ll be using that. i have playlists that are sorted by like. genre/vibe though. so.

“cinque.. dieci.. venti..” from le nozze di figaro

hollywood by marina (the not single version)

venus flytrap by marina

scheiße by lady gaga

reneducation by okilly dokilly

oh. uh. the um. ancient mesopotamia rap. by mr. nicky

zwariowana noc by daj to głosniej

adieux de l’hôtesse arabe sung by lisette oropesa

g.u.y by lady gaga

mama’s boy by dominic flake

no pressure tags sorry it’s not 10 people but uhh!! @mimi-croissant @notyouraveragejulie @essaytime @gabriel-shutterson and uhh anyone else who wants to tbh!

[princesssarisa]

The staging of death is always important. Since I made a poll some time ago about the different stagings of Don Giovanni's doom, I thought I'd make a similar poll for the other most famous "seductive" character in opera. Of course there's not as much wild variety for the staging of Carmen's death as for Don Giovanni's, because she's just murdered, not supernaturally dragged to hell. But directors have still found ways to be creative.

It's interesting that while the libretto's stage directions call for Carmen to try to escape from José's knife, far more productions have her accept her fate. I suppose this is because in Prosper Mérimée's original book, she accepts her fate and doesn't try to escape. Yet the opera's librettists wrote that their Carmen was different in some ways from Mérimée's Carmen – they weren't trying to write a direct page-to-stage translation. Personally, I think it works either way. It makes sense for a person as strong-willed as Carmen to struggle to survive to the very end, despite the fate she read in the cards, but it also makes sense for her to bravely accept her fate and die with dignity rather than give up her freedom.

That said, I also like Sir Peter Hall's third option from his Glyndebourne staging with Maria Ewing, where she calmly crosses the stage toward the bullring, past José, still wanting to live but resigned with dignity to whatever José chooses to do.

I also like the staging from the first production I ever saw onstage, which I've also seen in a few YouTube videos, which is Option #5: José draws his knife and Carmen calmly offers him her chest, but then he can't bring himself to stab her, and she laughs at him and starts to walk toward the bullring... only for José to finally snap, run after her, and stab her after all.

I think the few stagings that have Carmen and José's movements explicitly mirror a bullfight are interesting too, especially because they vary in which character is the toreador and which is the bull.

As for the suicidal Carmens in the last two options... I'm not sure. I think it would work best in a production which made it clear that Carmen wasn't happy being constantly chased by men and having to use her sexuality to get by. She would have to realize that her only way to be completely free is to die. In that light, I might approve of a suicidal staging because it gives Carmen more agency over her fate. But at the same time, it might whitewash José's character too much by reducing his ultimate guilt.

I look forward to seeing how people vote on this subject!

@simone-boccanegra, @paexgo-rosa, @supercantaloupe, @notyouraveragejulie, @leporellian, @ariel-seagull-wings