#wagnerian rock

[caroloftheshells]

long post re theory pedagogy again

the other thing about that vid (and another thing! lol) being that hierarchically a lot of the people doing the more interesting or out-there research and diversifying the field from a content perspective (and, tbh, demographically) are like grad students or early-career people who don’t even necessarily have any pedagogical flexibility & tend to be slotted in to teach lower-level theory courses-- whose outcomes are predetermined not only by general screwy nasm strictures but by whatever the professor down the line in the curriculum is teaching / expects people to know when they get there. and we get paid (much) less also than tenured professors. which is really a generic “thing about all academia” that doesn’t necessarily become a nefarious personal flaw on the part of said scholars and instead ought to be addressed at a structural level bc the scale of the issue exceeds individual instructors’ spheres of influence.

BUT music occupies such a fucked “totally separate from society” space in many ppl’s imaginations that it’s like oh man how dare it have the same issues as every other field of scholarship bc it shouldn’t “really” be a matter of scholarship in the first place. ie music is culturally rendered a “nothing matters just feel it” / “everything is ephemeral and there is only Innate Talent and nothing can be taught” sort of field such that any intellectualizing thereof &/or suggestion of learnabilty / non-innateness is deemed, like, boring & regressive by some people & i’d say especially people raised with a certain awareness of the “composer-genius” culture of wam education. like i’m completely on the “fuck partwriting parallel fifths are awesome” train as a matter of taste (for example) but that does not mean that learning what parallel fifths are-- and why some old european guys didn’t like them *bc they preferred it to sound like there was more than one voice and it’s easier to create that perceptually w/o an overtone effect* (eg)-- is going to like destroy your artistic Essence and make you a worse musician bc now you’re no longer an empty vessel put on this earth to channel brahms or whoever. & plus i think perpetuating the synonymizing of theory-as-field with wam harmonic rules not only is like factually misrepresentative of current research but also is sort of a self fulfilling prophesy such that ppl who would otherwise have completely fascinating things to say & questions to ask are discouraged from non-platitudinous & open-ended (theoretical) inquiry re the content and aims of their own rep & listening, and tacitly learn that composers’ ~~genius~~ descended from the heavens & you either get it or you don’t, you either “have talent” as a composer or you don’t, et cetera

[freddielurkury]

Love Of My Life - Queen in Toronto (Oct. 8, 2024)

when i tell you i was sobbing..... the show was visually stunning, brian fumbled killer queen, adam came in a whole tone too high on the show must go on, weird space-dvorak reference but very cool (definitely wanna ask brian to elaborate on his space colonialism hyperfixation), EXPLOSIONS used as rhythmic accents. roger can't really handle the car fucker song anymore and tie your mother down was an extremely weird countrycore first verse but hey. do what u want man it's not like ur losing any money at this point. anyways im saying all this as a fan of Bad Queen the shit was camp and they owned it

we were blessed by the vocal ghost of freddie mercury and it was pretty nice to play EEEEEO with him and then get told fuck you :) what a brat

i had the cheapest tickets and this older lady next to me was blocking her ears whenever i sang along.... bestie they are amplified to the max, they specifically asked the crowd to sing along and their arena-rock work is specifically written to facilitate that. go sit through 3 hours of boring wagnerian antisemitism if you wanna sit absolutely still and quiet for an entire performance...

[natromanxoff]

The Sun - April 11, 1986

(x)

Queen’s Freddie is still king

ISN'T FREDDIE MERCURY extraordinary? To look at, he's a walking disaster area. Those teeth! That hair!

And he wears the most tasteless clothes imaginable.

Remember that white silk leotard and those dreadful leather numbers — shirts constantly open to the navel, exposing an appalling hairy chest like some down-market Greek waiter?

And then there's that voice! For years he's been making grand, operatic, pretentious records packed with drama, choirs, grandeur and passion. His songs are composed videos like Wagnerian epics — and his videos outdo each other every time.

They must cost millions, with casts of a thousand extras, most of them dressed in costumes every bit as vile as Freddie's.

I mean, we are talking serious over-the-top here.

But it works! More than that, it works wonderfully.

Queen produce some of the finest, wittiest, most imaginative rock and roll around, and their latest smash, A Kind Of Magic, is no exception.

I think it's all because Freddie keeps his sense of humour. He doesn't take himself seriously at all — except as a rock 'n' roller.

And that's the key. He never lets his music lose its solid foundation.

He's one of the few British stars making great, gutsy, raunchy records that sound original and individual all at the same time.

All hail to Freddie Mercury, the reigning king — and Queen — of British rock!

[Photo caption: Freddie… over-the-top magic]

[bracketsoffear]

My submission that didn't get selected: "She wakes up to the chirping of the birds and hears only a song of mourning. She strides into the daylight sun and sees only the dark cloud before every silver lining. She smells the sizzle of bacon, the aroma of coffee and thinks only of the decay of dead animals and vegetation. Threnody has sung her song of misery in minor refrains since her childhood was young, but now that she is an adult, her Wagnerian opus - her glorious song of despair - has yet to rock the world. She begins to sense it, little by little, the coming of the plague - the bell chimes of the dead ringing in her ears. Every day she draws her knees a little closer to her chest, a soft hot breath of fear whistles through her lips. And when Threnody is given the chance to sing, the world will hear her shriek - and the world will know my legacy lives on - as mutantkind dies about them." - A direct description of the X-Men character Threnody, a woman tormented by the voices of the dead & dying she must absorb pain & suffering from. At one point she begins to euthanize the terminally ill & creates a zombie army. (It's part of a VERY badly thought-out addiction metaphor so I just wanna give her a day in the Sun)

.

[jaymint404]

The controversies of Meatloaf the person aside, Meatloaf the music is fuckin broken as shit. I haven't listened to every single song from the Bat out of Hell trilogy but "I Would Do Anything For Love" just. Scratches an itch for me that I didn't know I had. It's like a song made for a soundtrack to a movie that does not exist. Like a stage play, which I learned was on purpose because Meatloaf the man (Michael Aday) was a stage performer and the first Bat Out of Hell album was made FOR a play. Jim Steinmann, the producer, invented a whole new genre of rock to describe those albums: Wagnerian Rock, which is a combination of 19th century opera and rock n roll at the time. We had to INVENT A GENRE just to show us how fucking mental Meatloaf could be. It's one of my mom's favorite singers and she's fucking right.

[catsvrsdogscatswin]

Hellsing Commentary 4 Notes

This commentary is done by Taliesin Jaffe, the voice director and script adapter of Hellsing, Kari Wahlgren, the voice of Rip van Winkle, and Ralph Lister, the voice of Walter Dornez. Direct quotes may vary in accuracy, as these are written down from audio without transcripts. I also didn't write down every joke or piece of trivia because I feel like people who watch the commentaries should get to have some nice surprises for stuff that isn't covered here.

-Ralph calls the opening music of OVA 4 "beautiful, almost Wagnerian." Kari agrees, and Taliesin says that "this is my favorite music for any of the four volumes that we've had -actually, including the original series so far."

-Amidst a discussion about how all the blood in this episode is "totally ketchup," Kari comments that she heard they used to use Bosco in the old black-and-white movies, which makes Taliesin laugh. "I'm just imagining John Wayne covered in chocolate syrup, that image will haunt me until I get home."

-Kari has worked with Crispin multiple times, playing both siblings and love interests, before Hellsing and Crispin has gotten "some very strange emails about that relationship." She states for the record that they are neither of these things in real life.

-Taliesin asked Kari to give him "something kinda Hamill-y" (as in Mark Hamill) in the audition, and tells her "you took that so far beyond, uh..."

-OVA 4 was in production for the longest time that Taliesin had worked on anything, with several months between when Ralph and Kari recorded. The episode was also the most with reoccurring roles, so "wrangling everybody back" played a large part in that.

-Kari has to close her eyes when Heinkel kills the bishop, though she opens them in time to see the title logo.

-The queen was listed as "Queen" in the script, which they eventually had to go back and rename as "Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II" because her VA said it felt really awkward just looking at "queen."

-During the corresponding scene, Ralph asks "Do you think, uh, Alucard is hitting on the queen? It's a bit fresh, isn't it?" and Taliesin answers that "I think- I actually get the feeling that they shagged. I get the feeling that they definitely shagged." Kari says "I'm going to second that." Taliesin jokes that "I think he's been hitting her once a decade for the last, like, seven decades. What would that be, a decadal booty call? Once every ten years...someone comes to call."

-Taliesin had "a couple little boys read for Schrodinger, we had a couple of young girls, and we finally- Laura Bailey kinda came in and sort of had the right...silly for the character." He also got "one of my favorite pieces of hate mail" about Schrodinger, with a fan angrily telling him (due to the commentary in OVA 1) that Schrodinger was a little boy and not a cat.

-Kari gets "very scared" by the scene where the Major has the defeatists eaten, despite having seen it before, and calls upon her happy place. "Little House on the Prairie! Mary and Laura, rolling down a hill!" Taliesin laughs and asks if that's her happy place. Kari says it is and "whenever I watch something really super violent, that is kinda what, uh, what I think about in the back of the brain."

-According to Taliesin, in Hellsing Ultimate Millennium has the actual SS ranks and not the normal military Nazi rankings. He goes on to say "I spent about three months meeting very questionable people to buy expensive books." when doing his research for the show.

-Ralph states that Alucard "has such groovy hair, its rockstar hair." Taliesin agrees and says it's very glam rock.

-Ralph says that he began voiceacting in Hong Kong for commercials, made a demo tape in New Orleans before he went to LA, and realized that he could "do all sorts of character work as well, using my stage skills."

-Taliesin very seriously asks Hellsing cosplayers to "leave the swastikas off of it. That's all I ask. Do the rest of it, just replace it- be creative, put a Mickey Mouse logo there, put a soup- you can be a soup Nazi, just not a real Nazi."

-Ralph says that he doesn't have "any kind of problem" with female fans cosplaying Walter and idly comments "he would look great in a dress."

-Kari says that the song (Das Engellandlied) that she sang while approaching the ship was very tricky to learn, because she had to learn the tune and get the words right in German, and "it's such a catchy song, and I would catch myself out in public kind of...humming or whistling this song, and you can't do that in public with a Nazi drinking song."

-Taliesin had a similar moment to Kari wherein he was at a coffeehouse calling one of the sound mixers, and he had to shout very loudly over the crowd "'No, no I know I gave you six “Sieg heil”s -just one “Sieg heil!” One “Sieg heil!” No, no, one “Sieg heil!” You did- no, five “Sieg heil”s, ju- just “Sieg heil,” one big “Sieg heil!” That's right! One! One “Sieg heil!”' And it went on for like two minutes, and then I hung up that phone and very quietly took my laptop and left the coffeehouse for the day."

-Taliesin comments that Kari is "very scary in this" as Rip van Winkle. Kari agrees and says that Rip is "so crazy," with one of her favorite moments being the "Dirty limey" line. Taliesin says "it's the little girl voice. Because I, we really tried -and I don't know if we made this clear enough when we were recording, but I really was trying to set you up as a sort've fairy-tale Little Red Riding Hood character...fairy-tale children can be pretty evil and malicious. And downright cannibalistic, occasionally. So she sort've is a fairy-tale little girl."

-Kari agrees with Taliesin and says that the poetry (the tinker/tailor/soldier sailor stuff) that Rip said "added such a creepy element to the whole thing." Taliesin says it gives weight to Rip's later moments, when she isn't "screaming or freaking out, she's just whimpering, she's really- its like a little girl's reaction." Kari says that the "almost-voiceless whine" was what freaked her out the most.

-Taliesin layered a cannon sound into Rip van Winkle's gunshots that was not present in the original Japanese.

-Through laughter, Taliesin says that they "had a lot of fun recording this, as you can imagine" about the scene with Integra feeding Seras her blood. "Especially since this scene made Katie very uncomfortable and made Victoria laugh very very hard." Taliesin goes on to say that they had "Kiss it" and "Lick it" as alternative lines for when Integra encourages Seras, but chose "Kiss it" as "Lick it" seemed vulgar.

-Taliesin re-states, "Yeah, its vampires, vampires are all about -I'm sure I've said this on commentaries before: vampires are all about, uh, sexual repression. They are demons of sexual repression, because every vampire story we have usually involves whatever sexual taboo of the time...the very first, Dracula, the story was all about the fear of Eastern Europeans coming in and ravaging good English women, he was with the big mustache and (cartoonish Slavic accent) 'The sexual proudness of the East,' and then after that we had In a Glass Darkly, which was all lesbianism, and then we had Interview with a Vampire, which was, uh, homosexuality and pedophilia, and- yeah, they're always- whatever sexual deviance of the time is there, that's usually what they gravitate towards."

-Taliesin comments on the fan theory (current at the time of OVA 4) that the Major was actually the god Mars and that was why he didn't age, and intended to ask Hirano about it.

-Ralph asks what Walter uses to tie his hair back, and Taliesin guesses that it might be the same wires he uses to fight with.

-In regard to the Vatican groups that Maxwell lists off in his call to Anderson, the fear was that the line would run too fast, and so Taliesin actually came up with around six real Catholic militias/groups that would conceivably carry arms for the Pope throughout history.

-Kari comments that Walter is always smirking and seems to know everything. "I feel like if it was left up to his character, you know, the whole series would be wrapped up in one or two shots."

-Ralph and Taliesin both make Kari blush by complementing her singing, and Taliesin says that he has Rip's cover of Der Freischutz on his iPod.

-In response to a German language consultant/friend, Taliesin wanted to be "Indiana Jones" careful with his accents. "Just the suggestion that somewhere- that there's a Kraut somewhere in the room."

-Some of Rip's lines as Alucard approaches are loosely lifted from the opera. (Loosely because of the need to fit lip-flap.)

-Taliesin and Crispin talked a lot about what Alucard is in the scene where he hits the ship. "'Just give me fe-fie-fo-fum, guess what I just caught?' It's very storybook." Kari was also encouraged to "tap into" the fear of things going bump in the night, the big scary monster, etc. "coming to kick your butt."

-As previously discussed, all of Alucard's powers have different sound effects. The hellhounds have distorted screaming baby noises mixed into them, whereas the multiple arms involve "this huge audience of people screaming, and we just- mutilated it with our effects track. So whenever all the arms come out, you can actually- somewhere deep deep inside, you can hear a couple koalas, and a -'cause koalas are creepy- every time the arms sprout you'll hear a whole audience somewhere in the background, screaming."

-Kari comments appreciatively on how the SS lieutenant was saying "'Wait everybody, we've got to hold it off for a while,' and then once you see the big half-face comes on, he's just like 'Shoot.'" She also then returns to invoking Little House on the Prairie as Alucard rips through the Nazis.

-Of Rip's death, Kari also says that "this is the finest death scene I've ever done." Taliesin agrees, saying he is very proud of it. Kari says "It was pretty intense -very good directing, by the way, 'cause you just kept saying, 'Go as...wounded animal, as you wanna go.'" She also says she was drenched with sweat by the end of the session.

-Taliesin calls the moment when Alucard bites into Rip's bullet and destroys it as "our Big Bad Wolf moment." Kari agrees, saying "That's when you know you're screwed...That whole part where he catches the bullet in the teeth, is about, that's just -you know you're going down! And you know you're probably not gonna go down in a very...gentle way."

-Of Rip's death scene, Taliesin also comments that "It's difficult to watch this, honestly." Kari points out that "It was surprising- it made this surprisingly easy to record, though, because it's so intense, visually, that you can't help but just really be affected by it."

-Taliesin owns three recordings and one DVD of Der Freischutz.

-Alucard's cackling laughter after eating Rip van Winkle is "actually just Crispin going and going...and Crispin doesn't like to laugh very long. It's not kind to his- it's not kind to anybody's throat, and it's hard to do."

-Ralph comments that the Major's "I love war" speech is "quite an exquisite monologue."

-According to Taliesin, it took three days to record the Major's speech and five days to adapt. "I mean, trying to match body language, and trying to match the manga, and the intent of the speech in Japanese, and the flap, and not make it monotonous...Gildart was freaking out by day three, because he was like 'I don't remember where I came from anymore, am I getting repetitive?'"

-Kari says that Gildart did a really amazing job at it and it was "so disturbing."

-In Taliesin's opinion, adaptation is more important than the director, because you can throw a bad director in with good actors and good adaptation and still have it work, but if you give a good director and good actors a bad adaptation and they will struggle through and it will take twice as long.

-Ralph agrees and points out how much work they have to do in adding or removing words, changing phrases, etc. to make everything fit with lip flap and how fans don't seem to realize that. Taliesin agrees and says that he "over-writes" Ralph, who he always thinks speaks faster than Ralph actually does.

[rustedskyprisms]

Wikipedia has both King Crimson and Cranes listed under notable artists on the Wagnerian rock article wtf

[wondersmanmade]

Discover 100 Epic Man-Made Wonders Worldwide: 2024 Edition!

Let's explore 100 of the most epic man-made wonders across the globe in this 2024 edition! Buckle up, because we're going on a journey around the world to witness the incredible feats of human ingenuity and creativity.

The Great Wall of China: Stretching an astonishing 21,196 kilometers (13,171 miles) across mountains, deserts, and grasslands, the Great Wall snakes its way through China like a majestic dragon. This UNESCO World Heritage Site is a testament to China's rich history and resilience, and its awe-inspiring presence never fails to captivate visitors.

The Taj Mahal, India: One of the most recognizable buildings in the world, the Taj Mahal is a stunning white marble mausoleum built by Mughal emperor Shah Jahan in memory of his third wife Mumtaz Mahal. Its intricate details, symmetrical gardens, and serene reflecting pool make it a true architectural marvel and a symbol of eternal love.

Chichen Itza, Mexico: This ancient Mayan city in the Yucatán Peninsula was once a thriving center of religious and political power. Its towering pyramids, temples, and ball courts offer a glimpse into the fascinating Mayan civilization and its advanced architectural and astronomical knowledge.

Machu Picchu, Peru: The "Lost City of the Incas" perched high in the Andes Mountains is a breathtaking example of Inca engineering and artistry. Its stonework, terraced fields, and temples blend seamlessly with the surrounding landscape, creating a mystical and unforgettable experience.

Petra, Jordan: Carved into sandstone cliffs in the Jordanian desert, Petra was once the capital of the Nabataean kingdom. Its intricate rock-cut architecture, including the iconic Treasury, amphitheater, and Siq entrance, is a testament to the skill and artistry of the Nabataean people.

The Colosseum, Rome: This elliptical amphitheater was once the center of gladiatorial combats and public spectacles in ancient Rome. Its imposing structure and well-preserved arches stand as a reminder of the Roman Empire's power and engineering prowess.

The Pyramids of Giza, Egypt: These ancient tombs, especially the Great Pyramid of Khufu, are some of the oldest and most impressive man-made structures in the world. Their precise mathematical calculations and astronomical alignments continue to baffle archaeologists and historians, adding to their mystique.

The Statue of Liberty, New York City: A symbol of freedom and hope for millions of immigrants, the Statue of Liberty stands tall on Liberty Island in New York Harbor. Its copper figure of Lady Liberty holding a torch and a book welcomes visitors from around the world.

Angkor Wat, Cambodia: This sprawling temple complex in Cambodia was the religious and political center of the Khmer Empire for centuries. Its intricate carvings, towering gopuras, and serene atmosphere make it a masterpiece of Khmer art and architecture.

Neuschwanstein Castle, Germany: Perched on a rugged hill in Bavaria, Neuschwanstein Castle is a fairytale-like palace that inspired Walt Disney's Sleeping Beauty Castle. Its turrets, bridges, and Wagnerian themes reflect the eccentric tastes of King Ludwig II and continue to enchant visitors

Learn More

[the-90s-music-colosseum]

Listen to both songs before voting, and define "better" any way you wish!

[kamreadsandrecs]

Essay by Alexander Chee; Photograph by Ryan McGinley; Styling by Shawn Lakin

Who was I imitating when I was 11, dressed in my grandmother’s old nightgown, telling my cousins they should call me Penelope? Who was I imitating when I began to sneak into my mother’s bathroom to experiment with her makeup? It felt powerful to see her alter the color of her lips or to darken the edges around her eyes and eyelashes. I wanted that power too—the command over someone’s attention. I used to think I was alone in such experiments until I wrote about them and learned that I was not.

Lately, I have been trying to think of when I first saw someone in drag. Was it Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye singing a duet in the musical White Christmas? Or Julie Andrews in Victor/Victoria? Barbra Streisand in Yentl? Harvey Korman on The Carol Burnett Show? Or Jim Bailey as Barbra Streisand, also on The Carol Burnett Show? I loved the variety shows of the 1970s and ’80s, and a performer in drag was not an unusual treat. And yet maybe it was my father dressed as a fortune teller, with one hoop earring and a kerchief on his head, reading palms in a tent for the Portland, Maine, chapter of the Rotary’s fundraiser.

Robert Preston and Julie Andrews in the movie Victor/Victoria, circa 1982 Hulton Archive//Getty Images

British comedian Benny Hill, 1954 Express//Getty Images

My first drag-queen story hour was probably The Benny Hill Show. For those of you too young to know, he was a British comedian whose shows ran in the U.S. late at night. I watched the show with my dad, and it was a special treat, happening only on the nights when he’d let me stay up with him to laugh at these British people and their jokes about sexism, sex, and social gaffes. If I’m remembering correctly, this was among the things that came to us in Maine in the ’70s or early ’80s with cable, most likely on some PBS channel.

Drag of this kind was uncontroversial and all around me back then. As a kid, I was watching a lot of men and women in gowns on television. We all were. It was mainstream. And we loved it. Most of us, maybe even more now than back then, still do.

I knew it was meant to be humor if someone I thought of as a man appeared dressed as a woman. That or an emergency—maybe both. Bugs Bunny, for example, when dressed in drag, was trying to outwit Elmer Fudd, the hunter, who was hoping to “kill the wabbit.” That famous Merrie Melodies short is also a tribute to Wagner, with Bugs in drag on the back of a horse, wearing pink eye shadow, a blond wig of braids, and some very sexy falsies that look out of place in a Warner Bros. cartoon. Elmer honks his way through an anglicized version of Siegfried’s aria, complete with the trills of an orchestra, calling Bugs “Bwoon Hilda” and asking him to be his love. Bugs bats his eyelashes at Elmer, and it is as beautiful a memory of entertainment in my childhood as I can remember. Like the best satire, it is great in part because it is sincere.

Carol Burnett and Harvey Korman in a scene from The Carol Burnett Show in 1973 CBS Photo Archive//Getty Images

ragedy comes, as it must in opera, when Bugs’s helmet and wig fall off after he is dipped too intensely by Elmer. Plonk, plonk, plonk goes the helmet, down the stairs of the temple of their love. Bugs pulls Elmer’s own “magic helmet” down over his eyes and escapes. The tunic with falsies flies into the wind, like the ghost of the beauty we saw moments before. Elmer rouses a Wagnerian storm to kill the rabbit as revenge, but only when he sees Bugs, flung down on a rock, under a single dripping rain-wet pink flower, does he repent and gather him into his arms, sobbing as he carries Bugs away. At which point Bugs reveals himself to be alive and says, “Well, what did you expect in an opera, a happy ending?”

Watching it again now in the 21st century, during a manufactured moral panic over drag, I think the lesson of “What’s Opera, Doc?” isn’t that we shouldn’t do drag. Instead, it’s that we shouldn’t kill and that we should love as we feel necessary. I feel like this is always the message of drag, and if that’s dangerous, well, what is it dangerous to? And isn’t the call to love what’s really dangerous—risking it all for love? I think we know it is. It took me a decade at least after first seeing that animated story to learn that “What’s Opera, Doc?” describes the panic defense men have used after killing trans women and gender-nonconforming people for a very long time.

A lobby card from “What’s Opera, Doc?” from 1957LMPC//Getty Images

As Bugs Bunny knew, gender is theater, whatever else it is. And as one of Neil Gaiman’s characters in a Miracleman comic book said this spring, offhandedly, gender is “a choice, not an obligation.” The people who need your gender choices to affirm their own—for you to obey something like a legally binding contract you never signed, given out at birth—are not any more secure once they’ve obtained this obedience from you. Theirs is a vast and unfeeling appetite for reassurance, and it must not be given room to grow.

Barbra Streisand filming Yentl in 1982Hulton Archive//Getty Images

I was raised with drag, by drag. We all were. By comedians, by entertainers, by brave friends—the ones who were afraid and still did what they had to do anyway. I am thinking of a friend in high school, a punk boy who was the first man I knew to wear makeup out to the clubs and even to school. I longed to be as beautiful as him, but mostly as brave, and when I remember the power of his beauty, it wasn’t that he didn’t care about what people thought of his choices—it was that he did. He was hoping to confront their disapproval, look by look by look. When I think back to those times before, I remember how it felt like crawling along the edge of a cliff. I know it’s where the enemies of drag want to go with all of these threats.

Do you really want child protective services called by a “concerned neighbor” if you let your children paint their nails or yours in some way considered inappropriate to gender? Do you want librarians living in terror? The freedom you feel now to sit in the sun as children wear tutus and butterfly wings, glitter on their cheeks, regardless of gender, dancing and singing—that was bought in part by a drag queen you’ve never met, in a city you’ll never visit.



[kammartinez]

Essay by Alexander Chee; Photograph by Ryan McGinley; Styling by Shawn Lakin

Who was I imitating when I was 11, dressed in my grandmother’s old nightgown, telling my cousins they should call me Penelope? Who was I imitating when I began to sneak into my mother’s bathroom to experiment with her makeup? It felt powerful to see her alter the color of her lips or to darken the edges around her eyes and eyelashes. I wanted that power too—the command over someone’s attention. I used to think I was alone in such experiments until I wrote about them and learned that I was not.

Lately, I have been trying to think of when I first saw someone in drag. Was it Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye singing a duet in the musical White Christmas? Or Julie Andrews in Victor/Victoria? Barbra Streisand in Yentl? Harvey Korman on The Carol Burnett Show? Or Jim Bailey as Barbra Streisand, also on The Carol Burnett Show? I loved the variety shows of the 1970s and ’80s, and a performer in drag was not an unusual treat. And yet maybe it was my father dressed as a fortune teller, with one hoop earring and a kerchief on his head, reading palms in a tent for the Portland, Maine, chapter of the Rotary’s fundraiser.

Robert Preston and Julie Andrews in the movie Victor/Victoria, circa 1982 Hulton Archive//Getty Images

British comedian Benny Hill, 1954 Express//Getty Images

My first drag-queen story hour was probably The Benny Hill Show. For those of you too young to know, he was a British comedian whose shows ran in the U.S. late at night. I watched the show with my dad, and it was a special treat, happening only on the nights when he’d let me stay up with him to laugh at these British people and their jokes about sexism, sex, and social gaffes. If I’m remembering correctly, this was among the things that came to us in Maine in the ’70s or early ’80s with cable, most likely on some PBS channel.

Drag of this kind was uncontroversial and all around me back then. As a kid, I was watching a lot of men and women in gowns on television. We all were. It was mainstream. And we loved it. Most of us, maybe even more now than back then, still do.

I knew it was meant to be humor if someone I thought of as a man appeared dressed as a woman. That or an emergency—maybe both. Bugs Bunny, for example, when dressed in drag, was trying to outwit Elmer Fudd, the hunter, who was hoping to “kill the wabbit.” That famous Merrie Melodies short is also a tribute to Wagner, with Bugs in drag on the back of a horse, wearing pink eye shadow, a blond wig of braids, and some very sexy falsies that look out of place in a Warner Bros. cartoon. Elmer honks his way through an anglicized version of Siegfried’s aria, complete with the trills of an orchestra, calling Bugs “Bwoon Hilda” and asking him to be his love. Bugs bats his eyelashes at Elmer, and it is as beautiful a memory of entertainment in my childhood as I can remember. Like the best satire, it is great in part because it is sincere.

Carol Burnett and Harvey Korman in a scene from The Carol Burnett Show in 1973 CBS Photo Archive//Getty Images

ragedy comes, as it must in opera, when Bugs’s helmet and wig fall off after he is dipped too intensely by Elmer. Plonk, plonk, plonk goes the helmet, down the stairs of the temple of their love. Bugs pulls Elmer’s own “magic helmet” down over his eyes and escapes. The tunic with falsies flies into the wind, like the ghost of the beauty we saw moments before. Elmer rouses a Wagnerian storm to kill the rabbit as revenge, but only when he sees Bugs, flung down on a rock, under a single dripping rain-wet pink flower, does he repent and gather him into his arms, sobbing as he carries Bugs away. At which point Bugs reveals himself to be alive and says, “Well, what did you expect in an opera, a happy ending?”

Watching it again now in the 21st century, during a manufactured moral panic over drag, I think the lesson of “What’s Opera, Doc?” isn’t that we shouldn’t do drag. Instead, it’s that we shouldn’t kill and that we should love as we feel necessary. I feel like this is always the message of drag, and if that’s dangerous, well, what is it dangerous to? And isn’t the call to love what’s really dangerous—risking it all for love? I think we know it is. It took me a decade at least after first seeing that animated story to learn that “What’s Opera, Doc?” describes the panic defense men have used after killing trans women and gender-nonconforming people for a very long time.

A lobby card from “What’s Opera, Doc?” from 1957LMPC//Getty Images

As Bugs Bunny knew, gender is theater, whatever else it is. And as one of Neil Gaiman’s characters in a Miracleman comic book said this spring, offhandedly, gender is “a choice, not an obligation.” The people who need your gender choices to affirm their own—for you to obey something like a legally binding contract you never signed, given out at birth—are not any more secure once they’ve obtained this obedience from you. Theirs is a vast and unfeeling appetite for reassurance, and it must not be given room to grow.

Barbra Streisand filming Yentl in 1982Hulton Archive//Getty Images

I was raised with drag, by drag. We all were. By comedians, by entertainers, by brave friends—the ones who were afraid and still did what they had to do anyway. I am thinking of a friend in high school, a punk boy who was the first man I knew to wear makeup out to the clubs and even to school. I longed to be as beautiful as him, but mostly as brave, and when I remember the power of his beauty, it wasn’t that he didn’t care about what people thought of his choices—it was that he did. He was hoping to confront their disapproval, look by look by look. When I think back to those times before, I remember how it felt like crawling along the edge of a cliff. I know it’s where the enemies of drag want to go with all of these threats.

Do you really want child protective services called by a “concerned neighbor” if you let your children paint their nails or yours in some way considered inappropriate to gender? Do you want librarians living in terror? The freedom you feel now to sit in the sun as children wear tutus and butterfly wings, glitter on their cheeks, regardless of gender, dancing and singing—that was bought in part by a drag queen you’ve never met, in a city you’ll never visit.

[literaturemini]

Musicians in the romantic period

From the 1800s to about 1910, Western classical music was defined by its soaring melodies and ever-expanding orchestrations, originality and self-expression. Here are the composers who made all this possible: There are many musicians in the romantic period.

Romance time. In the wonderful words of composer and classical FM host John Branning, "They named him twice. So good."

The 'early' Romantic era began around 1800 with the great classical music of the time Ludwig van his Beethoven. His symphonic revolution ushered in a new era in music history. Fast forward to the turn of the century and music looked very different from the classical era (1730-1820). Late-romantic composers like Rachmaninoff and Mahler expanded the orchestra to an unprecedented scale, adding more colors and instruments, transforming the music into a range of human emotions, from sorrow to joy, passion to sorrow. I changed it to a way to express the whole range.

Here we explore some of the biggest contributors to romance.

01. Frederic Chopin (1810-1849)

Frédéric Chopin was a virtuoso pianist who wrote almost exclusively for his instrument. The piano underwent major changes in his nineteenth century, with composers becoming more ambitious in range, color and dynamics. It became a symbol of Romanticism and was expanded to meet the needs of musicians like Chopin. Of his repertoire, preludes were favorites of Polish Romanticism, and his nocturnes, waltzes, etudes, mazurkas, sonatas and concertos are still some of the pianist's most popular repertoires today.

02. Franz Liszt (1811-1886)

Another composer, Franz Liszt, called "the world's first rock star", took the virtuoso piano art to new heights. The great Hungarian composer, known for his astonishingly demonic La Campanella repertoire, was a showman who revolutionized the performing arts. At his recital, Liszt's fans stripped him of his clothes and shouted his name. This is the phenomenon that the German poet Heinrich Heine called "listomania".In today's recital, we often hear Liszt's timeless and beautiful song No. 3 in A-flat major.

03. Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901)

The undisputed king of Italian opera, Verdi is known not only for his monumental Requiem, but above all for his great stage productions: La Traviata, Rigoletto, Nabucco, Aida. Fate of Destiny" and "Il Trovatore". Written primarily around the time of Italian unification, Verdi's operas have become an integral part of Italy's national identity, and his chorus has been adopted as the hymn of Italian freedom fighters. In nineteenth-century Italy, Verdi was the king of music. His death in 1901 brought grief to a nation deeply connected to his passion for opera.

04. Richard Wagner (1813-1883)

Richard's list of Wagnerian innovations in 19th-century music goes on, including new instruments, bespoke venues, and extraordinarily long works A rather controversial figure largely due to his ties to Nazism – see his gallery of facts here for more – Wagner was a musical visionary best known for opera . His most enduring works include The Flying Dutchman, Tannhäuser, Tristan, Isolde and of course his monumental Ring Cycle, his four opera productions lasting 15 hours. . He gave the opera a "leitmotif". It is a musical feature that is widely used today and intended to represent characters and themes. Remember the music of Darth Vader from Star Wars.

05. Fanny Mendelssohn (1805-1847)

Fanny Mendelssohn was a truly great composer, but getting her work published in the 19th century was an almost overwhelming ordeal. Her brother Felix Mendelssohn wrote that the Violin Concerto in E Minor and Hebrides was a regular feature in her 21st Century Concerts program, and Fanny felt she should not publish music as a woman. was He decided that many of her works, including her rather wonderful song Italia, should be published under his name. In all, Fanny wrote 460 pieces of music, including many without words, a genre of piano music made famous by her brother Felix Mendelssohn. Musicologists now believe Fanny to be the pioneer of this form.

06. Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893)

Tchaikovsky is one of the most successful Russian composers. He is a prolific composer of symphonies, concertos, operas, ballets, and chamber music, whose ballets The Nutcracker, Swan Lake, and Sleeping Beauty are guaranteed to sell out worldwide, and whose symphonies and The concerto is a mainstay on the international concert stage today. Tchaikovsky was also a deeply troubled man, and his work was shaped by the emotional aftermath of a disastrous marriage, multiple love affairs, and homosexuality, which was illegal in Russia at the time.

07. Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)

Have you heard the German Requiem? Brahms is one of the most respected and beloved composers of the Romantic era. His symphonies, piano and violin concertos, delightful academic overtures for his festivals, and the moving German Requiem, written after the death of his mother, are among his most performed works. . Discovering Brahms' music also means exploring the fascinating blend of classical tradition with folk and gypsy influences that are the inspiration for his 21 dynamic and varied Hungarian dances. .

08. Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924)

You say sobbing Aria, we say Puccini. This great Italian composer is one of the most performed operas of our time, including La Bohème, Tosca, Madame Butterfly, and Turandot, and the core of every song is absolutely heartbreaking music. In fact, his last opera, Turandot, contains the great tenor's aria "Nessundorma", making him one of the few 20th-century operas to gain a foothold in opera houses around the world. It's one. While working on his final work, Puccini said:

"God Almighty touched me with his pinky finger and said, 'Write for the play, remember only for the play.' "And I obeyed his highest orders."

09. Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1943)

Rachmaninoff is now moving into the late-romantic period, the ideal turn-of-the-century type of grandiose melodies and virtuoso pianism, whose masterpiece was certainly his 1901 Piano Concerto 2. Its subsequent use in the movie Brief Encounter made it one of the most popular to date. A famous gentleman with big hands, Rachmaninoff could have spanned his 12 piano keys from little finger to thumb. His Piano Concerto No. 3 has long been a favorite in his concert halls and challenges the soloist (literally) to the limits of his abilities.

10. Gustav Mahler (1860-1911)

For many, Mahler represents the culmination of the astonishing transformation that Western classical music has undergone over his century. As a symphonic master, Mahler thought: it must encompass all. There's more to Mahler's symphonies: frenzied violence, deep sentimentality, existential boredom. With Symphony No. 2, the phrase 'size matters' has never been more appropriate, but Mahler wanted to emphasize life and death in all its terrifying glory. Its emotional range and melodic tension make him one of those classic repertoire pieces that not only audiences want to hear, but orchestras and conductors alike want to play. .

Of course, romantic music doesn't end with these ten composers of his. The 19th century produced a melting pot of musical expression, with composers such as Richard Strauss, Felix Mendelssohn, Sibelius, Berlioz, Schumann, Grieg, Dvořák and Debussy contributing productively. Click on the name to learn more about the composer and their music. 

[a-love-poet-at-heart]

i exclusively listen to musical theatre, wagnerian rock, hair metal, and whatever the fuck oingo boingo had going on

[goat-desert]

Jam of the Day #104

This is a pretty great song from the Bat Outta Hell album. It’s pretty great.

Band: Meat Loaf Genre: Hard/Wagnerian/Prog Rock Song: Hot Summer Night

[lucifers-horror-harem]

I know Brahms prefers older music...but I think you could get him into Wagnerian rock and power ballads.

Like, play "Total Eclipse of the Heart" for him once, and he'd lose his fucking mind.

(he needs you now tonight, and he needs you more than ever. And if you only hold him tight, he will hold on forever)

You know what anon? Fair. Absolutely fair. I can ABSOLUTELY see Brahms loving that style of music and also Total Eclipse of the Heart. I would sing it WITH HIM!!!