Opera and a movie
In this post, I am going to talk about Mozart's L'Enlevement au Sérail and Night at the Museum 3, because those are linked by me having been to see them with the same friend. We are folks of excellent and discerning taste, as you can see. (Slightly mad that he got to see Jupiter Ascending before me, though.)
Also, I fucking nailed it with his birthday gift. Nailed it.
So! What about that Mozart, heh?
Well, this is apparently the first time it's been put on by the Paris Opera and I have to say WOWZA Zabou Breitman did a masterful job with the directing. Every single aspect of the performance was fucking stellar: singing, acting, costuming, scene setting, orchestra-ing... (Side note: I thought the orchestra conductor looked familiar! It's Philipe Jordan, he did the conducting for at least one of the two operas of the Ring I saw. Side note to the side note: about 90% of the people involved in the production I saw of this Mozart opera are super hot, what gives?)
No, but seriously, it was fucking AMAZING.
I'm really glad I read the program actually, because yes, I was right! The bits where I was wondering if the feminist subtext were deliberate were in fact super deliberate. And there were a lot of smart things about Orientalism said in that program.
Setting it in the 1920s instead of the 18th century was a great idea and not just because of everyone occasionally stopping to take selfies with Pedrillo's camera, but because it sets it at the very very tail-end of the Ottoman Empire, which lends a kind of 'end of an era' feel to the whole thing, which was interesting.
I loved how, idk how to put this, porous, I guess, the fourth wall was. there's a bit where Selim decides to but on a concert for Constance and so he points at various musicians in the orchestra and has them climb on set for said concert (one of the musicians was a woman, which opens interesting questions of worldbuilding, given that she was the only non-seraglio woman). There's a bit where Pedrillo throws Osmin off the stage and into the orchestra pit, lmao, oops. It was super interesting and clever without ever being intrusive.
And also I loved the addition of Constance's owl (that she gives to Selim at the end, aww <3) and the use of silent black-and-white movie footage at the start to catch us up on what had happened before the play itself starts.
(I loved that the dude playing Selim was actually Turkish. I don't usually give a fuck about actors' ethnicities in opera because singing ability is more important (speaking of the Ring, the Donner I saw was South Korean and great) but I thought that was a nice touch.)
I wasn't blown away by any of the singers, but they were all amazing. On a scale of 1 to 10, no one slipped below a 9 (there just weren't any 11s).
I loved that there was always something going on, that people didn't just stand there while, for example, Constance and Belmont had their duet: Pedrillo and Blonde just want them to get it over with omg. Or the two guards who were 110% DONE with Osmin and Pedrillo getting drunk. SO DONE.
I ended up liking every character, even the non-speaking ones, except Osmin. Boo Osmin.
So I went into the opera knowing fuck-all about it and I kept getting surprised at how decent Selim was? Like he's clearly a good person and he's very clearly in love with Constance and just as clearly has no idea how to get her to love him back. (Protip: It usually helps not to kidnap people.) But having seen the date the opera was written (1782), I thought 'weeell, the Ottoman Empire was at the gates of Vienna about a century ago, right?' and thought this was going to end up being a tragedy, not helped by the fact that in my mind opera in Italian = everybody lives! and opera in German = everybody dies! which is an absurd generalisation. AND THEN! And then they all get caught trying to escape (oops) and it turns out Belmont is the son of the man who forced Selim into exile and "cost [him] everything" and I was so sure they were all going to die, but then no! Selim was a super decent dude and decided that the best revenge was to be the better man and let everyone go.
So I loved everyone, but Selim was totally the (unexpected) best and Blonde was second best with her utter refusal to take any shit from anybody and punching people in the face.
Have some pictures! I took the first one at the entracte and the second one during the ovations and they're a little blurry and the lighting's not the greatest but I hope you still get an idea of what it looked like.
The Opera de paris website has some better photos with close-ups. (Scroll down for "L'Enlèvement au Sérail En images !").
Intermission, before I move on to Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb.
I talked about how I was watching Rome and once I mentionned Octavian, Friend told me he didn't like him because, and I quote, "he was mean to Mark Anthony".
Okay, on to Night at the Museum 3. (For the record, me and Friend have seen all movies in the series in theater together.)
This time, Night at the Musuem does the British Museum! Me and Friend walked out of it hoping they would do the Louvre next time. It would be epic.
I continue to find both the romances utterly adorable (Teddy/Sacagawea and Jed/Octavius). No, look, I am sorry, you can say whatever you want, I'm pretty sure that at the very fucking least, Octavius -> Jed is canon. When they thinks they're about to die: Octavius: Hold my hand.
Jed: Why?
Octavius: Nevermind.
and later Jed: Did you ask me to hold your hand?
Octavius: No.
and later again Jed: I'll take that hand now
and then they do hold hands! They're adorable. (And they're always always always together while they're being adorable. They comment on youtube together!)
I laughed out loud in the theater at the youtube commenting machine, because that is such a Roman thing to do: LET'S BUILD A THING! And then they were in Iepwop Pompei and how please Octavius was when he figured out that was where they were (and then Vesuvius, but it's Pompei so of course it's Volcano Day).
The fight scene in the Escher painting was amazing and made awesome use of it being set in, well, an Escher painting. A++ Whoever came up with that deserves a raise.
I also loved the Garuda being adorable and trying to protect everyone from the not-a-fucking-dragon-Lancelot.
I was actually okay with Lancelot? Like I tend to not like Anglophone Arthurian myth based anything for reasons of Morgane being evil and Merlin being the good guy (and again wtf are you guys smoking, I swear), but here I was okay with it, mostly because everyone is taking the piss out of Lancelot, including Huge Ackman Hugh Jackman.
I love how Akhmenrah's father is totally confused by Larry going on about his son wanting to DJ in Ibiza and how Lancelot has no idea what "President of the United States of America" means or what Jackman's Wolverine number was about. And just, like culture shock moments. Like, okay, Akmenrah's "here we go again" when his parents said they loved Jews, they own 40k! went a long way to help ciment them as a family in my mind (and the parents do long genuinely sorry when they find out the Jews weren't happy).
There were nie call-backs to both earlier in the movie (the DJing at the end! Did not expect that) and earlier movies (CJ!) and overall I liked it a whole lot. I hope they make more (and I hope they bring Jed and Octavius back too, because I'll miss those two more than Larry).
Yeah, I loved it lots.
So there you have it. I loved both of those. Anyone seen either and want to talk about it?
This entry was originally posted at http://dhampyresa.dreamwidth.org/66272.html and has
comments over there.
Also, I fucking nailed it with his birthday gift. Nailed it.
So! What about that Mozart, heh?
Well, this is apparently the first time it's been put on by the Paris Opera and I have to say WOWZA Zabou Breitman did a masterful job with the directing. Every single aspect of the performance was fucking stellar: singing, acting, costuming, scene setting, orchestra-ing... (Side note: I thought the orchestra conductor looked familiar! It's Philipe Jordan, he did the conducting for at least one of the two operas of the Ring I saw. Side note to the side note: about 90% of the people involved in the production I saw of this Mozart opera are super hot, what gives?)
No, but seriously, it was fucking AMAZING.
I'm really glad I read the program actually, because yes, I was right! The bits where I was wondering if the feminist subtext were deliberate were in fact super deliberate. And there were a lot of smart things about Orientalism said in that program.
Setting it in the 1920s instead of the 18th century was a great idea and not just because of everyone occasionally stopping to take selfies with Pedrillo's camera, but because it sets it at the very very tail-end of the Ottoman Empire, which lends a kind of 'end of an era' feel to the whole thing, which was interesting.
I loved how, idk how to put this, porous, I guess, the fourth wall was. there's a bit where Selim decides to but on a concert for Constance and so he points at various musicians in the orchestra and has them climb on set for said concert (one of the musicians was a woman, which opens interesting questions of worldbuilding, given that she was the only non-seraglio woman). There's a bit where Pedrillo throws Osmin off the stage and into the orchestra pit, lmao, oops. It was super interesting and clever without ever being intrusive.
And also I loved the addition of Constance's owl (that she gives to Selim at the end, aww <3) and the use of silent black-and-white movie footage at the start to catch us up on what had happened before the play itself starts.
(I loved that the dude playing Selim was actually Turkish. I don't usually give a fuck about actors' ethnicities in opera because singing ability is more important (speaking of the Ring, the Donner I saw was South Korean and great) but I thought that was a nice touch.)
I wasn't blown away by any of the singers, but they were all amazing. On a scale of 1 to 10, no one slipped below a 9 (there just weren't any 11s).
I loved that there was always something going on, that people didn't just stand there while, for example, Constance and Belmont had their duet: Pedrillo and Blonde just want them to get it over with omg. Or the two guards who were 110% DONE with Osmin and Pedrillo getting drunk. SO DONE.
I ended up liking every character, even the non-speaking ones, except Osmin. Boo Osmin.
So I went into the opera knowing fuck-all about it and I kept getting surprised at how decent Selim was? Like he's clearly a good person and he's very clearly in love with Constance and just as clearly has no idea how to get her to love him back. (Protip: It usually helps not to kidnap people.) But having seen the date the opera was written (1782), I thought 'weeell, the Ottoman Empire was at the gates of Vienna about a century ago, right?' and thought this was going to end up being a tragedy, not helped by the fact that in my mind opera in Italian = everybody lives! and opera in German = everybody dies! which is an absurd generalisation. AND THEN! And then they all get caught trying to escape (oops) and it turns out Belmont is the son of the man who forced Selim into exile and "cost [him] everything" and I was so sure they were all going to die, but then no! Selim was a super decent dude and decided that the best revenge was to be the better man and let everyone go.
So I loved everyone, but Selim was totally the (unexpected) best and Blonde was second best with her utter refusal to take any shit from anybody and punching people in the face.
Have some pictures! I took the first one at the entracte and the second one during the ovations and they're a little blurry and the lighting's not the greatest but I hope you still get an idea of what it looked like.
The Opera de paris website has some better photos with close-ups. (Scroll down for "L'Enlèvement au Sérail En images !").
Intermission, before I move on to Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb.
I talked about how I was watching Rome and once I mentionned Octavian, Friend told me he didn't like him because, and I quote, "he was mean to Mark Anthony".
Okay, on to Night at the Museum 3. (For the record, me and Friend have seen all movies in the series in theater together.)
This time, Night at the Musuem does the British Museum! Me and Friend walked out of it hoping they would do the Louvre next time. It would be epic.
I continue to find both the romances utterly adorable (Teddy/Sacagawea and Jed/Octavius). No, look, I am sorry, you can say whatever you want, I'm pretty sure that at the very fucking least, Octavius -> Jed is canon. When they thinks they're about to die: Octavius: Hold my hand.
Jed: Why?
Octavius: Nevermind.
and later Jed: Did you ask me to hold your hand?
Octavius: No.
and later again Jed: I'll take that hand now
and then they do hold hands! They're adorable. (And they're always always always together while they're being adorable. They comment on youtube together!)
I laughed out loud in the theater at the youtube commenting machine, because that is such a Roman thing to do: LET'S BUILD A THING! And then they were in Iepwop Pompei and how please Octavius was when he figured out that was where they were (and then Vesuvius, but it's Pompei so of course it's Volcano Day).
The fight scene in the Escher painting was amazing and made awesome use of it being set in, well, an Escher painting. A++ Whoever came up with that deserves a raise.
I also loved the Garuda being adorable and trying to protect everyone from the not-a-fucking-dragon-Lancelot.
I was actually okay with Lancelot? Like I tend to not like Anglophone Arthurian myth based anything for reasons of Morgane being evil and Merlin being the good guy (and again wtf are you guys smoking, I swear), but here I was okay with it, mostly because everyone is taking the piss out of Lancelot, including Huge Ackman Hugh Jackman.
I love how Akhmenrah's father is totally confused by Larry going on about his son wanting to DJ in Ibiza and how Lancelot has no idea what "President of the United States of America" means or what Jackman's Wolverine number was about. And just, like culture shock moments. Like, okay, Akmenrah's "here we go again" when his parents said they loved Jews, they own 40k! went a long way to help ciment them as a family in my mind (and the parents do long genuinely sorry when they find out the Jews weren't happy).
There were nie call-backs to both earlier in the movie (the DJing at the end! Did not expect that) and earlier movies (CJ!) and overall I liked it a whole lot. I hope they make more (and I hope they bring Jed and Octavius back too, because I'll miss those two more than Larry).
Yeah, I loved it lots.
So there you have it. I loved both of those. Anyone seen either and want to talk about it?
This entry was originally posted at http://dhampyresa.dreamwidth.org/66272.html and has
comments over there.