Frustrations
Well, my sleeping patterns got so out of whack that they came out the other side. Against my wishes I managed to sleep in till 3pm yesterday afternoon. This meant that I wasn't tired at midnight, I was at peek awakeness. Which means I'm at work right now, not having slept since 3pm yesterday.
Not good. I've had real difficulty sleeping on my own. I've taken to listening to music at night - but I couldn't find any solid opera on CD other than Wagner - Wagner is not sleeping music (the first time I tried it, I woke up with a start and was on edge for half an hour or so) - and other music has a tendency to feel flat or as if it is missing something (what, no vibrato?). This is not a pretentious thing, its a highly irritating thing. Hopefully the opera bug will leave me soon and I can go back to living a normal life.
Anyway the result is: poor sleeping habits that have finally caught up with me.
Good news (if you're me), I managed to rip the audio of the Zauberflöte so now I have 3cds of Mozarty goodness to listen to. Its not perfect for sleeping because there are a few sudden loud noises (thunder) scattered throughout. However, Papageno's glockenspiel is enchanting enough to drift away on.
More good news: Stephen Fry wrote a screenplay for the Magic Flute and it was directed by Kenneth Brannagh. The cast looks pretty good, though I haven't heard Lyubov Petrova, google the internet informs me that she is a talented colourata.
Interestingly though, Monostatos is being played by Tom Randle. Why on earth is that interesting? It is interesting because Monostatos is the only character with no redeemable characteristics. Huh? Its interesting because Tom Randle is black. OK. Let's start again. Mozart made the character a black man who was a lustful rapist. In one little ditty he sings:Und ich soll die Liebe meiden,
Weil ein Schwarzer häßlich ist,
Weil ein Schwarzer häßlich ist.
Ist mir denn kein Herz gegeben?
Which quickly translates to, "do I not get to love just because black people are ugly?" I imagine that one will be avoided. Essentially the Monostatos character is the vehicle for racism in the opera (it can easily be expunged unlike the sexism). As a point of interest Monostatos goes on to sing:
Lieber, guter Mond, vergebe
Eine Weiße nahm mich ein
Weiss ist schön! Ich muß sie küssen;
Which translates as 'dear moon forgive me, a white took possession of me, white is beautiful, I must kiss her'. Lovely stuff.
AAAAAARGH. Who is this person that types at the keyboard?
So this morning I watched the first Act of Il Barbiere di Siviglia (Barbera Saville) without subtitles (the one with Cecilia Bartoli. I laughed at Gino Quilico's insane Figaro, and was enchanted by the peculiarly charismatic/comic David Kuebler playing Almaviva.
Unfortunately, not speaking Italian I missed 50% of what was happening (its quite amazing how much good acting and expressive singing can get across). Actually, I'm fairly sure not speaking a word of Italian made Figaro's opening Aria about twenty times funnier. It was an undignified amount of guffawing at the insane tongue twisting madness. I am having difficulty finding any subtitles to download. I have subs for Wagner, but not for Rossini?
Erm, I promise that my life isn't so one dimensional. I've also exceeded 12k on nanowrimo. I've become completely critical of everything I have written (except one paragraph, which I quite like). I've begun to think the entire story would be better transported into a high sci-fi genre, but that'll have to wait.
mlrngllllfjul.
Not good. I've had real difficulty sleeping on my own. I've taken to listening to music at night - but I couldn't find any solid opera on CD other than Wagner - Wagner is not sleeping music (the first time I tried it, I woke up with a start and was on edge for half an hour or so) - and other music has a tendency to feel flat or as if it is missing something (what, no vibrato?). This is not a pretentious thing, its a highly irritating thing. Hopefully the opera bug will leave me soon and I can go back to living a normal life.
Anyway the result is: poor sleeping habits that have finally caught up with me.
Good news (if you're me), I managed to rip the audio of the Zauberflöte so now I have 3cds of Mozarty goodness to listen to. Its not perfect for sleeping because there are a few sudden loud noises (thunder) scattered throughout. However, Papageno's glockenspiel is enchanting enough to drift away on.
More good news: Stephen Fry wrote a screenplay for the Magic Flute and it was directed by Kenneth Brannagh. The cast looks pretty good, though I haven't heard Lyubov Petrova, google the internet informs me that she is a talented colourata.
Interestingly though, Monostatos is being played by Tom Randle. Why on earth is that interesting? It is interesting because Monostatos is the only character with no redeemable characteristics. Huh? Its interesting because Tom Randle is black. OK. Let's start again. Mozart made the character a black man who was a lustful rapist. In one little ditty he sings:Und ich soll die Liebe meiden,
Weil ein Schwarzer häßlich ist,
Weil ein Schwarzer häßlich ist.
Ist mir denn kein Herz gegeben?
Which quickly translates to, "do I not get to love just because black people are ugly?" I imagine that one will be avoided. Essentially the Monostatos character is the vehicle for racism in the opera (it can easily be expunged unlike the sexism). As a point of interest Monostatos goes on to sing:
Lieber, guter Mond, vergebe
Eine Weiße nahm mich ein
Weiss ist schön! Ich muß sie küssen;
Which translates as 'dear moon forgive me, a white took possession of me, white is beautiful, I must kiss her'. Lovely stuff.
AAAAAARGH. Who is this person that types at the keyboard?
So this morning I watched the first Act of Il Barbiere di Siviglia (Barbera Saville) without subtitles (the one with Cecilia Bartoli. I laughed at Gino Quilico's insane Figaro, and was enchanted by the peculiarly charismatic/comic David Kuebler playing Almaviva.
Unfortunately, not speaking Italian I missed 50% of what was happening (its quite amazing how much good acting and expressive singing can get across). Actually, I'm fairly sure not speaking a word of Italian made Figaro's opening Aria about twenty times funnier. It was an undignified amount of guffawing at the insane tongue twisting madness. I am having difficulty finding any subtitles to download. I have subs for Wagner, but not for Rossini?
Erm, I promise that my life isn't so one dimensional. I've also exceeded 12k on nanowrimo. I've become completely critical of everything I have written (except one paragraph, which I quite like). I've begun to think the entire story would be better transported into a high sci-fi genre, but that'll have to wait.
mlrngllllfjul.