If I may ask a moderately insane question in good faith:
What makes an opera an opera and not say, a stage musical? Like what's the defining features of the genre or is it a no-firm-borders "CATS is an opera in the same way a hotdog is a sandwich" situation?
absolutely not a moderately insane question because it is a genuine question! and i would honestly say that yeah, CATS is an opera in the same way a hotdog is a sandwich, because they're all related ideas and exist in context with each other.
the short answer is: it depends!
the slightly longer answer is: everything is made up and the points dont matter!
the real answer is this: it's kind of entirely arbitrary and comes down to a lot of ideas about high and low art, as well as historical precedence.
one of the first metrics people usually cite for "is it an opera or a musical" is whether or not there's spoken dialogue (separate from recitative, which is melodic dialogue accompanied by light music) but that falls apart in the face of operetta (gilbert&sullivan) and singspiel (zauberflöte, or famously die entführung aus dem serail, which has completely straight spoken dialogue without any melody at all and literally does not make sense without it. saw a production once where they cut the pasha's dialogue and that aint die entführung, baystaats) and then, the inverse with musicals with little spoken dialogue (les mis).
some people categorize it based on amplification (so, opera is done without mics/musicals are done with mics) but i've seen opera done with mics (again, baystaats, what the fuck was up with that die entführung?) and musicals done without (jesus christ superstar at the lyric was WILD)
i think the best differentiation to make is based on 1) the musical balance and 2) creator intention.
i'm not a person who understands music very well, but for me as a viewer/listener, i think of operatic music as being more about the relationship between orchestra and singers, and the support of the orchestra to give the fuller context to the emotions and thoughts by the singers. in musicals more often the vocals are supporting the orchestra, although this is still also not always true.
one thing that is usually true is that operatic voice is a very different beast from musical voice. some performers can cross over and do so very successfully, but many cannot, because the operatic voice is really designed for a very particular kind of singing, and many musical singers can't do what operatic singers do, even on mics. it's a different set of muscles and skills.
the other aspect is creator intention. there are some musicals that are verging on opera (phantom and hadestown are big ones) and some operas that are verging on musicals (again, gilbert and sullivan), but the intention behind the music. you could, very easily, put on zauberflöte like a musical—and people have done productions like this for kids all the time!—but at the end of a day, the intended nature of the art was as an opera, and it maintains operatic traditions that don't match musical traditions. you could, vice versa, easily do JCS as an opera, but it would still maintain musical traditions and not operatic ones.
there are a lot more detailed posts about this on the internet by people who understand music better than i do but at the end of the day i kind of still default to "i know an opera if i hear it" and a huge part of that does kind of boil down to how the voice is used. it's part of what makes phantom of the opera so cool to me—it's got fully operatic voice pieces (christine) next to fully musical ones (basically every ensemble number).
but at the end of the day: it's arbitrary. it depends. it's kind of up to the individual. sometimes people use "opera" to mean "high art" and "musical" to mean "low art" and sometimes they use "opera" to mean "a particular genre of vocal and orchestral music that developed in the 17th century and has continued to be refined and is an essential part of modern musical theatre tradition" but like. yeah essentially i'll know it if i hear it.
that said.
oh my god i want to see someone do don giovanni in a musical theatre style. just the whole damn opera but staged like a musical. im begging someone. i mean this is basically what the lyric 2015 production is they do have don giovanni on a table and elvira with a motorcycle but GO FURTHER.
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Alright gentlefolks, you know I had to do it, so I present to you @gallusrostromegalus's Family Lore Story About The 1969 Easter Mass Incident aka the Bread Jesus Story because my brain generated an idea weeks ago and I was compelled to bring it to life with a hardcover 2-section pamphlet/booklet (also this was a challenge to try a new book binding style that's not a Bradel yet again:
Scoured the Internet Archive for something pretty I could use in the typesetting and found these gorgeous Mucha illustrated frames (see 4th image for name of the book), and yes I picked the one that depicted the crucifixion scene, haha.
And then the printer bugged out on me while I was reprinting a fixed version that was supposed to be black and white (the fucking Magenta ink tank is clogged clogged) so I decided to lean into the green and got out the jewel toned cardstock and the fancy American scrapbook prints (ouch import prices but worth it). The spine is just black bookcloth I made.
A couple of process and practice photos:
So it turns out when the conservation style 2-section pamphlet guide says you need to sew onto a strip of bookcloth hinge, it wasn't a suggestion because aw fuck, it was structurally important to not have a loose connection despite how much pulling and tightening you do (as seen in final photo between the practice typoed sections and the actual set). Lesson learned. Also, I definitely sewed on the bookcloth hinge backasswards but with enough PVA glue, everything will hold lol.
Typesetting this was fun though. Lots of evil cackling.
Just wanted to say this blog is genuinely helping me get through this shit. Watching the count go down every time I see you on my dash helps me remember that time is real and the malignancy's time is short. Thank you
You're always welcome. One way or another they and their little friends will leave, however hard they resist going.
Well, streaming from the country didn't work so well last Sunday, so instead we got the delightful treat of Tim reading stories - all written by the lovely @gallusrostromegalus - I decided to keep one of them (the only one that was under a length that I could post to tumblr) to share. Please enjoy, with the addition of Tim's looping music in the background, and a tiny sample of tongue bootcamp, with bonus of @askmartyn 's delightful addition's to chat.
While you're correct abt the article about the trans soldier, you gotta also remember that soul society is based on pre-meiji restoration japan, which is 17th to 19th century, which is much earlier than that article, and gender history in japan is also a whole other thing that tbh I feel like I'm several thesis' short of knowing enough about to make statements haha
BUT you ARE correct that soul society, as it is in bleach, is make believe land and they do seem much more interested in your abilities than literally anything else. So yeah, I also see it that people generally wouldn't care that much. That's why I also noted that a lot of characters wouldn't know he's trans, not because he's really hiding it, but bc it's not really any of their business.
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Yo give me some Sloane opinions! Best breakfast food, the most annoying thing people do while driving, which month is the best, her least defensible opinion, and uhhhh... Least favorite movie.
SLOANEPINIONS:
BEST BREAKFAST FOOD: Greasy american diner breakfast plate. Bacon, fried egg, hashbrown, slice of toast, black coffee. That is, when she has the time to haul her ass out there. At home or on the job, she usually settles for whatever dubious leftovers are in the back of the fridge.
MOST ANNOYING THING PEOPLE DO WHILE DRIVING: Not letting her merge. And texting while driving. And pissing around in the left lane. And taking too long on a left turn arrow light so there's only enough time for one or two cars to get through and it's a busy intersection and goddammit she's already running late and--
WHICH MONTH IS THE BEST: All of them have their own annoyances, but she always looks forward to September, when it finally stops being hot as balls 24/7.
LEAST DEFENSIBLE OPINION: Big souped up diesel engine SUVs are perfectly fine for suburban commuter vehicles
LEAST FAVORITE MOVIE: She'll watch just about anything, but she has a significant amount of beef with Titanic that she refuses to explain to anyone.
