#k misc

i will always have a soft spot for tosca because of the memories i associate with seeing it, but also i think scarpia has one of the juiciest (?) & evilest "i want" songs... like look at these lyrics — illanguidir con spasimo d'amor... (illanguidir is such a 🤌 word choice...) "tosca, you make me forget god!" he exclaims, amid a choir singing te deum...

in balanchine's serenade there is a segment (~22:38 in linked video) where The Man walks onstage locked in The Dark Angel's embrace — his eyes covered by her hands; his own outstretched, groping through the dark — & The Dark Angel leads him to the crumpled form of The Waltz Girl; The Dark Angel's arms extend as wings, The Man's arms descend, The Waltz Girl's arms rise... this position is later revisited & modified (~28:26) such that it evokes canova's famous sculpture of cupid revived by psyche's kiss

anyway: this, to me, is the essence of dick, donna, roy: dick & donna, like inosculated trees — wonder twins, twin wonders; mirror, foil, reflected light, in conversation even as one is above, the other below; roy's dark angels, parenthetical valves of a shell, blood & breath, chambers of his psychosexual heart

i think it is a popular present-day interpretation to view giselle's doom as a manifestation of an inner friability or the proclivities ("weaknesses") of her gender, as per misogynist social conventions — but giselle's doom is also bound to (if not caused by) class dynamics & the social pressures therein... that is, one cannot forget that giselle is a peasant maid, & albrecht a titled nobleman. it's not just albrecht's deceit that's scandalous: it's who he is, & who she isn't.

compare giselle to the 1777-78 ballet ninette a la cour, wherein peasant maid ninette also finds herself the object of a king's affections — but rather than reciprocate his affections, ninette reaffirms her class status: she successfully diverts the king's attention to a suitable comtesse, while ninette herself marries her peasant boyfriend colas.

why doesn't ninette die? — she has vested her heart in a man of appropriate station. giselle hasn't & doesn't, despite hilarion's willingness & availability; & so giselle must die, if her heart cannot be swayed, for order to be maintained. the existence of giselle's (socially disruptive) love is itself impossible, in that it cannot be consummated: not in the christian sense, as she cannot be wed to albrecht as he is already engaged; & not in the dynastic sense, for even if albrecht weren't engaged, the marriage would be morganatic, meaning that any children would be excluded from the line of succession among other inheritance rights. it's no coincidence that giselle reminds albrecht to be faithful to bathilde before she ascends to heaven — that is your duty (to bathilde, to your blueblooded lineage); that is your place, & this is mine.