#opera fandom

(and yes, actually gay, not fandom goggles)

I have wondered many times why La Bohème is such a famous opera and so highly recommended to those who are new to the art form. I enjoyed it just fine, but it’s hardly in my top ten - it’s probably in my top five least favorite operas. However, there is something I learned long ago from fanfiction: if a work is going to be popular, then the quality of the work is almost exactly as important as the fan-quality of the work. I can think of so many decidedly mediocre movies, comics, and television shows that have gained extreme popularity online not because of their fantastic content, but because they were extremely easy to expand upon in art. Even otherwise good works are practically elevated to the level of scripture in the eyes of dedicated fans, because they cease to love merely the work itself and fall in love with a complex fan-developed extrapolation of it. Sometimes, the object of fan obsession bears no resemblance to the work itself at all (see the Undertale multiverse). I believe that this is the case for many historically important works of literature, as well. Some stories just nudge their ways into the social consciousness. La Bohème, in particular, is a familiar blend of strong characters (there is a lot of extrapolation to be done about every single member of the main cast based on their interactions), dramatic plot (who in fandom doesn’t react to falling in love and then having their heart broken), and a variety of moods (each of the four acts could practically be its own one-act story). There are holes to fill in, relationships to consider, and, of course, that romanticization of freedom and art that makes the viewer just wish that life was just as picturesque as in the fiction. Honestly, I find it a little silly and self-obsessed, but I’ve also written an undefinable number of chapters of fanfiction on this work that I “don’t like very much,” based on extrapolations that are perfectly reasonable given the libretto.I can explain every single character decision I made, to the point where I spent some time actively searching for evidence that some of those decisions might have been canonical. (ahem. Schaunard shows a remarkable lack of female love interest for a charming man in a romantic opera.) Said fanfiction is also, ostensibly, about Lucia di Lammermoor, but that’s because when I saw the Met Opera’s Anna Netrebko rendition, I and all of my friends instantaneously agreed that this was definitely about vampires. No denying it. Vampires. What’s more fanfiction-inducing than a vampire AU?

opera fandom, also: Rodrigo plus anyone is gay, Don Giovanni is God and tenors suck.

@wolfgangamadeusmozart-official, isn't this the whole plot of Cosi Fan Tutte?

Die Walkure HD