#on today's episode of liz was a music major and is gonna make it everyone's problem

[terrainofheartfelt]

Lit™ Opera Lit - Abridged

for @clarasamelia

Jo enabled me into doing this though I’ve been tempted to for a WHILE, so here, have an Opera Primer Playlist, by me. A few notes before we begin:

This says Abridged, because the original Lit™ Opera Lit on my spotify is….5 ½ hours long, and I didn’t want to throw ALL that at someone new to the genre. So. (It is public on my spotify if you wanna take a peek)

Also, this is not a music history survey, and is therefore very biased to my tastes as a lover of romantic opera and as a trained mezzo soprano. #lowvoicesupremacy

And there is sooooooooooooooooooo much more I want to share so if anyone has any questions or wants a rec of something else please feel free to ask and I would be happy to answer! 

Actually, new ask game time: send me a pop culture media thing and I can relate it back to opera in 6 degrees or less. 

*means I’ve sung it before!

Okay, onto the playlist

Overture – La forza del destino, Verdi

You gotta start off an opera with a good overture right???? And this one is a fave, BY a fave. Overtures are sort of a…musical trailer of everything you’re going to hear in the show before it starts. It’s a sneak peek, it’s the opening credits, it’s a goddamn shame we don’t do them anymore. For real I went to a concert earlier this fall and the orchestra played the overture to The Sound of Music and it was glorious and I remember thinking “they don’t make em like this anymore!” Anyways, idk much about Forza because there’s no mezzos, but it’s a gutwrenching tragedy with glorious music, and this overture FUCKS

“Gira la cote!”* — Turandot, Puccini

First things first, lemme just say this outright, yes, this opera is racist. All white European composers were perpetrators of Orientalism in their music, Puccini being one of the more notorious. As such, opera is a thing that you have to engage with critically, but I don’t want to make that sound like it’s “work,” because I don’ twant to prolong this thing that you have to perform some sort of intellectual labor before you can enjoy opera, but you have to give it the same grace and critical eye you give other media, fuck I run a gossip girl blog, it’s like that, you know? Okay, sermon out of the way, this opera is about a Chinese princess, who vows to never marry because, honestly men have given her very little reason to want to, so she poses this challenge: if a man wants to marry her, he must answer three riddles, and if he gets even one of them wrong, she takes his head. This chorus is the opening of the show, when her latest failed suitor is about to get his head chopped off, the chorus of her subjects love the free show, and are shouting “gira la cote! / sharpen the blade!” and, reader, it fucks. 

“Měsíčku na nebi hlubokém (Song to the Moon)” — Rusalka, Dvořák

It’s the little mermaid!!!!!!!!! No, seriously, it’s based on the same myth. From my sweet Czech prince, Tony, this masterpiece tells its own spin on a Slavic version of the fairytale. This is, effectively, the “part of your world” song, Rusalka begs the moon to pass on a message of love to her human prince. And it is…one of the most glorious arias ever, to the point that sometimes I’m like “ugh, overdone” but really, it’s gorgeous, and when sung right, transcendent. 

“Čury mury fuk” — Rusalka, Dvořák

Ježibaba, aka Baba Yaga, aka Ursula, sings about how she’s gonna poison the beautiful sprite Rusalka. Fun fact: the saying for mezzo roles is: witches, bitches, and britches, because the archetypes low-voiced women always sing in opera are always either witches, bitches, or pants roles (women playing a male character, usually a teenaged boy). I was more a Mistresses and Princesses mezzo meself, so really…just bitches….

“Amami, Alfredo” — La Traviata, Verdi

Verdi is my absolute favorite, my opera blorbo, I love him so very much. The way he writes emotion into his orchestra is just hnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnng. Anyways. Traviata is perhaps the most popular opera in the world (tied with Carmen). If you don’t think you know it, you do. It’s based off Dumas’ La Dame aux Camellias, and the direct inspiration for the film Moulin Rouge! (though not the musical, evidently, it’s fine I’ve ranted about that elsewhere). AND, it’s featured in the garden party scene in Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement! What you here Anne Hathaway listening to there is the grand ending to the famous aria “Sempre libera,” but to me, the most sublime moment in the opera is this one, in Act II, Violetta’s lover’s father comes to plead with her to leave his son, Alfredo, because Violetta is a courtesan and therefore a detriment to the noble family’s reputation…yeah. And Violetta agrees, not wanting to send Alfredo’s family into poverty or ruin the reputation of his little sister (that she’s never met btw, fuckin catholics), plus, it’s hinted that Violetta already knows that she is dying of tuberculosis (consumption), so she decides to leave and go back to her old life, and when Alfredo returns as she’s trying to write him a farewell letter, she has this outburst of emotion. It’s brief, but, jesus christ—

Amami, Alfredo, quant'io t'amo. Addio. / Love me, Alfredo, how I love you. Goodbye.

"Bevo al tuo fresco sorriso" — La Rondine, Puccini

Another opera based of the lady of the camellias! (She was indeed a real person, Marie Duplessis, I read a biography about her! It’s so fascinating!) This one has a bit of a different plot and play out, but the theme is the same. There’s actually some dispute about there being multiple endings to this opera (Turandot too I guess, but I digress) Magda, a glamorous courtesan of Paris, bored of her gilded cage, puts on a disguise and goes out for the night, and meets up again with the hot young poet who came to her house party earlier that night, they share a drink, meanwhile Magda’s maid has a drink in the same bar with her tenor lover, what results is this, what me and my friends call The Best Quartet Ever. it sounds exactly like falling in love in Paris. No offense, but tswift could never.

"È amabile invero cotal giovinotto” — Rigoletto, Verdi†

Hi, it’s me with my low voice supremacy agenda again. There’s a much more famous quartet, but. My house.  Based off of a play by Victor Hugo, Rigoletto is a jester who has enough of his boss’ bullshit. His boss being the Duke. What puts him over the edge? The scumbag of a Duke seduces Rig’s daughter, Gilda, and now Gilda thinks she’s in love, but Rig has worked for the Duke long enough to know that, best case, she’ll have her heartbroken.  But that is all just BACKGROUND for this scene. Rigoletto hires an assassin-slash-bartender to take care of the Duke for him, so this guy, Sparafucile, gets the Duke drunk, but now, unfortunately, the assasin’s sister, Maddalena, has a crush on the fuck. She demands that her brother spare the duke’s life, but Sparafucile promised Rigoletto a body. So while a storm hits, Spara tells his sister “fine, the next person that knocks on the door, i’ll kill instead.” Gilda, of course, overhears all of this, and decides that what she has to do his take the place of the man she loves, and knocks on the door (babygirl, it’s NOT WORTH IT) †I’ve never done one of these roles, but I have been in the opera!

“Pourquoi me réveiller” — Werther, Massenet

An underrated, imho, French tragedy. Is it because the heroine is a mezzo? Who’s to say.  Based off Goethe’s Die Leiden des jungen Werther, it follows the tragic star-crossed love of Werther, the poet, and Charlotte, the woman who loves him, but for ehr family’s financial security and stature marries another man she doesn’t love. This moment in the opera comes after Charlotte’s two barn-burner arias, when she looks over her letters from Werther and realizes the depth of her feelings, Werther comes to see her in this moment of vulnerability, and recites this piece of poetry. It’s sexy and angsty and the build-up to the explosion of emotion that’s about to take place.  And because I’m me, I’ll just say: it’s dair-coded.

“Pietà! perdon!...O don fatale” — Don Carlos, Verdi†

Verdi wrote this opera for the bisexuals!!!! So, there’s a big ol’ convoluted love pentagon going on in the court of Phillip II of Spain, but what you need to know in this scene is: Eboli, a courtier and friend of the queen Elisabeth de Valois (daughter of Catherine de Medici, fun fact), frames Elisabeth for cheating on her husband with her stepson (complicated, I know). And Eboli is acting out of homoerotic jealousy because she wanted Carlo (the stepson) herself, and what is a rival if not a crush you’re mad about having? After her subterfuge blows up in her face, Eboli throws herself at Elisabeth’s feet begging for mercy (“pietà”), and confesses to setting Elisabeth up, and even, sleeping with the king. Elisabeth is heartbroken and furious at the betrayal, and banishes Eboli to a convent. Once alone, Eboli curses the beauty she was born with that brought her here, and laments that she’ll never see Elisabeth again (GAY). And then, she realizes there’s still a chance to save Carlo, who’s been jailed for treason.  This opera is in my top 5 favorites, and this excerpt has one of my top 5 favorite musical moments, the low strings after Eboli confesses, the pain and betrayal you can FEEL in the strings and it’s so !!!!! I am not capable of being normal about it. I’m listening while writing this and CHILLS (Also, I saw this live very recently and it was extraordinary! And they did something interesting with the supertitles and the acting that implied that – rather than a presumed consensual encounter – Phillip assaulted Eboli, which paints her aria cursing her looks in an entirely new light!!!!!) †I’ve not done this publicly, but it was in my repertoire

“E qual via scegliete?” — Tosca, Puccini†

I tried to keep this brief and not put on too many things, but I can’t not put Tosca on here! This is my second favorite part of the opera (my first favorite is the finale, but that’s like, only 30 seconds, so), and it fucks. Floria Tosca, a famous singer in Rome, is put in an impossible position by absolute dirtbag Scarpia, who takes her lover Mario Cavaradossi political prisoner. Cavaradossi, a republican and therefore enemy of the Italian state, is sentenced to death, but Scarpia promises he’ll set C free if Tosca spends a night with him. She’s heartbroken by this choice, but she agrees. She insists that Scarpia sign the paperwork granting the both of them safe passage out of Rome, and he also promises that the firing squad will fake C’s death to give them a cover to escape. The tension in this scene is delicious, and it builds and builds, and the STRINGS. While Scarpia is writing, Tosca takes a knife from his dinner table. When it’s done and her and her lover’s escape is promised (Scarpia will actually betray her one more time, but she doesn’t know that yet), Scarpia moves to put his arms around her (gross, I know), and says “Tosca, finalmente e mio! / Tosca is finally mine!” and she STABS him. Rather than being raped by this absolute toilet plunger of a man, she KILLS him. She stabs him, and he cries out and goes down, and she taunts him, telling him to “feel the kiss of Tosca” and she stands over him saying “Muori, muori,” in this raw, low voice like die, bitch! It is sooooo thrilling to watch. This is a scene I will never get tired of. In a genre where women characters are too frequently brutalized for nothing, seeing a woman kill her would-be rapist is just — so satisfying.  †I’ve only been in the chorus of this opera

“Ohimè!... morir mi sento!”(Scena del giudizio) — Aida, Verdi

Regrettably, my favorite mezzo recording of this (Dolora Zajick) involves both James Levine and Placido Domingo, both of whom are pieces of shit! I’ve selected Cossotto’s instead, but if you come away from this playlist knowing one thing, it’s that James Levine and Placido Domingo are pieces of shit whose supposed skill is not worth all the pain and misery they caused. And now back to the music! Also, this opera has a racist history that companies are still working to move away from. They could work a little bit faster, tbh. A favorite opera and a dream role for me, tbh. Amneris, daughter of the king, gets carried away with jealousy when she discovers the man of her affection, Radames, is in love with her servant Aida, a prisoner of war who turns out to be a princess of an enemy nation. Amneris’ fury gets Radames and Aida caught. Taken by regret and pain and, let’s face it, more homoerotic angst, Amneris eavesdrops on Radames’ trial before the elders, and her dread builds as Radames refuses to speak in his defense. He’s sentenced to death—buried alive—and Amneris and the orchestra react viscerally to the sentence. Like her pleas for mercy when the scene hits its climax, those pietas…

“O furibonda iena…Quest’ultimo bacio”* — La Gioconda, Ponchielli

UNDERRATED OPERA OF ALL TIME. No but really. This is just…everything. This is a grand opera masterwork by this guy, Amilcare, who was Puccini’s teacher, and so few people know about it which is a SHAME. But, understandable, it’s notoriously hard to produce, and expensive, since the finale of Act II involves sinking a pirate ship…but the MUSIC.  It’s another convoluted and vaguely homoerotic love triangle. Laura and Enzo were in love, then pulled apart. Enzo sought comfort in a singer, known only as La Gioconda, and she is madly in love with him, but when Laura comes back into his life, that’s it for him. There’s ship burnings and evil husbands and a ballet (which you may know as the K-9 Advantix commercial song), but it all comes to this finale. Though she vowed Laura was her rival, Gioconda learns that Laura saved her mother once, and was under her mother’s blessing, noted by the rosary Gioconda’s mother gave her, that Laura always carries with her. So, bound by honor to her mother and desire to see her ex Enzo happy, Gioconda schemes to help Laura fake her death to escape her abusive husband, and gets Enzo to come to them just as Laura’s waking up from her sleeping draught (think R&J, but happier ending).  Enzo comes in spitting mad, thinking Gioconda is responsible for his Laura’s death, and Gio—who’s going through some shit of her own—is ready to let him kill her, and then Laura wakes, and calls Enzo’s name, and the relief in the orchestra is PALPABLE, while Gioconda sings quietly to herself “oh darkness, hide me.” After they’ve reunited, Gioconda tells them the rest of her plan, she’s got a boat to get them out of the city, and from there they can start a new life. Through her own pain and grief, in an act of unbridled selflessness and compassion, she tells them: “Amatevi. Siate felici. / Love each other. Be happy.” and they thank her and promise to remember her. And, I mean, how often does the mezzo get to win like that?

LITTLE WOMEN* (2005) MY BELOVED. It’s not on spotify, but I couldn’t not put this opera on this playlist for you, Jo <333 so, please see below for youtube links. the story is already important to me, and being in the opera when I was in college only made it even more so, and it’s a forever favorite and forever special in my heart. This is the only contemporary opera on this list, and it’s a wide and varied field, but in many ways, it’s a host unto itself (but if anyone wants to hear more contemporary stuff, I’d be happy to share!) Now, LW has a mixed reputation amongst operaphiles, who’s to say why? Misogyny, misogyny is why. But more than that, LW is such a domestic drama in a way that is not really conventional in opera, with its fantasy plots and royal characters and otherworldliness about it, but LW has always been about the small intricacies of family, which is why when Greta Gerwig put in that line about domestic struggles and joys in her film I felt so fucking SEEN. It is a technically challenging work, rife with lots of 21st century music toughness that makes the music hard to learn, but it’s absolutely not inaccessible to listen to. But, you know, call a spade what it is, a goddamn shovel, and LW is an opera with a majority women cast. You can count the men in the show on one hand, and that combined with its lack of a typical “operatic” story, and it’s challenging 21st century sound, makes lots of people keen to dismiss it. But those people, are WRONG. It’s a beautiful opera, meaningful and powerful and it sounds pretty, and I will die on that hill. 

“Perfect as we are” — Little Women, Adamo

Jo has a total of…three? arias in the show, and this is the second. After a meeting of the pickwick club and a chat with Laurie, Jo is in her attic trying to write her next “potboiler,” but keeps getting distracted by what she and Laurie were talking about, mainly, the possibility of Meg being in love with Laurie’s tutor, Brooke. It’s another hint at the main conflict of the opera (which is plainly stated in the next selection). Jo is happy with her family and her best friend, and she doesn’t see why any of it has to change. But it won’t be up to her. I love this one because it goes back and forth between Jo trying to write and find the right words for her story, and monologuing at an invisible Laurie, and her monologue helps her find that word and then she’s back in it. It’s so whimsical and just very her. I love it so much. Low voice supremacy

“Things change, Jo”

THIS ARIA!!!!!! Jo is so upset when Meg decides to marry John Brooke, and she plaintively sings “Why don’t you love me anymore?” and her big sister says, “Of course I love you!....but once I saw him, once he looked at me….I can’t explain it, Jo. I love you. Things end – no,” and that’s the lead in to the aria. She’s trying to explain her heart to her sister, and the poetry of it is glorious and the MUSIC. It’s a plea, really, a begging for Jo to understand her side: childhood was always going to end, and what a happy ending. The “Things change, Jo,” leitmotif is repeated over and over again. It’s the central conflict: Jo versus Change. Laurie repeats the motif when he proposes to Jo, Beth repeats it as she’s dying (her death aria is EXQUISITE I just can’t include it here because it makes me too emotional), and interestingly, when Laurie and Amy are abroad together, he sings the dissonant three-note motif, and then Amy resolves it. “Things change, Amy.” / “And a good thing too.” GENIUS. Adamo is a genius. 

My best friend from college sings this aria and also preaches the gospel of Adamo’s LW to me, and she texted me out of the blue the other day: If someone doesn’t like Things Change Jo…they’re misogynist. I don’t make the rules. And she’s right. It may sound like I’m coming down hard but I have heard so many people (mostly cismen) talk down at this opera and at people for liking it, and I’m over it. It’s good!!!!!! This isn’t me trying to say “you better like this or ELSE” but “I have so much love for this and it means so much to me personally and so I dearly hope you’ll give yourself a chance to like it too.”

“Let me look at you”* (Quartet)

THEE finale! Jo is alone in her attic again, and she finally surrenders, to her grief, to the current of change running through her life. Surrounded by the ghosts of her sisters, she makes peace with each of them, and they sing about how life has pulled them to separate goals, but they will always still have the love between them. I want to cry even as I’m writing this, it’s so beautiful and so meaningful. Jo ends the quartet with the exact same line as the end of her aria above “how grateful I am,” but it means something different now!!!! And she echoes the melody of “perfect as we are” a minute later, when Bhaer knocks on the door and asks if now is a good time, she sings “Now is all there is.” best finale ever. Except tosca, maybe.

I sang the role of Marmee when I was in the opera, but on my senior recital, this was my closer, and I sang it with 3 of my closest friends who were also graduating that year. Our groupchat is still called the March Sisters. And. AND. my friend who sang Meg is getting married next summer, and we are all bridesmaids. She really did find her knight 😭😭😭😭😭

[terrainofheartfelt]

Gossip Girl Playlists: Theatre Kid AU edition!—Serena’s

[Blair's] [Dan’s] [Nate’s] 

I don’t even remember exactly how this started, but it’s @strideofpride’s fault. 

The concept began as: if they were in this world, what would be in the GG mains’ MT books? What would be their go-to song? Their 16 bar cut? And then, I got on spotify, and got wayyyy too carried away (typical me), and it sort of morphed into: what are the NJBC’s (plus Daniel’s) senior musical theatre recital programs? And now I have this: a quartet of playlists of repertoire handpicked by me for these fake people, and I am very proud of them. 

All selections based on my very particular taste, honed from a childhood in community theater, an adolescence in high school musicals, and a 4 year degree from a majority musical theatre school

And, as in the tradition of Glee and all plays within a play, the rep reflects something profoundly personal about the character, because you know I love a theme. 

the meta:

So Serena’s type…it’s the same with Nate, too, in that people try to pigeon-hole her into one, but she’s not really into it. She isn’t one for the leading ladies for multiple reasons: a): her personality does not vibe, because the villains and the old ladies (and the overlap of both) is so much more fun to her, b): she’s kind of shut herself out of wanting to be for Blair’s sake, because she doesn’t want to compete with her for the same stuff, and c): she’s as tall/taller than most male leads in her program. 

Her voice: hmmmmmm she IS a belter, or can be one, but it’s not — it’s not this weak sauce, nasal belting, and it isn’t high, like she’s not up in the stratosphere, yk? It’s a little rough and tumble, deeper, rounder, lower. She can get Up There, but it’s not where she lives. (Like S floated Laura Bell Bundy, but her voice is SO high, and rings in a way that’s so specific to her that I don’t really hear it for Serena. It’s a vibe, idk.) 

Oh, and she’s a ~dancer~ like Natie.

References: Bernadette Peters, Jane Krakowski, Kristin Chenoweth (for the Comedy and for that oldies golden-age country crooner kind of belt), and early Idina Menzel, pre-Elphaba pre-let’s write roles that shouldn’t be physiologically possible, and a girl from my voice studio I’ll call Heather, because she looked a bit like Blake Lively and had the voice I’m casting in this playlist. 

the tracklist:

Don’t Tell Mama — Cabaret

It’s just…so perfect. On so many meta-levels

Sally Bowles does not want you to tell her mother about her career change

A Trip to the Library — She Loves Me

Bc S’s au was so SPOT ON with this casting choice, omg. 

The darling, if a little bit ditzy, Ilona is definitely over her ex now, after a meet cute in the library. 

A Cockeyed Optimist — South Pacific

The only leading lady that both Blair and Serena are perfectly suited for. Imagine a plot where they both go out for it, then are double cast, all that delicious blairena drama…

Nellie talks to the dapper Emil, and reveals her personality, unshaken despite literally living in the middle of a world war 

Sonya & Natasha (duet w/ Blair) — Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812

I really think this works best with the duet and solo ballad playing one right after the other. it’s all that stuff all those web weaving posts are about, girls loving with claw marks and teeth and blood but nobody else will love you as fiercely and as loyally. It’s the best friendship of it all.

Natasha’s cousin-but-good-as-sister Sonya discovers and calls her out on her emotional affair with a RAKE to whom she is not engaged. Absolutely brutal girl-best-friend fight ensues. 

Sonya Alone — Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812

When her cousin shuts her out, Sonya remains determined to save her from herself. 

Through the Mountain — Floyd Collins

A hidden gem in a hidden gem of an esoteric kind of musical. But the song is gorgeous (also composed by Richard Rogers’ grandson Adam Guettel, in a genre I’m calling neoromantic bluegrass)

I picked the Audra performance bc I love her, and for the guitar, because musician!Dan my most beloved

While her brother, Floyd, is trapped in an underground cave, Nellie sings this promise to save him. 

Over the Moon — Rent

Like, ~serena the actress~ not doing Maureen is so implausible I cannot entertain the notion. Also, like, just imagine her in a performance—not even the whole show, just her recital or a cabaret—getting the crowd to moo with her. Only thee SVDW could. 

Take It Like a Man (duet w/ Dan) — Legally Blonde

I stand by what I said earlier re: Laura Bell Bundy, and while Serena is not a “so much better” belter, she could so sell this. And with Dan!!! It’s perfect!

Okay I have strong opinions on this but this is actually a perfect, feel-good musical. So many bangers, a genius adaptation of a beloved film, a balance that not many musicals in the same genre strike. (a guy judged me recently for calling it perfect and honestly fuck that guy. anyways).

Elle takes her best law school friend, Emmett, shopping for grownup lawyer clothes for their case. Feelings ensue.

Gorgeous — The Apple Tree: Passionella

Okay so I’ve never seen this show, but this song is basically about a “homely” girl who magically becomes ~sexy~ and she is Living for it — it’s a twist on the Cinderella myth, essentially. It was made famous by KChen in a revival. 

Turn Back, O Man — Godspell

For no other reason than I can imagine Serena having the most fun with it. 

The legendary Stephen Schwartz musical in which the only named characters are Judas and Jesus, it’s a…loose storytelling of the gospel. 

The designated soloist opens Act II with this song, which, for telling people to forswear sin and give up things of this world, it sounds hella sexy. (I chose the revival w/ Morgan James bc she’s one of my fave singers and hoooo. She can wail.)

Hard to Be the Bard — Something Rotten

A gender-bender song because Serena would. And let us never forget Serena, Founder of the Shakespeare Club my beloved. 

Poor ol’ Billy Shakes is struggling with the trappings of fame. 

Changing My Major — Fun Home

Harold. 

College-age Alison wakes up after a night of passion (her very first one) and is adorably and emotionally changed forever. 

The Life of the Party — The Wild Party

It’s Serena (one aspect of her character) wrapped up into one MT song. It’s perfect. 

A musical about a Fitzgerald kind of bacchanal, during which things get truly wild: alcohol, abuse, adultery….murder. Kate, a flapper if there ever was one, opens Act 2 with a salute to the party life. 

If You Ever See Me Talking to a Sailor — The Last Ship

Remember when Sting wrote a musical about some gruff northern english shipbuilders? No? Well, it kind of flopped, BUT I think it’s great. And the music slaps (it’s by Sting, hello) and this song slaps. 

Meg, a badass MILF who’s been hurt one too many times tells everyone in the pub of this seaside town why sailor’s ain’t shit. because her first love ran away on a boat after he (unknowingly) knocked her up? maybe so.

If You Hadn’t But You Did — Two on the Aisle

Written for a 50s Bway revue, KChen revived this into one of her staples on a studio recording. The wronged woman, but make it both deadly AND hilarious. And patter. 

Mamma Mia — Mamma Mia

Because S said it belonged here and she is RIGHT. Like, in a ~serena the Actress~ world, I see her starting off with the Maureens and the comic sexy relief before happily aging into Donna and everything Bernadette Peters ever did. 

Donna, on this, the eve of her daughter’s wedding, discovers that not one, but three of her exes (and all incidentally the possible biological father of said daughter) have been invited. Shenanigans and Abba ensue. 

People — Funny Girl

Idk if I would have her do this whole role, but I think she would love Babs and love this song (and she can absolutely do “Jingle Bells?” as a party trick at holiday gigs). 

Fanny Brice, charismatic comedienne full of ambition sings this number towards the close of act 1, as she begins to fall for Nicky Arnstein. 

Get Happy/Happy Days Are Here Again (duet with Blair) — as performed by Judy and Barbra

It’s about the BEST FRIENDS. And about that gorgeous, full, round, vibratoed belt. 

A mashup duet made famous from Judy Garland and Barbra Streisand’s performance on the Judy Garland show. Judy sings Harold Arlen’s “Get Happy” which she made famous in the movie Summer Stock, and Babs sings Milton Ager’s pop standard “Happy Days,” one of her most famous singles. 

[terrainofheartfelt]

twin flame bruise

Rating: T | 15k

All I could do was love you hard, and let you go.

A Derena Last Five Years AU

image sources: (x)(x)(x)(x)(x)(x)

[terrainofheartfelt]

Gossip Girl Playlists: Theatre Kid AU edition! —Nate’s

[Blair's] [Dan's] [Serena's]

I don’t even remember exactly how this started, but it’s @strideofpride’s fault. 

The concept began as: if they were in this world, what would be in the GG mains’ MT books? What would be their go-to song? Their 16 bar cut? And then, I got on spotify, and got wayyyy too carried away (typical me), and it sort of morphed into: what are the NJBC’s (plus Daniel’s) senior musical theatre recital programs? And now I have this: a quartet of playlists of repertoire handpicked by me for these fake people, and I am very proud of them. 

All selections based on my very particular taste, honed from a childhood in community theater, an adolescence in high school musicals, and a 4 year degree from a majority musical theatre school

And, as in the tradition of Glee and all plays within a play, the rep reflects something profoundly personal about the character, because you know I love a theme. 

the meta:

Okay so Nate’s was realllllyyyyy hard to pin down, which makes sense because he as a character is hard to pin down, bc the show really only treated him like a whole-ass person for like 2 seasons. But, the beauty of men in musical theatre is they have much more license to just….do whatever the fuck they want—as opposed to women who get put into teeny tiny uncastable little boxes (but that’s a rant for another day). 

The point is, Nate’s type: because of his looks and talent, people try to put him in the romantic leading man box, but he finds that sooooooo boooooooring. He does play some himbos (bc, why not play to your strengths?) but he gravitates to roles that are more of a stretch. The fun roles, the character roles. The ones that less enlightened folk would say he’s “too pretty to play.” He likes to go for the laugh! He doesn’t want to be Billy Bigelow, he wants to be the Emcee! (I also see him having a great run being one of Les Amis in Les Mis in his 20s; and as the hot boy in Mamma Mia.)

His range is—and I hate that I’m saying this but it really is applicable to men in MT–bari-tenor. He can get up there when he wants to, but doesn’t necessarily want to live in the land of the high belt. He has a great low range that makes him prime golden age hunk material, but again, not really his thing. Also, theatrekid!Nate is a DANCER. He’s good on his feet and he knows it!

References: Hugh Jackman, Jonathan Groff, Derek Klena, Killian Donnely, Matthew Morrison (but like, with a better personality); and a kid in my voice studio who I’ll call Bobby, who had the rich low range of a deep voiced angel but could dance his lil heart out. 

the tracklist:

The Streets of Dublin — A Man of No Importance

A story about an Oscar Wilde stan who’s trying his darnedest to put on Salome with his community theater group. He tries to convince his hunky buddy Robbie to join in, but it’s not really Robbie’s thing. 

I’m Not That Smart — The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee

A zany raunchy comedy where grown ass adults play 12 year olds battling to the bitter end for a spot in the national spelling bee. 

Leaf, a homeschool kid, is endearing, if easily distracted.

Joey, Joey, Joey — The Most Happy Fella

I’ll be honest, I just like this one because when sung right, it’s soooooo hot. 

A traveling farmhand (can you guess his name?) explains why he never stays too long in one place. There’s lots of plot happening around him, but his only job as a character is to be sexy and cause problems. 

Try to Remember — The Fantasticks

It’s the world’s longest running musical ever, so it must be doing something right! It’s an inverse Romeo and Juliet. Two fathers pretend to feud for years, to reverse psychology their children into falling in love. There’s also this spanish bandit? Idk. the fathers go a bit overboard with the plot and some strife happens, but there’s a happy ending!

This is the show opener, sung by the narrator/Spaniard-ex-machina El Gallo

Brush up Your Shakespeare (duet w/ Dan) — Kiss Me, Kate

A musical version of Taming with the Shrew is trying to get off the ground. There’s mobsters and divorced exes with sexual tension and lots of nonsense. And this bop. 

Agony (duet w/ Dan) — Into the Woods 

The only good thing that movie version gave me was Chris Pine tearing his shirt open. Ok, whore. 

Two princes, one in love with Cinderella and one in love with Rapunzel, commiserate on their love lives. I’d call them himbos, but they don’t respect women enough. They’re kinda just sluts. 

I’d Rather Be Sailing — A New Brain

See title for why I picked it. 

The show was written from the composer’s experience when he was diagnosed and treated for an AVM. this song is actually sung by the main character’s boyfriend, so it nautical AND gay!

The Song that Goes Like This (duet w/ Serena) — Spamalot

I can so see Serena and Nate just enjoying being little freaks on stage together, they feed off each other and are big hams. 

Sir Gahalad and the Lady of the Lake tick off the box of the broadway love ballad. And they break some glass. 

I Am Aldopho — The Drowsy Chaperone

Severely underrated musical. This and Curtains are both wild, gershwin-y sounding romps where I don’t really remember the plot, but I remember not being able to breathe for laughing. This show is about a grand 20s wedding, but there’s hijinks afoot, and the bride’s chaperone is drowsy because she’s drunk, and for some reason the Spaniard-ex-machina, Aldolfo, tries to seduce her with this song. I can’t not picture this scene without a cape. 

I Don’t Care Much — Cabaret

I just think. Nate would be such a good MC. I want that for him. I really do. 

MC sings this song as narration, when singer Sally fights with her lover Cliff. Lots of shit is going on, but it’s really about the desperation and precipice and uncertainty that the MC and the Kit Kat Clubbers are living in in jazz age berlin.  

You’ve Got to Be Carefully Taught — South Pacific

MT guys get cast in this role if they look good shirtless, so. And it’s a better song than Younger than Springtime, like, yeesh. (this is the soldier set. I think Nate could also play that Miss Saigon guy, I don’t know the whole show well but I tried to listen to the guys big solo and I could not. anyway.)

Even though he’s in love, Lt. Cable’s deeply entrenched racism causes him to be a total jerk to his wartime love, Liat. Nellie’s same deeply entrenched racism ends her relationship with hot french dilf, Emile, when Emile seeks out advice, this song is Cable’s answer. 

Come Back — Dogfight

Everybody was losing their minds over DEH but the real Pasek and Paul opus is this musical. It only ran off broadway but the feelings! And the songs! 

In SF, a young GI meets and falls for a girl the day before he ships out to Vietnam, also the day before JFK’s assassination. This is the eleven o’clock number. He’s returning home, haunted, and broken, a marked contrast to the kid who left. 

Make ‘Em Laugh — Singin’ in the Rain

A classic! Nate the actor would always be going for the bits 

I Can’t Be Bothered Now — Crazy for You

a role for a DANCER. Bobby is a blue-blood banker’s son who just wants to dance. His mission takes him to a small cow town out west where he puts on a show. Gershwinian nonsense like that. It is very cute, though. 

Moon-faced, Starry-eyed (duet w/ Serena) — Street Scene

Street Scene is technically an opera, but it’s a big extravagant blending of musical styles, from romantic 1900s opera to 1940s jazz. Guess which end of the spectrum this one’s on. It’s the comedic dance break before shit hits the fan in this New York apartment building. I can so see besties Serena and Nate being complete hams in this number.

Mae, a tenant of the building, comes back from a night out with her boyfriend, Dick. They are drunk and they are dancing!

Soul of a Man — Kinky Boots

Nate wearing those shoes. Send post. 

Charlie makes the bold—but sound! —business decision to redirect the family shoe factory to produce shoes designed and marketed towards drag queens. When Charlie snaps from the pressure of running the business, he ponders his family legacy and “what does it mean to be a Man”? Nathaniel-coded!

Not the Boy Next Door — Boy from Oz

I just think….theatre kid!Nate is soooo gay. And being in the “gay by may” MT major world, he grows into himself in a marvelous way. 

Aussie musical legend Peter Allen returns to Australia after his separation from Liza Minelli, and realizes he’s grown out of the place. Also he’s so very Not-Straight.

[terrainofheartfelt]

wait why do they not let opera singers start singing until they’re older???? like i kinda understand the logic with dance/sports - people’s physical abilities do tend to wain as they get older and experience more injuries (although the weigh in thing is absolutely FUCKED, especially for ballet and gymnastics), but i can’t even fathom how being older would necessarily make you a better singer. more experienced probably, but how is a singer supposed to get experience if they can’t work in the field at all before then??? aren’t there any roles for younger people in opera by virtue of the characters they’re singing for??

Hi ty for asking!

I guess I should probably start with a clarification, in opera, you can sing starting in your late teens on, but you are in training for several years, in school, in trade training programs, and so you aren’t professionally singing leading roles at the top of the marquee until your 30s at LEAST. So there’s multiple reasons for that — and bear with me because it’s been like 6 years since my pedagogy class, but the main reason one can’t typically jump from getting their bachelors straight into professional mainstage classical singing is that the voice is like, the last thing to complete aging in your body. You know how your frontal lobe doesn’t finish developing until you’re in your mid20s? It’s the same with your voice.

So your vocal folds—the bit of anatomy in your larynx where the magic happens—is legit an incredible piece of engineering, it’s folds (the colloquial term is chords, but folds is more accurate) of tissue, that, when you speak and sing, kind of…flap, oscillate together at high-frequency—that’s where the sound comes from, and with singing, it’s at a much higher intensity than speaking. And before the voice finishes aging, those folds are — for lack of a better term — soft, and pliable, and highly subject to injury.

Sidebar: That’s why if you ask any classically trained singer about those tv reality talent show children that “sing opera” they get incensed, because physiologically speaking, that kid is shredding their voice by forcing it to do something it anatomically can’t yet. It’s NOT impressive, it’s destructive.

Another sidebar: there’s a video out there somewhere of Steve Tyler from Aerosmith singing with a scope in his throat so you can see his folds vibrating and it’s fucking GNARLY. singing is intense. He’s awesome.

In your mid20s, those folds ossify into sturdier cartilage, which means the voice is hardier and has more stamina and strength.

So, knowing all that: classical singing is hard. It’s ATHLETIC. It burns calories! my old voice teacher used to say. It takes lots of breath control, lots of practice, and years building up healthy technique — technique that prevents injury and fatigue.

And, this is opera we’re talking about. There’s no amplification. No microphones. A voice has to be heard over an entire orchestra, you need training and stamina to make that happen. So it takes 4 years of training, but practically 6, bc most gigs won’t even look at you without a masters. And even then, you might be benched for awhile.

And it’s also all on a spectrum too, depending on the range and size of a voice (and different voice types are suited to different musical eras and roles) like higher, smaller voices mature in less time and are therefore hire-able in less time. Like, that post was a joke, but they were pretty accurate, dramatic baritones and basses are not taken seriously at all really until at least they’re 30s, and are probs not debuting until their 40s. Me, I’m on that end of the spectrum, my voice is low, and big. The analogy my teacher used was “Mac truck” my technique lessons were about “learning to drive the mac truck.” So I knew from the get go that it was gonna take my voice a WHILE to finish cooking. My coach told me once that one day after I turn 25, everything will magically be easier (vocal technique wise). But then I turned 25 in the middle of a pandemic and had been decidedly Not Singing for several months…so. Though, that Christmas when I had to sing in church, it felt real good. Better than I had anticipated…

Another sidebar: and singing is so so so much more personal than any other kind of music making, because you are the instrument, the instrument is in you, and it’s organic, and no other type of musician has to reckon with that kind of intimacy and change. You don’t have people sitting around waiting for their oboe to ripen. (Not to diminish the hard work instrumentalists put in like damn I wish I’d stuck it out with piano maybe I’d be happier)

So, there’s a real reason for it, but, there’s also a lot of pearl-clutching in the business about what young voices and young, dramatic voices (that’s what I have, a dramatic voice) should and shouldn’t do. And there’s several conceits of the business that are, to put it simply, absolutely fucked. Like, you do your six years of school, but if you go straight through, then you’re still 23, and unless you’re a perfect tiny Mozart soubrette, you’re not really finished cooking. The bridge between school and singing grown up lead roles is supposed to be apprenticeships, but those are so Fucked. They’ve become less about hiring quality singers and training them—hiring voices with potential and giving them lessons and concert performances and letting them learn roles without the strain of performing on a huge stage with an orchestra—and more about hiring cheap labor to round out casts by throwing them bit parts, small roles that only have a few lines here and there—those are the roles for younger people you asked about. Comprimario is the industry term. But companies are only hiring people they know they cam put on a stage immediately, there’s no interest in training anymore, so smaller voices are fine working that way, but a girl like me gets nowhere. I did an audition for a company where I’d worked before and had a great relationship with all the people, and when I walked out the door—after absolutely crushing it—one of them said “that was great. it’s a shame we have nothing to give her.” (I know this because the person they were talking to is my best friend). and that’s not even getting into the fucking extortion that is pay to sings and application fees and audition fees. One’s only hope as a young dramatic voice in the apprenticeship world, really, is to either go to Germany—where they are much less pearl clutchey about age—or land where there’s a director or conductor who cares enough about your potential to keep hiring you, even if they can’t “use” you in their season. And at this point in time, I got neither of those.

So, with all that, the question is: is opera even worth it? And tbh the pandemic answered that question for me before I could, but…fuck, somedays (like now since I’m writing this ask about it) I miss it. Like, it feels like a part of myself is missing from me. Because damn, there’s nothing like it, singing. Not even the full shebang with orchestras and costumes but just singing arias in my best friends’ living room while we’re drunk on two buck chuck…there’s nothing like it. 

tldr: it’s a combination of a real, physiological reason, combined with the fact that the industry is fucked, and said industry has cards stacked against people who aren’t socio-economically capable of waiting for their voice to age.

[terrainofheartfelt]

⭐️! -nads <3

Dair + Camille Claudel + tonight, where I'm set alight

I'll thread this needle I promise just tryin to explain my train of thought. (and this goes into some wip territory, just let it go there)

Now Nads, you and I know & love Claudel, but a brief overview for the rest of the class is the Claudel was a rising star of French sculpture in the late 19th century and had to endure a lot of bullshit for being a woman sculptor in Paris in the late 19th century, and she is most linked with Rodin, because he was her teacher for a time, and then her lover after that, which of course people took SO WELL. and anyways, she died feeling mostly forgotten, and the most famous of her works live in Musee Rodin, the former home and now museum of the man who was (to put it simplistically and a little over-poetically) her ruin.

I became a fan of Claudel after learning about her work through the song cycle Into the Fire by Jake Heggie, which is a period drama biopic with a half-hour of art song, each song inspired by a sculpture or her writings or accounts of her friends. My favorite work and song is La Valse, the refrain of the song is:

Console, oh, console my eyes with beauty / allow me to forget / that every dance of love / is mingled with regret

So, I love Claudel's work, and I thought that Blair, as an art lover, and being a woman who's gone through what she's gone through, would feel a connection to Claudel (something YOU Nads, put so beautifully into your own work). So when I wrote the Dairis chapters in gladly beyond any experience my nerdy heart just HAD to do a nod to Claudel. with La Valse, of course:

“But it’s sitting here, in his house, with his art. All because he wrecked her and called it love.” She sees out of the corner of her eye Dan turn to look at her intently. “And she faded away.”

“But you’re still here,” he says gently. The corners of her lips twitch upward, but she keeps her eyes on the statue.

and in this au, I actually have a list of novel ideas for Dan as the years go on (the google doc[s] for this thing are outright ridiculous), and I hint at the next with this line:

As they make their way through the garden, he says casually, thoughtfully, “It does make for a good story. Camille Claudel.”

Her eyebrows quirk up, “That’s your line of work, not mine.”

She can see his eyes light up as he grins, practically hearing the wheels already turning in his head.

so, to give a sneak peak at future installments of Mouthful of Forevers, Dan writes a historical novel, about Camille Claudel, and THIS is the dedication of said novel, something I put down in my notes, probs a year ago:

For Blair, who, like this heroine, is not a muse, but art and artist in her own right.

and I think about that line I wrote A LOT (is that vain of me?), and it directly inspired this passage in my most recent smutfic (because even when he's not writing about her, he's writing about her):

He melts into the touch, exhaling, wanting to make himself malleable, to be sculpted over in her image, made new by her hand. A magazine profile tried to call her his muse once, but it isn’t true. She is art and artist in and of herself. His writing—just like he is here—is in service of her, not the other way round.

told ya I'd tie it all together! I hope you enjoyed this convoluted journey through my writing brain. sometimes it feels like that screencap from It's Always Sunny. y'all know the one. of Charlie and the bulletin board with red yarn.

Fanfic Writers: Director’s Cut ask game

[terrainofheartfelt]

Summary: Her first gig directing at a summer festival, and she gets stuck with Greenwood Lake’s Benedict Arnold.

Part 1 of The Pretentious Classical Music AU that no one asked for