#Vois sous l'archet frémissant

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Violin Night

not a night where I play the violin, but a night where I get angsty about violins.

(as requested)

sometimes I hype myself up with some self-indulgent rereading of my own work (analysis of this aria)

some night during the summer, every year for the past three years, when I am angsty and extra gay and feel like bruising my soul (in the best way), I crack open my laptop, get comfy, grab a plate of chocolate chip cookies (usually) and pull up the youtube.

I watch as many videos of Nicklausse’s Violin Aria as I can. and only this aria. no sidetracks, no getting distracted by algorithm recs or new productions I want to watch. just me and the violin and the gayy. 

there’s about five main ones I always watch, which I’ll delineate below. I like to start by seeking out some new ones; see if there are some I haven’t come across yet. this year I found some interesting ones.

for this one I was a little too distracted by the sets and creepy background movement to really focus on the aria. I want to watch this whole production--I want to figure out what it is.

this one looks kind of like it was a filmed dress rehearsal. weird to hear it without the violin, but the piano is great. Not feeling too much between these two here.

I discovered this one last year. it’s so gay. I wish the whole production was available. can you imagine?? I love these two! they’re so sweet to each other!

this is another one I dearly wish we could have more of. there are a few other videos floating around out there, but not nearly enough. look at how tender this Nicklausse is! he loves his poet so much! and Hoffmann is conflicted; I can only imagine the angst in the rest of the production. I want it.

then I merge into my go-tos, my every years, my favorites, my beloveds. the exact order depends on what I’m feeling, but I tend to save the angstiest for last.

getting the quintessential Susanne Mentzer in both of her show-stopping performances.

he’s so assured in this one, so confident, and yet so wistful. he’s not afraid of losing Hoffmann because he knows they are irrevocably, irreplaceably intertwined.

(and tumblr isn’t letting me attach any more videos, so part 2 coming in a reblog.)

[infinitelytheheartexpands]

i’m fine i’m fine i’m fine <- lying

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seriously they did not write this for us to just walk away and forget about it. I lost my mind when I heard this the first time. There is no way to stage this without it being one of the most important moments of the act, if not the entire opera. There's nothing with the same mixture of lovely, mysterious, ethereal, and yearning in the entire show. This is the real love story right here.

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okay but if those aren’t seduction eyes idk what life is

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Love & Art

for people who are curious why I get so fired up over the Violin Aria.

(Note: the literary criticism in this post draws from the various versions of the libretto I’ve read. I won’t specify which ones where, because that’d just get tedious. Basically I’m compiling evidence from all the ones I’ve read. Also, some productions stage things in direct opposition to the libretto--something we’re in general familiar with as opera nerds. So if some things seem in contrast to what you’re familiar with, that is probably why. Regardless, I hope my ramblings make enough sense for you to follow, even if the evidence I present is not familiar to you. Thanks for indulging my lit crit nerdiness.)

In order to understand why the Violin Aria is so significant, we must first take a look at the relationships in this opera--specifically the romantic ones, and in particular the relationships between Hoffmann and Antonia, and Hoffmann and Nicklausse.

There are some arguments that Antonia is Hoffmann’s only “true” love in the opera. There’s some validity to that—Stella rejects him (in some versions, because he publicly disrespects her; in others, because she’s flighty); Olympia is a robot and thus incapable of love; and Giulietta has ulterior motives and her professions of love are lies. Antonia, though, clearly loves Hoffmann, and he clearly loves her. They get the only genuine love duet in the opera; they have a love song they wrote together. Hoffmann asks her to marry him, and she accepts. They missed each other terribly in their time apart; Antonia pining away, Hoffmann spending weeks searching for her.

All that is to say, there’s a lot of evidence to support a genuine romantic relationship between these two, in comparison with the other three, which…aren’t.

But there isn’t a lot of discussion on how this love directly relates to that of Nicklausse/the Muse. The Muse is the only one aside from Antonia who flat-out states their love for Hoffmann (genuinely). As Nicklausse, this character shows love and devotion as well: following Hoffmann on all of his adventures, rescuing him from death multiple times, providing emotional support, and “winning the prize for common sense,” as Hoffmann himself puts it.

In real life, Stella is the Muse’s rival because of Hoffmann’s infatuation with her and the way she put “a chain around his neck,” distracting him from his poetry--and, by extension, the Muse. In Hoffmann’s fantasy world, Antonia is Nicklausse’s main rival because hers is the only genuine love that Hoffmann receives from the various incarnations of his ladies. Despite this, though, Antonia is the only one that Nicklausse doesn’t vocally oppose. In Act 1, he tries multiple times to tell Hoffmann his love for Olympia is futile. In Act 3, he warns Hoffmann not to trust Giulietta, and tries to take him away from her more than once. But with Antonia, he makes no declarations against her. He just relates her soul to that of a violin.

Nicklausse is clearly a rival for Hoffmann’s affections, and that’s obvious not only to us gay nerds, but to the other characters in the opera as well. There’ll be another post on that at some point, with more detail, but for the purposes of this piece, I’ll bring in one specific example: Nicklausse is not allowed onstage when Hoffmann is with his ladies.

(This is following the libretto specifically; some productions stage it differently.)

In Act 1, Nicklausse is forced by Spalanzani to leave with the rest of the guests after Olympia’s performance, leaving Hoffmann alone with her. In Act 3, Dapertutto physically prevents Nicklausse from following Hoffmann when he goes after Giulietta (in some versions). In the Epilogue, Nicklausse exits as Stella comes in, telling Hoffmann he has to choose between them. In Act 2, Nicklausse leaves discreetly when Antonia comes in. It’s notably different from the others because, unlike in Acts 1 or 3, he’s not compelled by another character to leave, and unlike in the Epilogue, he doesn’t make a point to check in with Hoffmann before he leaves. He just ducks out quietly, saying (in most versions) his presence is “too much,” and the others don’t even notice.

Nicklausse doesn’t oppose Antonia like he opposes the other loves, which is interesting given we’ve established that Antonia is the only other “true” love and thus the greatest rival (in this fantasy world, anyway). Nicklausse doesn’t want to fight with Hoffmann over Antonia. Fighting over “true love” is different from fighting against a seductress or a siren song (or the ridiculousness of being in love with a robot). Stella, Giulietta, and even Olympia are toxic loves. Antonia isn’t. She’s definitely an obstacle for Nicklausse, but not destructive in the same way for Hoffmann. And Nicklausse cares about Hoffmann enough not to bash Antonia. Knowing Hoffmann’s romanticism and idealism, that probably wouldn’t work anyway. Instead of directly opposing Antonia, Nicklausse redirects by pointing out some practical obstacles—Antonia’s father disliking Hoffmann and Hoffmann’s bad luck with love so far; and, finally, by singing the Violin Aria, one of the most beautiful love songs in opera—and yes, it is a love song.

Critics may say that the Violin Aria is about Antonia, because it’s about art and love. Here’s how that doesn’t work, though.

The Violin Aria relates art and love as being inseparable, and extremely powerful because of that. Nicklausse describes the “heavenly tones” of the music from the violin, which he declares represent love, concluding with “Poet, give your heart!” Hoffmann is described as both a poet and a musician, so these are metaphors that would resonate strongly with him. The music from the instrument—art—is love. The poet must give his heart. Nicklausse is showing Hoffmann that love and art can co-exist in beautiful collaboration. That’s the essence of what the Muse is: in the Prologue and Epilogue, Hoffmann’s love comes in the form of his artistic collaboration with the Muse. By choosing to be a poet, Hoffmann chooses love.

That’s why this song can’t possibly be about Antonia. While Nicklausse describes the sublime interconnectedness of love and art, everyone else is forced to choose between the two. When Antonia chooses her art, she loses her love; and when she attempted to choose love, it was at the expense of her artistic aspirations. For her, love and art cannot co-exist; they’re opposing forces that can’t be reconciled. That’s the opposite of what Nicklausse is talking about.

Hoffmann faces the same decision in his interactions with the ladies. In order to be with Olympia, he has to abandon his poetry in favor of science. With Antonia, he leaves his art behind because he’s so distracted trying to find her. And with Giulietta, there’s pretty much no room for anything else, let alone art, when he’s entrapped in her sensuality. He throws his life (and life savings) to chance because he’s given up on love and art, and it almost destroys him. Finally, there's Stella, who has Hoffmann infatuated to the point where he's neglecting his art as he attempts to secure her affections.

In other words, Hoffmann is in a constant state of having to choose between love and art. And just as Antonia is the only “true” love amongst the ladies, she is also the most vivid personification of this struggle. She finds she can’t have the best of both worlds; she has to choose between her art—singing—and her love—Hoffmann. She literally dies because of her conflict between love and art. Since Antonia isn’t actually a real person, this is a manifestation of Hoffmann’s own internal struggle. All of the ladies are, but Antonia is the most graphic and literal.

While all of these loves present a conflict between love and art, portraying their seeming inability to co-exist, Nicklausse is exactly the opposite.

In order to win Hoffmann’s love, the Muse has to convince Hoffmann to return to his poetry. Devoting himself to the Muse is the only way Hoffmann can indulge in both love and art. He’s not the puppet of a scientist trying to show off his robotic accomplishment, or stuck in the middle of a virtuoso’s inner conflict, or the plaything of a devil and a seductress, or the object of a siren’s fleeting affections. He’s protected by the love and inspiration of his truest and dearest friend, who’s stuck with him through thick and thin, patiently waiting for the moment where they can take Hoffmann for their own.

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do you want to know how infuriating this is because

1) despite the fact that this company has posted several full operas on its channel, they did not post this one in its entirety; and

2) it looks so incredibly gay???? and not only are we deprived of the entire performance, they literally cut the ending of this one off mid-note so we don’t see what happens after Nicklausse finishes singing (and if you have time I highly encourage watching this because it is so gay and the ending is...well I wish we got to see what happened because it looks VERY promising) (though prepare to be infuriated because we don’t actually get to see it happen)

from the other clips I saw, too, it just looks so very cute and gay and I’m extremely sad we can’t get the whole thing (I even asked them if there was a full recording of this performance available and they said no).

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“DUDE THE VIOLIN IS ME HOW ARE YOU NOT GETTING THIS”

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fkn end me

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if i wasn’t dead earlier i am now bye

[infinitelytheheartexpands]

today’s vibe

[infinitelytheheartexpands]

10-piece morning mix, September 14, 2021:

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when your boyfriend is so emotionally unavailable you turn to instruments for comfort