#idk if that was the point to gounod

[shredsandpatches]

Fell down an old reviews rabbit hole on my lunch hour and once again am pondering the tendency reviewers have to discuss the Gounod Faust as though Marguerite is being punished by the narrative instead of just the world around her. Like, okay, it's not as clear about that as the source material (and Gounod was a conflicted but observant Catholic, whereas Goethe was not a believer), but. I feel like you see this the most from reviewers who really like the baritone singing Valentin, who is the main voice of traditional morality in both the opera and its source material--but while the operatic version of him isn't as nasty as Goethe's, you know a character is in the wrong when an opera chorus tells him to maybe ease up on the slut-shaming. Slut-shaming is like half of what opera choruses do!

[aturnipsingularity]

Can that day be today?? I want to see ur trinket collection 👉👈

So, technically, this isn't everything. I'm still trying to figure out where everything is bc I'm in the process of getting rid of a LOT of stuff -- spring cleaning turbo mode and all. But here's what I could find! Keep in mind that these are all what I would classify as trinkets. If we're talking collections, then we're tackling a different beast entirely.

So! To start off with, here's the things that don't necessarily have a home yet. I keep them in a Tate's Cookies tin --

I have every bouncy ball known to man plus one (1) jack

Toys I got years ago from quarter machines, an old keychain, a bell, a small turtle, some charms, a button, and a single, tiny bead

Stuff I got as souvenirs! Yes, I own a fidget cube, yes I use it (not this one tho I have a green and black one I use). The marbles are actually my favorites I own, but I do have a BIG tube just full of marbles. Maybe I'll take a tour through those someday. I also have a box of sea shells one of my brother's exes gave me. I want to point out the Volkswagen minibus specifically bc it's one of my dream vehicles. It'd be so cute to own one.

I have this mini gear shifter an old coworker gave me. It's part of a keychain!

I also have this music box. It plays an excerpt from Yellow Submarine.

Then we have all of my stress/squishy trinkets -- plus a few extras. They're on my pride shelf with a ton of stuff I got from friends/Pride events over the years. Below that is part of my Funko collection, but we can go into that another day.

Here's most of my crystals/rocks! I should note that I don't actually use these for a spiritual purpose. I just really like rocks. I do own books on different types of witchcraft/divination, but they're mostly for reading. Sometimes, I'll break out the tarot cards to do a reading for close friends! But I also tell them that (for me) it's a form of reflection and meditation.

Sidenote: the little box on top of the bigger box contains dried cherry pits! I don't remember why.

And also, the big box is actually an old cigar box. My mother gave it to me, and it holds other various things I've gotten pertaining to metaphysical supplies.

I have a small Bob Ross corner. Also all gifts, I think I got them over the holidays. The Bob Ross bobblehead has a button to make it say things, but the speaker is absolute garbage. So??? Idk it's uplifting in spirit. The painting shown on the flipbook is my fav from the prints it has in it.

Then we got a deer skull I got from an oddities shop. All of the books it sits on are antique. In order they are Vayenne by Percy Brebner (1907-1908), The Sinking of the Titanic and Great Sea Disasters by L.T. Meyers (1912), Il Trovatore by Verde (distributed, I think by the Oliver Ditson Company, 1917), and Faust by Gounod (also distributed by the Oliver Ditson Company, 1914).

I have one more small photo, but I'll have to add it in a reblog. Hold on.

[infinitelytheheartexpands]

idk if it's a hot take, but here are the top 5 french opera composers imo...thoughts?

1. Bizet

2. Gounod

3. Massenet

4. Offenbach

5. Berlioz

all are excellent choices, as far as I’m concerned. not sure I agree 100% with the order, but your choice palette is on point.

[janiedean]

Idk if anyone already asked this but: what about ASOIAF/GOT characters and opera? Who are the experts, the casual fans, and the one who don't care but get dragged along anyway? Does anyone relate to a particular character? *cough* Is Tyrion the biggest Rigoletto fan? *cough* And/or, does any OTP relate to a particular opera pairing? :)

OKAY SORRY IT TOOK ME AGES BUT HERE I AM

(spoilers: you can find 80% of the following or will find it in my amazing opera singers au series)

lannisters & partners

tyrion is 100% an opera nerd and he identifies with rigoletto in frankly worrying ways - he’s like me with la traviata and cries at rigoletto’s first aria every single time and then at the ending PERIOD I DO NOT MAKE THE RULES but he also likes unconventional stuff ie russians/20th century germans (TYRION LOVES ALBAN BERG YOU CAN PRY THAT FROM MY DEAD HANDS)

bronn is the friends he drags with but the only character in any opera that he likes is sparafucile

cersei only listens to wagner because everything else is for the plebs and ofc her favorite is the valkyrie YES YOU KNOW THE ONE WITH THE TWINCEST she’s the biggest sieglinde stan

jaime likes it tho not as much as tyrion but he hates both dramas and wagner and tends to like comedies/stuff that ends well better and he and brienne meet bc tyrion set them up and sent them to see fidelio with his tickets and YOU KNOW THAT JAIME AND BRIENNE ARE 100% LEONORE AND FLORESTAN YOU DON’T CHANGE MY MIND ON THAT EVER IT’S THE MOST JB OPERA THAT EVER JB-ED

brienne also likes more the happy stuff than the sad stuff but yeah fidelio is Their Thing okay

tywin went because joanna liked it and then he stopped 

starks & partners

ned & cat are that couple of nerds who goes to the opera for their anniversary and likes just about most stuff except a few single things they find boring but not as much to argue about it. for themselves, cat tends to like those donizetti operas with sopranos who at some point 100% lose it, ned is more into verdi and probably would agree with tyrion on rigoletto because y’know, FATHERS RELATE

but they also wanted their kids to get into it so their family tradition is that all go to see the magic flute together bc it’s kid-friendly and it worked bc all the stark kids love it ;)

robb’s totally into the comedies and hates the dramas and not counting the magic flute which ofc he loves because IT WAS HIS FIRST his fave is 100% rossini’s cenerentola FOR REASONS

addendum to say that theon is the friend he dragged with and thought would be boring but instead loves it and ends up converting and theon’s favorite - bc he’s a nerd - is most likely le comte ory ie THE ROSSINI CRACK OPERA WITH THE THREESOME WHERE THE TENOR IS CROSSDRESSING AS A NUN AND THE MEZZOSOPRANO PLAYS THE GUY AND THE BASS SINGS AN ARIA ABOUT STEALING ALCOHOL

but their ship they see themselves into are carlo and rodrigo from don carlo because lmao IT’S THEM

(robb prob. also have a soft spot for la clemenza di tito bc he and tito are the same person but nvm)

jon’s like 100% into dramas ALL THE DRAMA ALL THE TIME his fave is 100% la forza del destino ie the most terribly dramatic telenovela in history of dramatic opera

(he introduced it to ygritte who ofc is instead into all the rossini comedies with the a++++++ main lead ie italiana in algeri, barbiere di siviglia and so on which is a cause of endless amusement on her side because then they have to compromise)

(sam doesn’t need to be introduced because he’s 100% a nerd who cried over la traviata too but he likes all kind of stuff and who’ll go to both sand and fun operas and HE ALSO LIKES CENERENTOLA BEST THO)

sansa ofc is into THE ROMANCE so her fave is totally la traviata but she and robb totally agreed on cenerentola as well basically she robb and sam are the cenerentola stans cinnamon roll brigade

arya isn’t that much into it but she’ll go to most fun stuff and admittedly she has a soft spot for la fille du regiment because she totally identifies with maria (and tonio’s... well tonio is gendry let’s be real lmao)

(gendry is the friend she brought with once bc she likes that one and he immediately noticed)

bran goes with the others and he’s fine with it but he’s more into symphonic and not opera but he does like the family magic flute xD

rickon at some point got dragged to see the firebird when he was like six and everyone thought he’d sleep through it and instead he comes out of it like ‘guys I want to play the drums when I grow up’

baratheons & partners

robert thinks it’s boring af and wouldn’t set foot inside an opera ever, he just went once with ned to see don giovanni as a compromise

renly thinks it’s boring af and never went, then turns out that loras is 100% into it especially ACTUAL older stuff ie gluck and he totally dragged renly to see iphigenie en tauride BECAUSE ORESTES AND PYLADES ARE THE TWO OF THEM and renly had to relent and actually liked it

stannis is The Opera Nerd. he has a subscription to the local theater, he knows everything there is to know, he has a knowledge of minor baroque authors that would scare music professors, he also always goes alone because robert and renly wouldn’t go with him IF they cared, and his favorite is 100% rossini’s guillaume tell but only in the original french version WITH THE BALLETS or it’s a travesty

and he realizes davos is His Guy For Real when he shows up for their anniversary with tickets and then realizes that maybe someone who never went won’t want to see SIX HOURS OF FRENCH GRAND OPERA but davos just blinks like ‘k sure I’m open to everything’ and actually likes it (spoilers: davos’s fave becomes rossini’s la gazza ladra after he gets into it bECAUSE HE TOTALLY RELATES TO THE GIRL’S FATHER WHO SHOULD GO TO JAIL BUT IS ACTUALLY A GOOD GUY but he also likes le nozze di figaro bc YOU FEEL THE LOVE FOR THE LOWER CLASS)

tyrells

all of them used to go with olenna so all four are into it

loras as stated is into early-mid 18th century stuff ie gluck/handel/the likes (he’s the only one who actually likes julius caesar)

willas totally is into romcoms he cried the first time he went to see l’elisir d’amore and he’s been mercilessly mocked since

garlan is a sane person and likes more or less everything except extradramatic stuff

margaery is into bellini don’t tell me norma isn’t her fave

tullys

lysa never was into it bc cat was and so she always refused to go

brynden totally introduced cat to it but he’s a man of not much taste for EXTRA DRAMA so while he likes his verdi he just wants to relax with his mozart gdi but his fave is something totally overlooked ie PROBABLY IDOMENEO BECAUSE WHY THE HELL NOT HE’D LIKE IT

edmure totally went with cat & brynden and also was more into comedies turns out that his favorite is eventually falstaff and he’s always grumbling that verdi shouldn’t have made just ONE comedy ffs

targs:

viserys prob is a nerd but just of his favorite stuff and he’s either into countertenor stuff OR obscure shit or french grand opera AT BEST, he’s probably the only person other than loras who likes julius caesar

dany’s into it but very casually, she probably likes il trovatore because fire imagery everywhere tho

rhaegar is 100% into verdi drama like jon took ONE thing from him and that’s it, he probably is the kinda person who likes othello best for the Sheer Drama Factor

greyjoys:

balon and victarion legit hate it

euron is the only person other than cersei who actually willingly would go to see the ring and loves wagner

asha only goes with theon but she doesn’t mind it also bc alannys is 100% crazy into it that said she hates drama

alannys loves it her fave is la traviata I don’t make the rules

martells:

oberyn’s the hugest don giovanni stan in existence I DON’T MAKE THE RULES HE IS HE IDENTIFIES TO A T

elia’s chiller but the martells have the best taste and so they’d all like mozart she’s prob. into le nozze di figaro best because she totally relates to the countess

arianne likes così fan tutte and would punch anyone who says it’s sexist

other ppl:

sandor was dragged by sansa and he had been like WHAT DO I EVEN DO IN A THEATER HELP but then she picked something like gounod’s faust which he would like, turns out that then he ends into the most obscure SAD stuff and likes boito’s mefistofele best lISTEN HE’D BE INTO FAUSTIAN DEALS OPERA

lf is the kind of person who says they love opera but then criticize every single thing in every single staging and keep on saying opera should have died with maria callas

pyp/grenn/edd/the nw crowd went with jon once to watch something REALLY fucking sad TBH IT’D BE ERNANI and they’re like ‘jon wtf this is the worst’, then when sam learns it he goes like GUYS NO LET’S RECTIFY THIS and he brings them to l’italiana in algeri or SOME rossini fun opera and they change their mind

... okay I think I got MOST OF THE RELEVANT ONES IF I FORGOT ANYONE/YOU WANT ANYONE ELSE PLS ASK ;)

[shredsandpatches]

Yeah, that's a really good point about Gretchen -- of course her religious beliefs would be conventional, the strictures of convention are pretty much the whole point of her story. Idk as much about the 18th/19th-c German context so thanks for bringing it up: that's one of the weird gear shifts you have to do when thinking about Goethe vs. thinking about Marlowe, who's writing in a post-English-Reformation context, where things shake out differently than in Germany, and whose approach to the Faust story is shaped more by intra-Protestant disputes (possibly also by the author's conviction that religion is bullshit but that's something he kinda has in common with Goethe).

(I feel like there's probably something to be said about the fact that historical-Faust's archnemesis, Johannes Trithemius, was an actual abbot and seems to have been trying to revive the kind of scholastic magic that had enjoyed a brief moment of respectability several centuries earlier, as well, but idk what. He clearly saw Faustus Georg as giving the profession a bad name, but he also died before the Reformation really got underway.)

Re: the operas I feel like Gounod's church scene is the kind of thing only a Catholic could write--I know the scene is lifted from Goethe pretty directly, but I mean the musical expression of it. That might just be me and my issues talking. But that's the one place I'd sincerely argue that Gounod genuinely elevates the source material.

The Murnau Faust also got me thinking about how I feel like there's probably a really good book chapter out there somewhere on the Catholic aesthetic in Faust adaptations and I feel like it's probably also in German (I can kinda read German but still)