#lover the song is excellent and clearly resonated even at the time

[silent-partner-412]

Lover as an album having astonishing sales longevity in addition to Cruel Summer becoming her current most streamed song is really cementing to me that that album could’ve been huge with better promotion, or more specifically with a better lead single. People clearly like this album a lot despite it not being a huge fan favorite, plus there’s a ton of absolutely excellent songs scattered within it. It absolutely could’ve ruled 2019 and maybe even 2020 but alas.

[sylvanas-girlkisser]

Arcane Background Lore/Easter Eggs (Episode 5)

A bit late today because I had to go to an evening work event and eat mediocre pizza. Call me a snob but there is absolutely such a thing as bad pizza.

Kay so remember how back with episode 1 I mentioned that hex crystals are actually the crystalized souls of creatures known as Brackern? Well Brackern have a sort of hive mind (it’s hard to explain) which they describe using musical metaphors (harmonies, songs, resonating hum etc.). I might be reaching here but doesn’t the music that play during Viktor’s vision inside the hex gate almost sound like a choir of ethereal voices? Maybe he was able to, for a short moment, hear the crystals’ song?

Up until Arcane came out and placed Piltover and Zaun next to each other instead of on top of each other, canon was that the way people got from one city to the other was using these elevators that actually do kinda look like bathyspheres (see below).

I will agree it’s a little confusing that Caitlyn mentions it while standing next to what is definitely a funicular.

There is obviously a Watsonian explanation for how Vi is able to effortlessly move around the undercity while Caitlyn is awkwardly climbing after her – But it could also serve as a reference to how they’re each commonly played in League. Vi is a jungler so she is expected to roam all around the map, while Caitlyn is an ADC, meaning she mostly just stays in one area until she absolutely has to go somewhere else.

Also I finally realized that “The Lanes” is a reference to how the main map in League of Legends (Summoner’s Rift) is separated into lanes which determine a character’s role on the team. I’m a fucking dumbass and im gonna have to go back and edit the Episode 1 post to reflect this.

The runes on the hex core references four of the five known world runes: Precision (inverse tear drop with 4 lines through it) Domination (trident looking thingy) Sorcery (diamond shape with one side broken off) and Resolve (the one that sorta looks like a house, or a roof held up by four pillars). “Correct” versions of the runes below.

Notably absent from the Hex core is the world rune Inspiration (the swirly circle thingy), this might mean something, or maybe they just thought it looked weird 🤷‍♀️

We don’t really know much about these amphibious people, not even what/if they have a name for themselves as a group – However a lot of them are apparently excellent cooks.

The violin performance is clearly meant to reference some sort of Freljordian legend (the longships and use of mixed shades of blue is very stereotypical of the Freljord aesthetic), but I can’t quite figure if its meant to be a specific legend or just like “generic Freljord stuff”.

If I had to pull an answer out of my ass, I’d say it references the battle of the Howling Abyss, where the sisters Avarosa and Serylda (the two dragon-headed ships in the foreground) marched their armies against their other sister Lissandra, who had allied herself with these Lovecraftian monsters called “The Watchers” (the dragon-headed ship on the left, and the one with a spiral head). The battle ended with Lissandra realizing she was being manipulated by the watchers and starting an avalanche that buried both her sisters and the watchers in ice – Hence why the performance ends with only a single longship still standing after the storm.

Two things: 1) I squealed the first time I watched this scene, 2) this scene becomes even more iconic when you know that Caitlyn is canonically a domme.

Okay so I know everyone and their mom has already pointed out the Artemis and nymph imagery here, but on the crack theory side of things: the Moriarty to Caitlyn’s Holmes is a Zaunite woman named Corina Veraza; with light brown skin and dark brown wavy hair, who wears a lot of pastels, and is really into gardening. You’ve heard of enemies to lovers, but how about lovers to enemies?

Using blood as a way to empower magic is kind of a Noxian specialty, it’ll be interesting to see if that comes up when Noxus shows up in act 3.

Caitlyn’s rifle in Arcane looks completely different from her rifle in League; the only real similarity is how both feature the barrel being pushed into the body of the gun to allow for easier carrying.

Listen I have a distinct memory of this being one of Caitlyn’s voice lines in-game, but I have spent the last 20 minutes trying and failing to find evidence of this being the case – Can someone please tell me if I accidentally gaslit myself?

Seeing as the lesbians are finally together, I think its only fair I end this post by introducing League’s other big sapphic ship: Leona (the Targonian avatar of the Sun) and Diana (the Targonian avatar of the moon). If you’re looking for a quick fix of fantasy gays to tide you over until the weekend I recommend looking up the short story “Rise With Me” which was when the two of them finally became canon.

If there’s anything I missed please let me know, I’m planning to do a breakdown like this for each episode.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

[sometimesiwrite]

Essi Daven: Character Reference

Aside from my own Headcanons and Theories concerning Essi Daven, I wanted to compile a character reference sheet for those of you who may want to write her or think about her independently from my own creative perspectives. This is, of course, still subjective, but I’ve linked my conclusions directly back to the source text and kept strictly to canon information for this. There is still conjecture, but that is largely where the role of fanfiction steps in. I hope you enjoy. Physicality

Right away, we see Essi as a blonde-haired, fine-featured, petite young woman. Nothing remarkable or extraordinary about her appearance aside from her eyes. As we come to know her more and more, it’s her behaviour and physical mannerisms rather than her appearance that make her more alluring as a  side character. Throughout this story, we see her “smile oddly”, “snear”, and on more than one occasion, she’s seen “defiantly” tossing her head (usually accompanied by blowing her lock out of her face).

On more than one occasion, she’s seen drawing her head to her shoulders. To me, this is not shyness or desire to hide. It is a turtling at times if she’s feeling particularly vulnerable or overwhelmed, but it’s also a very casual pose. On the terrace during the banquet, Geralt finds her leaning on her elbows with her shoulders hunched up looking at the water. She’s capable of poise and all the social graces required of a banquet, but when she has time to herself, she slouches, reverts to what’s comfortable, is a dork when she’s in her own head. Yet she “daintily” steps onto the pier to join Geralt the following morning. Based on this information, I put to you that she is someone whose eccentricity cannot be fully tamed by “refinement”.

We see more evidence of this in her handling of her “birthday present”:

At first, her reaction to the stinky mollusk is, “Yuk!” and she responds in a “typically dainty” way, holding the shell at arm’s length. That is, until she's given permission to like the shell. No longer socially “required” to find the smelly slimy ocean thing disgusting, Essi lets her more relaxed side out, pulling a knife from her belt (!), and dumping the insides out the window with the practical announcement that “the cats can eat it.” Her ability to turn 180° from “Ewwww” to “Oh, here, let me just shuck this with my casual waist-knife and chuck it out the window” makes for a high likelihood that she wasn’t that grossed out to begin with, but was rather performing societal expectations. 

This brings us to: 

Personality 

We’ve already touched on this a little, but I want to focus now on Essi’s personality, which is rather complex. One of the most general details about her personality, however, is in her speaking: she’s direct. Oftentimes blunt. Even if she’s feeling unsure, she’s not unsure of her words. She often says or asks things seemingly out of the blue, and doesn’t shy away from Depth in her conversation. Rather, it seems to be her comfort-zone, since she defaults to asking Geralt what he associates with the sea rather than making smalltalk. 

That last statement, that she’s neither calm nor composed, to me says a lot. She speaks what she feels, often more easily than what she thinks. And I suspect that she often experiences her thoughts as feelings—something that comes from her gut rather than her head which is reserved for biting wit and incisive observation. 

Essi knows people. Knows them well enough to push their buttons, either jokingly or politically. She’s not afraid of authority, and even though her emotions fill her entirely—to the point her hands will shake—they do not render her helpless to them; rather, it seems, her emotions fuel her rhetorical capacity. Being a bard, this makes sense since the language of song and poetry are driven by the dialogue between emotion and intellect. 

Moreover, she speaks what she feels to be the truth of her experience, whether it’s her experience of someone else, or her experience of herself. What she believes to be true (however subjectively) she speaks. And if she doesn’t know something, she asks and bluntly: 

The fact that she “blanches” yet doesn’t stumble over her words here tells me she’s an excellent performer, and reinforces my previous comment that while her emotions fill her, they don’t rule over her. And yet, we also know she is impulsive and impetuous from her conversation with Geralt on the terrace: 

In this exchange, we see one of Essi’s most fascinating self-contradictions at play. She claims not to know how to control herself, says she is impetuous, reactive (the next morning she bluntly admits to being “nosey” and owns it). And yet her ability to recognize and acknowledge her lack of self-control indicates a depth and a level of self-awareness that reinforces my previous statement that she experiences life as a series of feelings—impulses, emotions, “vibes”—more than what we would categorize as “thoughts”. Essi doesn’t have an internal monologue; she has an external monologue of whatever internal experiences make their way into a verbal headspace. She’s not one to prattle on, talk for the sake of talking (like some Other Bards we know) because even though she has a lot going on internally, only some of it will ever make its way into words.  

As demure, dainty, and fragile as Essi seems to be, she also has, as Dandelion puts it, “a dark side”. 

Exactly what that is, we never really learn, but we get a glimpse of it from Geralt’s perspective at the banquet:

What did she say? While we may not be meant to ever know the answer, we know that a) Essi was smug about it; and b) whatever it was was cutting and more than likely sexually demoralizing in nature. 

Which brings us to…

Sexuality and Romance

There are several instances throughout A Little Sacrifice that indicate a level of sexual maturity and confidence in Essi that contrast interestingly with her emotional naivety (which I’ll get to in a moment). 

It’s possible, in this instance, that Essi simply doesn’t not abide by the same “rules” about physical boundaries and various social meanings behind physical touch. This moment is certainly not enough to draw any conclusions one way or another. However, the description of her kiss with Geralt on the terrace is less ambiguous in this way, more ambiguous in another.

I first want to fully acknowledge that this scene is a mess of different signals, and I believe the lack of further insight on the part of the author is not intriguing, but lazy. But I digress. She kisses him eagerly and expertly, which suggests that she, mechanically at least, knows what she’s doing with her face and someone else’s. The fact that she distances the rest of her body from Geralt suggests a few things: a) she wants to kiss Geralt but doesn’t know whether he feels the same way, so doesn’t want to commit fully; b) she knows that Geralt doesn’t know why he’s kissing her, and so is trying to distance herself from him so that neither of them makes a mistake; c) she’s caught off-guard and doesn’t mind having a good smooch but doesn’t want him to get the wrong idea about her wanting anything else; d) all of the above. 

I would include the possibility that she feels threatened by him and is merely going through the motions, but there’s enough evidence before and after to refute that as a forefront possibility. That’s not to say it isn’t in the background, but the use of “eagerly” would suggest that she’s enthusiastic about a little lip action. We do know that she’s not “looking for a man for the night” from the end of their conversation before going back inside. 

I have a few headcanons about Essi’s sexuality and I shuffle back and forth between them depending on the day. There’s enough evidence to support a halfhearted claim that Essi is a virgin (which doesn’t inherently negate the evidence for sexual confidence), but I lean more toward the notion that Essi is sexually experienced (thought likely far less than Dandelion), picky (hence the red-eared young man at the banquet), and romantically inexperienced. There is, I will say, a level of modesty, vulnerability, and hesitation in her interactions with Geralt that lead me to believe she has had minimal directly-sexual encounters. 

Is it projecting to say she reminds me a lot of myself in my early-20s? Yes. But to say this character resonates very strongly with my personal experiences, I think, gives some character insight where information and road signs are lacking from the author. And I will say, it is very in-keeping with Essi’s ongoing self-contradictions to be both bawdy and sexually inexperienced. Her canon story arc, unfortunately, doesn’t allow us to imagine her a few years older, but the idea of a more confident, self-assured Essi at 23/24 makes me very happy. 

Now, I’m not going to slog through the dialogue disaster that is Essi’s emotional outpouring to Geralt, but suffice it to say, it’s clear she’s never been infatuated/in love before, though she is clearly a romantic. She hates the feeling of being in love, hates that it turns her needy, hates the way it makes her skin crawl and her stomach churn. But there’s something appealing about it as well, and I think there’s a part of her that is desperate to make love. Regardless of whether or not she’s sexually active, to me it’s clear that she wants an emotional-physical connection of some kind; she seeks out comfort from Geralt, seeks out affection, tenderness, but she is also seeking an emotional return—the little sacrifice that Geralt cannot find within himself to give. If she’s had bedmates in the past, it would be remiss to call them lovers. 

That’s it, folks! That’s all I’ve got for the time being. As always, questions and observations are welcome (as well as disagreements as long as you’re willing to do it nice and polite like). 

[yurimother]

LGBTQ Game Review - Lingua Fleur: Lily

A significant part of my job is knowing the details of the goings-on in the world of yuri. It, therefore, shames me to admit that I almost missed out on the visual novel Lingua Fleur: Lily as I was completely unaware of it until Taiwanese studios Narrator and Storia, the game’s developers and publishers, messaged me. Thank the great goddess of yuri that they did, because I would have regretted missing this experience.

Lingua Fleur: Lily is a short kinetic visual novel set in a university told from the perspective of student Yuyi, the protagonist. Yuyi is a quiet and introverted student, hardly interacting with her classmates and having no close friends. Her isolated circumstances change when she is paired with the outgoing Yile, the deuteragonist of the story, during physical education. Slowly Yile beings to befriend Yuyi, helping her to come out of her shell and be truthful about her identity and difficult past.

As previously stated, Yuyi is extremely reserved and often anxious. However, she is also quick to anger, often getting short during Yile’s antics. This can make her seems stern and unlikable at moments but overall she is very realistically written. As the story progresses these moments mostly fade out and she becomes more likable and friendly while maintaining to her quiet and anxious demeanor. Her narration is the most enjoyable part of her character, as it gives insight into her feelings and her discomfort with certain situations, helping her to feel human.

In every way, Yile is the opposite of Yuyi. While the ladder is restrained and apprehensive, Yile has no such inhibitions. She is excitable and bubbly, often eagerly blurting out the first thought that comes into her mind without regard for how it makes others (specifically Yuyi) feel. This is never really treated for laughs, as this game is not in any way a comedy, but rather used to contrast Yuyi, helping develop her character by reflecting and responding to Yile’s actions. Unfortunately, most of the time Yile too easily falls into the stereotype of the naive and energetic girl.

There are however some lovely moments when Yile breaks out of this stereotype,  particularly when she or Yuyi is more emotionally vulnerable. For example, at the beginning of the game, Yuyi gets slightly during physical education and runs away. Yile chases after her to comfort and care for the reluctant Yuyi. It is a touching moment that really serves to establish the dynamics between the characters.

The game is complete with full Chinese voice acting. Both lead actresses do a decent enough job, shining especially during the quieter and more somber moments (which are plentiful). The louder moments of joy or anger are a struggle for them, the actress behind Yuyi does not carry enough vocal power for the scenes in which she yells (usually at Yile) and Yile’s tends to ascend into a grating shriek. I will give credit to the game for voicing even minor character that speaks only a few lines as well as the girls though. Overall, the voice acting added more to the game than it detracted but there is definite room for improvement.

Lingua Fleur is not a story of romance or attraction but rather of self-growth and healing. For me, this is a welcome change. It is not a happy story nor an overly sad cry-fest, but rather a very grounded and bittersweet narrative. Yuyi struggles to admit her identity (as a lesbian) and the ways in which this affects here are clearly shown and communicated in all scenes effectively.

The more emotional scenes are powerful and my favorite parts of the game. Thanks to not only a solid script but because they are so realistic and relatable. Yuyi’s struggles to articulate her identity to Yile will easily resonate with experiences of queer readers. I will not spoil the ending but it appropriately matches the somber tone of the story and is simultaneously hopeful and saddening.

I did have a few issues with the game. Some of these complaints are small, a few typos, a few places where the word choice could have been a bit better (is my English teacher side showing?). I also found what I can only assume to have been a mistake due to negligence where name cards such as “female student” and “male student” were still written in Chinese rather than being translated like the others. Additionally, while the English translation is mostly excellent there were a few terms that did not work as a direct translation into the language, such as “Sis Tutor.”

This character, Sis Tutor, is actually part of my biggest complaint. She and Yuyi share a difficult past together which is hinted at but not explicitly stated and explained until the final act of the game. This trope would be fine if it was not for the fact the story is told through Yuyi’s perspective and we hear her thoughts! This made the hints about her past unbearable and annoying. When you show the thoughts of the character with a hidden pass it does not work! It breaks immersion, as one can clearly see the writers’ attempt to contort the narrative of human thoughts as they clumsily build suspense to the big reveal. And it is a good (if obvious) reveal too, giving context to the actions of Yuyi, there is no need for it to be so hamfistedly teased.

Lingua Fleur: Lily’s CG artwork has a nice soft pastel look to it, with a serene hand-drawn quality to them. The artist was easily able to transfer the personality of the characters and the emotion of the script into the CG artwork, making them add to the experience. There is even one simple but stylistic animation. However, the CGs are inconsistent, with some being of clearly higher quality than others. Additionally, some of the choices for the CGs placement are questionable. Parts of the story were crying out for a nice piece of accompanying art but resources were put into other scenes which frankly did not need them.

The character sprite’s share soft design of the CGs but often, unfortunately, have an unpolished look to them. They also clash horribly against some of the backgrounds, leading to a clear cutout effect that regularly took me out of the experience. Their design, however, is quite nice, especially Yile, who is downright adorable. There is also some great employment of lateral movement and strategic zooming on characters, some of the best I have ever seen, and certainly, the most fluid, helping to illustrate the story.

The soundtrack of Lingua Fleur proves that a score does not have to be bombastic and overly complex to be successful. Indeed, the music was one of the highlights of my experience. Oli Jan and Sorane created twelve original tracks for the visual novel each of which I adored as I played through. Often they employ just a simple melody and maybe a few delicate strings or woodwinds, creating an excellent somber and soft backdrop that perfectly complimented the game. I was greatly enjoying it right up until the finale when I fell in love.

During the game’s climax the track ‘La Robe’ plays and MY GOD!! I was struck dumb by how perfect the track was, I was at a loss for words (a rare occurrence I can assure you). It keeps the same simple style as the rest of the soundtrack but was just… stupendous. The song is triumphant, delicate, intricate, and hopeful. The victorious crescendo reached its peak at the perfect point in the story I swear I applauded. I could easily extend this review another few paragraphs filled with nothing but adjectives about this song. If you do not get the game for the love of all things gay in this world at least give the soundtrack a listen! It is a whirlwind of emotions that perfectly encapsulates the relief and sorrow felt by Yuyi in the bittersweet conclusion. It is a special thing for a piece to convey so much.

Lingua Fleur: Lily is an imperfect but meaningful journey. It does not conform to the genre standers of destined lovers and soulmates but is rather a gentle and ordinary story of healing, grief, and friendship. While it lacks artistic polish and jaw-dropping prose the emotion and humanism of the game reverberate within me. Lingua Fleur is a lovely, simple, and bittersweet experience.

I also appreciate that Narrator and Storia have promised new content for the game in the form of DLC. Lingua Fleur: Lily is available now on Steam in English and Chinese.

Ratings: Story – 7 Characters – 6 Art – 4 Voice – 6 Music – 10 LGBTQ – 5 Lewdness – 0 Final – 6

Review copy provided by Narrator and STORIA

Help create yuri and LGBTQ+ content, news, and reviews by supporting on the YuriMother Patreon

[notenoughtimeintheday]

I have THOUGHTS about this, and they’re below the cut. I know I haven’t posted in like two years, but I really need to shout into the void about this.

So, this got released as a part of a series of short animations to promote World of Warcraft’s upcoming expansion, Battle for Azeroth, and I just CAN. NOT. STOP. WATCHING. The director, artists, and writer behind this short animation have basically created one of the most concise, yet immediately understandable character stories in their entire history (to an extent). It’s timed incredibly well, the lyrics aren’t filled with jargon beyond the two Named Locations (Kalimdor, the western continent and Theramore, a major city on said continent), and the symbolism fills in a LOT OF SUBTEXT that just makes this work. If you haven’t watched it yet, stop reading and go do that. Then watch it again while paying close attention to the lyrics and the imagery.

.

.

Done now? Let’s walk through some of the initial understanding you probably have of this, even if you’ve never touched Warcraft. First, the daughter of the sea the song references is the woman the short focuses on (who is Jaina, by the way). Second, she stood aside and allowed her father to be killed, which estranged her from her family and her people. Third, the skeleton moving her boat is either a stand-in for her father or is her father. Finally, by the end of the short, she seems to be accepting what the song bestows on her, claiming the title of “Daughter of the Sea” who one should beware of.

And that’s what you can grab from the song lyrics alone. What about the imagery alone? We start the short in what appears to be a kind of graveyard, where Jaina picks up a pendant and gives it to the skeleton for passage. Throughout this ride, when we can see Jaina, she is withdrawn, hidden, and almost appears ashamed of something (we can guess this is in reference to  “The Admiral fell at Theramore because she left his side,” the last line Jaina herself sings). Following this, we get the ship graveyard, which along with the wisps and Jaina touching the water but avoiding the skull, seems to imply it’s connected to her shame. Then we get the story of the admiral, which I don’t really want to focus on, but then... OH THEN we get to some good stuff. For the first time since this has started, Jaina lifts her head out of her shame and her face is lit by sunlight after her father’s death fades out above her head. You don’t need any context, I think, to recognize a shift in perspective there. Jaina stands in sunlight, her shame behind her, facing the judgement of the sun. She also is facing judgement from the clouds that form faces, but let’s skip that for now. The judgement morphs then, as Jaina raises the very ship we saw earlier out of the waves, her father’s ship. The judgement she faced she turns into atonement by resurrecting what she allowed to die, or at least the symbol of it. Taking her place on the ship, which, since it’s her father’s, is indeed her ship now, the full claim of her title “Daughter of the Sea” is finished, and she no longer sees any need to be ashamed; she’s faced judgement for what she did and is atoning now.

Note, we have still not pulled any context from the game itself, and we still haven’t asked an important question when working in this type of art. How do the lyrics and imagery work together? There are plenty of properly timed moments in the lyrics which are surface-level. For example, the entirety of the second verse up to the line “And buried deep beneath the waves” does an excellent job of matching the story moments with the lyrics. There are three additional moments that I find excellent, though! First, when Jaina stops singing, and the sea shanty begins, notice that she’s surrounded by the ruins of several ships; the voices of the dead sailors that came with her father, the admiral, asking her “Why this? Why this? Oh Daughter of the Sea? Why this? Did you forget your seaside days?” reminding her that she didn’t just let her father die that day, but all the sailors he brought with him. Her choice did not just affect her father, and that is a part of the shame she carries, and must be a part of her judgement. Second, let’s go back to right after Jaina lifts her head out of shame. Remember how we skipped the clouds? That’s because the lyrics immediately tell you exactly who they are! “Betrayed by family!” While the lyric is clearly still speaking of the “Daughter of the Sea” betraying her father, the juxtaposition shows that at this moment, Jaina is facing the perceived judgement of her family, her people, the ones she betrayed by standing aside. Third, immediately after this we get the line “To his nation, with his last breath cried, Beware the Daughter of the Sea” right as Jaina’s eyes open and we see her use magic to raise her father’s ship from the sea. She’s not in shame anymore at this point, as we’ve already discussed; it’s something else now. While the lyric at the end of the short and her position on her father’s ship cement her complete acceptance of her title, you don’t really need those because of this moment right here. She already has accepted it, and raising her father’s ship from beneath the waves while her title rings out in the lyrics makes sure you know it before they make it even more obvious.

The only thing left that I haven’t really talked about is what prevents the “shame, judgement, atonement arc” from conflicting with the “Beware, beware the Daughter of the Sea. Beware, beware... of me“ line at the end. This is cleared up with the only spoken line in the whole short: “I’m listening now. Father.” In the past, she stood aside and let her father be killed; she’s listening now though, which implies she would not stand aside now. His enemies that she stood aside for are now her enemies. The final lines are not sung to caution her people, like the song itself is. They are sung to caution the “savage foes” that killed her father.

It’s beautiful, it’s concise, it’s well-timed, it’s got symbolism everywhere, and I note again that this didn’t require any in-game knowledge. Obviously there is more stuff that what I’ve written (hello, clear River of the Dead imagery), but this is what stuck out to me when I watched it. I just wanted to write this all out somewhere, so if you did decide to read this, thanks, and I hope the reading and the short itself resonates with you as it did with me!

Oh, and while I’m here, I should probably give at least a tiny bit of context:

Jaina had forged a peace with the orcs before her father arrived to “save his daughter’s life” and immediately started killing the orcs (for reasons that are understandable, though bad) without allowing Jaina to explain that peace was an option. To try and get that peace back, she helped a small force of orcs get to her father and they killed him. Thereafter, she was the primary force for peace between the two major powers of the world, the Horde (led by the orcs) and the Alliance (led by the humans). Eventually, the Horde got new leadership which was a bit more warmonger-y than the leader she had forged peace with, and so the Alliance got a bit more warmonger-y as well, stationing troops and military equipment in her city, which led to the Horde leader developing and deploying a weapon of total destruction on the city (the city was left a crater). Those wiped out included her lover and her apprentice, and the leader she had forged peace with had consistently ignored her pleas to restrain or remove the other leader from power prior to the bomb being deployed. From that point forward, she became increasingly anti-Horde, to the point where (as you see in the video) she understood her father’s decision to immediately kill the “savage foes.”

So anyway, that additional context should help fill in some stuff if you feel I’m pulling too much from the imagery and lyrics alone. Again, if you’ve read all this I really appreciate it. Sorry for the wall of text, but that’s why it’s hidden behind a Read More!

[yumi-michiyo]

[The Shortest Distance] - extended author’s notes and meta

Watch this space! Instead of making a whole new post for each chapter, I'll be compiling everything here as I post the chapters. [Updated 27th January 2019]

Rating: M for language and explicit sexual content. TW for mentions of eating disorders and anxiety

Genre: Slice of Life/Angst/Friendship/Humour/Hurt/Comfort/Fluff/Romance/Friends to Lovers

Couples: Marley Rose/Quinn Fabray (main), side Santana Lopez/Rachel Berry, side Finn Hudson/Brittany Pierce, side Wade "Unique" Adams/OMC

Pairings: Marley Rose/Quinn Fabray, mentioned Marley Rose/Jake Puckerman, Rachel Berry/Quinn Fabray friendship, Quinn Fabray/Santana Lopez friendship, Marley Rose/Wade "Unique" Adams friendship, all the friendships okay

Summary: It starts with a friendship composed of books, lazy summer afternoons, and understanding; and blossoms into more. Slowburn Fabrose. Season 4 canon divergence!AU.

Links: FF.net | AO3

On the origins:

This. Work. Took. Too. Long.

Seriously, the plot got written, scrapped, revived and revised, scrapped, etc. far too many times to count. From being a slight supernatural!AU like For You I'd Burn the Length and Breadth of Sky, to a fic running parallel to canon, to a canon fix-it fic... I'd all but thrown in the towel on this. Most of it only existed in a scraps folder in my Google Drive, and I'd go add more unconnected scraps whenever I needed a break from other WIPs.

Eventually, the scraps accumulated such that there was some semblance of plot, and I got very fond of some long scenes; enough that there was motivation to turn it into a fic on its own.

On the writing process:

A few scraps and loose ends from my other Fabrose fic found their way inside, but quickly grew into their own thing. I think the reason why I've struggled so much with this fic is because I don't have a good handle of Marley's character. I'll be the first to admit that I don't even like many of the canon main characters, and that my headcanons are mostly derived from other fanfic, but there isn't much Marley in the first place, meaning I had to work hard lol.

Most of the actual writing took place in transit, on my weeny iPhone 6s screen, with my overworked thumbs. Not something I recommend to casual writers. I upgraded my phone! Now I have a much larger screen for on-the-go writing, and a new mechanical keyboard for editing/more stream-of-consciousness ramblings.

On the chapter titles:

A special mention! I don't think I've written much about how I choose my fic titles; I think it's because half the time it's a slapdash process, and the other half comes with a lot of thinking.

I love music, and it shows when I use plenty of song lyrics in fics and titles. My taste in music is pretty eclectic, but I can assure you that I actually like all the songs I pick for my writing, and I'm not just picking random profound-sounding lyrics off the Interwebs lol.

I do have a few criteria for picking song lyrics. One, it has to be relevant to the subject lol. Two, it has to have some depth which alludes to whatever hidden message is in the fic. Three, of course it's something I actually enjoy, as mentioned earlier. I think this is really important because I do pick up music recommendations from fanfic, and treasure them for the positive assocations brought from fic I've enjoyed. I think it's important to do the same.

Instead of linking endlessly, I've created a YouTube playlist collecting all the music used in this fic. Find it here.

Prologue: Title is from Marina and the Diamonds. I loved her first album Electra Heart and not because she was covered on Glee; Marina has this punchy, catchy style with awesome lyrics. She later released Froot, another genius work that needs a lot more attention than it's gotten.

Part One: Another Marina and the Diamonds lyric. Can I just take this opportunity to plug her album?

Part Two: Sam Smith, my love. His music always makes me want to write the angstiest, most heartbreaking things. He's one of the few artists out there now who writes the most obscure and complicated feelings into music.

Part Three: This was supposed to be the title of the entire fic, but I forgot lol. I like the Charles Bukowski quote better, but at the very least this wonderful song from Leonard Cohen gets a mention.

Part Four: Very different in tone from all the previous songs mentioned. I found the Arctic Monkeys' lyrics to be deep and intriguing, which is interesting compared to their melodies and catchy beat.

Part Five: This was a struggle! There are so many good songs out there with really great lyrics that could fit into the chapter and the themes I was going for, but in the end, I went back to Lea (as I tend to do for my fics). I wanted that aimless feeling Marley has for most of the chapter.

Part Six: I love Yellowcard. I've been a fan for more than a decade, for their excellent lyrics and wonderful melodies, their instrumentation and their creativity. Most of their songs deal with heartbreak, so it's rare that I come across a song of theirs that encapsulates so well what I wanted to convey in their early relationship.

Part Seven: One of my best buddies, IRL and in fandom, loves K-pop. She's been trying to brainwash me for years, and so far she's been having quite a lot of success; I've written a few things that are inspired by K-pop lyrics. The inspiration for this fic came from a new song from Mamamoo, which is made up of four very talented ladies.

Part Eight: I haven't been discovering music for a while, but Paramore's latest album was a pretty refreshing find. I was looking for something light that described the mood of this chapter.

Part Nine: Apparently, Vienna Teng's work has been something of a mainstay in fandom; which makes sense, with her poignant lyrics and soulful piano ballads. I discovered her through the Studio Ghibli fanfics written by Saddletank, who makes extensive use of her music with great effect.

Part Ten: I discovered the genius of Fleetwood Mac through Glee. It was the perfect time, now that I was going through things IRL that made the music relatable and meaningful. While not one of my favourite songs, the lyrics resonate best with the chapter.

Part Eleven: William Ryan Key (better known as the frontman of the pop-punk band Yellowcard) recently launched a solo career. He writes the gentlest, most profound acoustic ballads I have ever heard. Most of what I envision Marley's music to be is his work (with elements of Kina Grannis' artistry and Sara Bareilles' lyrics), and I would pay good money to hear Melissa actually perform his songs.

Part Twelve: Those who read my fics can definitely tell that I'm a massive Sara Bareilles fan. The woman is a delightful human being, and an immensely talented singer-songwriter (is it obvious I have a thing for talented people?). Again, the reasons for picking songs is really to set the mood and atmosphere for the chapter; the lyrics may or may not be directly relevant to the story.

Part Thirteen: Kina Grannis recently rose to fame performing a cover of Elvis' Can't Help Fallin' in Love With You in the movie Crazy Rich Asians. I love her style and interpretation of songs.

Part Fourteen: It's rare when canon and fanon intersect, and I'm always very happy to make a big production out of it. I loved Melissa's performance of this song, and I was actively looking for some way I could give it a nod. And so when I was writing this chapter, I listened to it on repeat.

Part Fifteen: It's always nice when things work out :) earlier I had a Marley song, and now it's Quinn's turn (conveniently ignoring Puck's part lol). While Marley's part was about taking the plunge, Quinn's was about getting over past hurts and building a stronger relationship.

Epilogue: I've used Sara Bareilles' music plenty of times in my work. Normally, I hate reusing music, but it was impossible to pass up the opportunity to use this beautiful song to wrap up a giant labour of love.

General Meta:

Prologue-Part One: These two chapters were intended to set the tone of the early relationship between canon!Marley and canon!Quinn, which then contrasts their new/old relationship when they meet again a few years later. They establish a friendship out of common interests (and a lack of anything better to do) which I think also gets them to understand each other a little better. I hope.

I took this opportunity to also set the friendship between Marley and Unique. Strong female (?) friendships are something always lacking in Glee, and I wanted to pay homage to these two awesome ladies. Also, Unique and Marley's friendship acts as a foil to the one Quinn and Marley start to forge here - because, clearly, the latter two are gonna end up together lol.

Part Two: Rachel gets introduced! Again, more comparing and contrasting: Quinn and Rachel's friendship vs Marley and Unique's, Quinn and Marley's friendship vs Quinn and Rachel's. Our girls also start to open up to each other. Recently, I've been following Chuck Palahniuk's writing advice (which I have printed out and stuck on my wall): Instead of characters knowing anything, you must now present the details that allow the reader to know them. Instead of a character wanting something, you must now describe the thing so that the reader wants it.

Part Three: A bit more background, a bit more development. In the previous chapter Marley opened up to Quinn about her eating disorder, in this one Quinn starts to open up about some of her past. It was hard writing this one mostly because Marley, unlike Rachel, wasn't privy to a lot of the things Quinn went through (this plays a big part in their relationship after they get together later down the line).

Rachel and Santana are together in this one! I would say more stuff about foils, comparing and constrasting, but by now you should've noticed it's something I do a lot. It's crucial that they're together in this fic because the girls do help our clueless pair move things along.

Also, I think y'all are pleased that I finally had Quinn dump her (off-screen) boyfriend lol.

Part Four: I loved writing this chapter. Now that we've established the friendship between our girls, I panned out a bit to cover more of the world they live in, and the people and events that shape their lives. It was a bit of a challenge since Quinn is now working, and Marley still a college student, but I hope I've done a decent job.

I get the feeling y'all hate me for putting Marley with some random man, but I think it's important. Marley is still very underdeveloped as a character herself, with loads of confused feelings. She needs to mature a little more emotionally, make decisions for herself, experience a little heartbreak, before she can be ready for an emotional minefield like Quinn Fabray.

It's not a coincidence that Quinn's ex is named Blake, and Marley's (soon to be ex?) is named Alex, by the way... Also, speaking of names, it will likely never be mentioned in the fic but Stan's full first name is Æthelstan (poor dude). Valentino is an arowana because of that fantastic expression. I headcanon that he's always judging the goings-on in that apartment.

Part Five: THEY FINALLY KISSED ALKSFHO

In which the girls take a step forward after nearly 60k+ words of slowburn - trust me, it was killing me almost as much as it was killing you guys. But I was trying to make it was organic as possible, and as y'all know Marley doesn't have much of a stable romantic background to draw from, and her closest role models are all certifiably insane.

There are a lot of challenges upcoming for them, which I will have to spend a good deal of time delineating. I am really invested in these two at this point.

Part Six: After all that slowburn, my brain kinda went into overdrive. The draft I had for this fic originally ended here, but I couldn't do that to you guys aren't you glad I didn't. So the first half came into being, with its gratituous fluff and their friends' reactions.

The second half came while I was developing Millie's reaction; I wanted to make a comparison between Millie and Judy as single moms. But to be a foil to how open Millie is, Judy had to be the bad mom. I hadn't intended her to come off as so cruel, but she's not truly evil. Quinn has to get her sharp tongue from somewhere LOL.

Also! Finn and Brittany! I gave them a brief moment in my other fic For You I'd Burn the Length and Breadth of Sky but killed Finn off uwu. I've been fond of this rarepair for a long time now, and it seemed fitting to put another rarepair into this fic. Additionally, I am such a sucker for couple angst, like the Rachel/Santana/Finn/Brittany dynamic. They really deserve a fic of their own, the poor things, but we'll see how it goes. This fic is primarily a Marley/Quinn, and will remain that way because I lack the mental capacity and patience to write a fic with two main couples without wanting to gouge my eyes out.

Some of you active and astute readers might notice a lot of mentions of stuff foreshadowed earlier in the fic, with extremely tiny throwaway moments being revisited in this chapter. I assure you this wasn't intentional, and I'm in no way the awesome and masterful writer all this makes me out to be.

Part Seven: Dear god, I was so busy with life I totally forgot to write the author's notes for this chapter... Anyway, the entire thing is about tying up loose ends. They're dealing with their problems while the shadow of Marley leaving hangs over them, and making the best of their time together.

And yes! I heard a lot of happy squeals when this fic finally earned its M rating. For those of you who are wondering about the sudden sexytimes in the middle of bigger issues, well... let's just say that it has consequences.

On a side note, I hope none of you out there were rooting for Marley to stay in NY. Don't worry, this is a romance fic, and there will be a happy ending.

Part Eight: When you don't have time to update the author's notes when you update the story... This was a pretty interesting chapter to write. Mostly because I was figuring out how they build up after the loose ends in the previous chapter have been taken care of.

Not really knowing Marley's canon character has been an obstacle in writing this fic, right from the beginning. She's also not a popular fanfic character but I do like a challenge.

Can you tell I watched La La Land as research for life in LA for this chapter? The music has been pretty stuck in my head too but none of it really fit the mood for this chapter, so I was forced to omit it. But yes, some of the bits and locales in the movie sneak into this fic.

Part Nine: Quinn's trip to LA, and the various things they get up to. Lots of indulgent fluff and smut, and a dash of plot at the end...

Part Ten: I love the friendship Marley and Santana have in this story. My headcanon for Santana is that she's the tough, worldly big sister type, and she's taken Marley under her wing. This is my attempt at advancing the plot by exploring the conflict in the long-distance relationship, with plenty of Marley-Santana-Rachel interaction (and throwing in loads of foreshadowing). Since there's so much heavy content, there's plenty of fluff to go around, padding the spaces between character development and plot. The Skype cooking idea was taken directly from my real life :)

Part Eleven: Mostly fallout from the drama in the previous chapter, and more advancement of the plot. It's intentional that there's so much drama, because it's something they both have (thanks canon) and I believe it's important for a healthy long-term relationship that they are able to resolve it. Also, Shelby is a convenient villain here, though I loved putting Beth into the mix, and having the characters react to the non-canon pairings in this fic. Doctor C makes a reappearance, as does Millie. Their growing absence from the main story is also intentional; Marley is growing into a character of her own, and she becomes less reliant on them.

Part Twelve: Initially I thought this chapter was going to be filler ahead of the big decision, but I was wrong. There was so much plot in this one ugh. I wanted Finn and Brittany to get their turn in the spotlight, but it had to be relevant to the plot as well. I wanted Marley to show us how much she'd grown over the course of the story, and from her canon self.

Part Thirteen: A lot of people thought they'd broken up in the previous chapter. I made them properly break up in this one >:) I wasn't going for a big dramatic shake-up or anything; the point was that people have relationship troubles. A lot of people have difficulty being an us, and this was supposed to be the result of the major cracks hinted at earlier, and the final part of their development as individuals before they can be in a relationship with each other. There's a lot of fluff and recovery; they have to break up to figure out how to be together, if that makes sense (but they do get their happy ending!)

Part Fourteen: The timeskip is important. It shows how far they've come, and the difference in how they now interact. While I can't show you how much Quinn's grown since this fic is from Marley's POV, I put as much of it into the story as humanly possible, and without making Marley into some mind-reading alien. Things are different now. The first break-up was necessary to put their past behind, and by getting together again, they're both prepared to work hard to grow from that. I do believe that it was absolutely necessary for them to break up to know exactly what they've lost.

Part Fifteen: The idea for this chapter came when watching Bones, and when talking to some friends. I needed to have them overcome what happened in the past, and symbolically walk forward together. Then I remembered a throwaway line about Rachel workshopping Jesse St James' musical, and the chapter pretty much wrote itself from there.

Epilogue: Not much in this one, honestly. I wanted to tie up loose ends, represent them moving forward without hesitation, and bring the story to a conclusion worthy of such a long journey. The smut was a bonus treat for everyone that's been following this.

On Marley Rose:

Confession: I don't watch Supergirl. There's only so much my poor heart can take from shipping non-canon lesbian couples who have a ton of onscreen chemistry, but who are paired off with guys. Bitter? Not I

So I take canon!Marley, pad her personality with a lot of extrapolation, add a hearty dose of logical explanation for inexplicable quirks from canon, and toss her into this fic to do a lot of growing up. If this sounds like a recipe, I think I'm too hungry.

Melissa's current turn on Broadway is inspiring a lot of the fic's direction.

On Quinn Fabray:

If it isn't already obvious that I'm in love with Quinn Fabray (and Dianna Agron for giving her so much depth), this fic should just help you reach that conclusion lol. no thanks to R*** M*****

The other Fabrose I wrote is from Quinn's POV, who basically spends the whole time sorting out her issues and stumbling into something she had never imagined could happen to her. This one is from Marley's POV, and also features her sorting out a ton of personal issues.

A lot of Quinn's character and experiences with her mother is taken from real life LOL.

[inthecrowdmusic-blog]

The Mysterines - Live Review - The Zanzibar, Liverpool, 15/12/18 Support from SHARDS and Monks

Liverpool is boss at the moment, and anyone who thinks otherwise clearly wasn’t at The Zanzibar to witness The Mysterines’ sold out headline show on Saturday 15th December. The evening was yet another indication of the exciting times ahead for the city’s music lovers, with three local bands on the bill who are certainly set for an excellent year in 2019.

Kicking off proceedings were four-piece SHARDS, who also opened for Zuzu at her first hometown headline show at Jacaranda Records - Phase One last month (see previous review). They were impressive then, and were even more so at Zanzibar. Though just over a month since I saw them last, they immediately appeared more confident and assured onstage. Guitarist, Paddy Gullidge, couldn’t stand still and frequently traded grins with frontman Alex McKenzie. They all seemed to be enjoying every second. Debut single “Reflections” gets better with every listen and its shimmering guitars and evocative vocals brought the audience to a gentle sway. These are boss, give them a listen.

Five-piece Monks soon followed and showered the growing crowd with their infectious fusion of jazz, pop and psychedelia. Impressive singles “Dreamboat” and “Sundried” were well received, particularly by two fans who erratically bounced around the front of the stage with no real sense of rhythm and absolutely no fucks given. It’s exactly what we like to see. They certainly have an interesting sound. The drums crashed, Tame Impala-esque synth and bass grooves had you hooked and appearance of a trumpet every now and then filled the songs out nicely. Frontman, George Pomford’s vocals on top of all this made for a very enjoyable set. Keep an ear out for their new single which we can expect in January.

The stage was set for The Mysterines. With the crowd warmed up and in good voice courtesy of Oasis, Arctic Monkeys and a rousing rendition of Tom Jones’ “Delilah” over the PA. Taking to the stage to an enthusiastic welcome, the sense of anticipation was almost palpable as they prepared themselves.

Looking back over my notes in my little black book, I’ve found scribbled down six words that summed up The Mysterines perfectly; BIG RIFFS, BIG DRUMS, BIG VOCALS (all underlined… twice). Considering there’s only three of them they don’t half make a racket. It reminded me of the first time I saw Royal Blood and I spent half of the set saying to my mate, “Fuck off, that can’t just be them? Nah, fuck off.”

At times breath-taking, the trio ploughed through a set of exhilarating, relentless Rock ‘n’ Roll. Guitarist and vocalist, Lia Metcalfe honestly has one of the best voices around. Pure power of jaw-dropping quality and charisma to match, it’s evident that she was born for this. The introduction of debut single “Hormone” induced a shriek or two in the crowd before it’s massive chorus demonstrated exactly what The Mysterines are all about.

“Hormone” also saw the start of a mosh-pit which only grew in intensity as the set went on. Metcalfe seeming genuinely taken aback by the reaction as she broke momentarily from vocal duties to let out a laugh. It was boss.

“Gasoline”, with its three chords, a jet-engine rhythm section and a thunderous vocal brought the set to an end. It’s a song which will surely resonate with people when released, especially with the lyric “I’m too young to be caught up in this mess.” How apt?

I know they only have one single out but The Mysterines are already the best band in Liverpool. They’re going to be massive.

They play their final show of the year in Glasgow on the 29th December supporting The Snuts (also reviewed on this site for anyone interested). Will be a good night that.

[mamusiq]

Romancing the Horn: Opera Stars Record Like It’s 1900

By ANTHONY TOMMASINI APRIL 20, 2018

The soprano Susanna Phillips, left, and the tenor Piotr Beczala, right, listen to a recording they made with early-20th-century technology. Credit Emon Hassan for The New York Times

Susanna Phillips, a star soprano at the Metropolitan Opera, was listening to a recording of herself one recent afternoon, as she had done so many times before. This time, though, something wasn’t quite right.

“I can’t tell it’s me,” she said. Her rich tone sounded thin; her usually steady vibrato was strangely shaky.

The difference was the way her voice had been captured: that is, the same way they used to do it more than a century ago. It was a method that offered a pale — if, back then, magical — approximation of opera’s greats.

Whenever Luciano Pavarotti was asked to name the greatest tenor ever, he always answered Enrico Caruso, who became a household name from his recordings, made from 1902 until his death in 1921.

But how did Pavarotti know? Especially on Caruso’s breakthrough records, the sound is scratchy, wiry and wobbly. The same holds true for early recordings of Nellie Melba, Luisa Tetrazzini and other luminaries of that era. While there are entrancing hints of astonishing voices, it’s hard to tell what they were really like. If only we could record a singer today on the equipment used back then and compare the playbacks to modern recordings.

Well, that precise experiment took place earlier this month at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center, thanks to the curiosity of Piotr Beczala, a leading Met tenor.

Touring the Met’s archives a couple of years ago, Mr. Beczala mentioned that his dream was to record some arias under early-20th-century conditions. He wanted to learn firsthand how faithful — or far-off — the results would be.

Peter Clark, the company’s archivist, mentioned Mr. Beczala’s fantasy to Jonathan Hiam, the curator of the performing arts library’s Rodgers and Hammerstein Archives of Recorded Sound; Mr. Hiam then contacted Jerry Fabris, from the Thomas Edison National Historical Park in New Jersey, who knows a collector in Illinois who makes wax cylinders like those Edison once produced.

So on his day off from the Met’s revival of Verdi’s “Luisa Miller,” Mr. Beczala got together with Ms. Phillips and the technical team to try out the vintage operation.

Audio

Verdi, the old way

Verdi, the new way

The library owns Edison cylinder machines, as well as an early Berliner gramophone — a competing technology that used flat discs. In 1912, Mr. Fabris explained, flat-disc phonographs finally outsold the cylinder ones and before long took over the market.

Mr. Fabris had brought similar equipment from New Jersey: an Edison Home Phonograph with a large black bell horn, a rotating holder for the wax cylinders and a hand-crank device to wind up the internal springs; and a similar-looking Edison Fireside Phonograph to play back the recordings. Both machines date from around 1909.

The material surrounding the wax cylinders is not really wax, he said, but something called metallic soap. Before using the cylinders, he had to warm them up under a light to make the material soft enough for the stylus to cut grooves as the disc spun.

“You want it to be like butter,” Mr. Fabris explained.

Audio

Mozart, the old way

Mozart, the new way

The process is better at recording midrange sounds and has trouble with high frequencies. (Ms. Phillips was warned that it tends to favor tenors over sopranos.) Wide dynamic variables also test the machine’s capacity: Not knowing this, Ms. Phillips had prepared “Per pietà,” an aria from Mozart’s “Così Fan Tutte” that moves through extremes of high and low, loud and soft.

But Mr. Beczala was first up, singing “Quando le sere al placido” from “Luisa Miller,” accompanied by Gerald Moore, who played on a small upright piano so as not to compete with the voices. Putting the cylinder in place, Mr. Fabris was careful not to touch the surface: Even a slight thumbprint can create an impression. While Mr. Beczala sang, Mr. Fabris held a small brush in one hand and a little squeezable air bag in the other to disperse the dustlike shards of wax that are created when the stylus cuts into the cylinders.

Since the machine has no meter to check levels, Mr. Beczala tried out the opening of the aria twice, the second time moving closer to the machine. Both times, the ringing, virile quality of his sound came through fairly well, though dynamic variations essentially disappeared. Mr. Beczala was most rattled that his intonation sounded off — though this was a flaw of the equipment, not of his solid technique.

Finally, it was time to record the aria — or at least the first half or so, since each cylinder can hold only a little more than two minutes of music. “It’s like a black hole,” Mr. Beczala said, staring at the bell horn. “It takes you in.”

Listening to the playback, he commented that the resonance was not bad and that the high notes were O.K. But his softer singing sounded faint and distant, and the consonants, he said, “are nonexisting,” though in the room his diction was excellent.

Audio ‘Carmen,’ the old way ‘Carmen,’ the new way

“The Flower Song,” from Bizet’s “Carmen,” came through more clearly. “I tried to sing more crisp than usual,” Mr. Beczala said.

When Ms. Phillips tried out the faster section of “Per pietà,” full of florid runs and roulades, she proved a quick study at the skill of leaning forward for soft passages and way back for louder ones, standard practice during Caruso’s era.

“You have to romance the horn,” she said.

To end the session, the two singers tried out some of the Act I love duet from Donizetti’s “Lucia di Lammermoor.” The machine is “not forgiving,” Ms. Phillips said, adding: “The tone quality changes, but not the dynamic. That’s infuriating to me.”

The contrast between their big, healthy voices and the crackly, thin recorded playbacks was stark. It proved just how difficult — indeed, impossible — it was to capture the sounds of the legendary singers a century ago.

Yet context is everything. For opera lovers in the 1910s, it must have seemed simply miraculous that the great voices could appear at will, however flawed their sound, in your living room.

Related Coverage

The Best Opera Recording Ever Is Maria Callas Singing ‘Tosca.’ Hear Why.  DEC. 29, 2017

Review: Plácido Domingo Takes On a New Role at the Met Opera. (His 149th.)   APRIL 1, 2018

  Soprano Looks to Use a Sport’s Big Stage to Lift Her Stamina    OCT. 27, 2015

Read and Hear the AUDIO HERE:

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/vegan-mac-and-cheese_us_58b4816ee4b060480e0ad831