#modern opera

[imsupposedtobestudying-whoops]

About to do cast announcements for my new opera Monster's Made - so I painted each of the performers as their characters! I'm very, very pleased with how they all turned out!

[tromroan]

About to do cast announcements for my new opera Monster's Made - so I painted each of the performers as their characters! I'm very, very pleased with how they all turned out.

[monotonous-minutia]

Operablr Pride Month 2024 Week #3 (June 15-21)

Can't believe we're already halfway through the month!!

Erismena (Cavalli/Aureli)  Keywords: Baroque opera, trouser roles, sapphic, GNC character, genderbending, Italian opera

The Hours (Puts/Pierce) Keywords: Opera in English, historical opera, lesbians, queer characters

Lucio Silla (Mozart/Gamerra) Keywords: Italian opera, trouser roles, sapphic, MLM, poly, opera seria

Summaries, libretti, recommended productions, and more under the line! (Disclaimer: I have not necessarily seen all the productions recommended here. Most of them are those that have been recommended to me.)

Erismena

Libretto: (Another obscure one I can't find!) Summary: Starts on page 7 of this PDF Productions: Aix 2017 (English subs) Opera on Video search link: Erismena Cavalli - Opera on Video Bonus: We have a lot of Cavalli this year! Some info on "the most important Italian composer of opera in the mid-17th century." And here! Francesco Cavalli | Opera World (opera-world.net)

The Hours

Libretto: (too new. Not having luck with libretti this year lol) Summary: Metropolitan Opera | The Hours (metopera.org) Productions: Can find on Met on Demand or on VK Bonus: 2024 performance program!

Lucio Silla

Libretto: Lucio Silla Libretto | Mozart | Opera-Arias.com (Italian-translate enabled) Summary: Lucio Silla - Wikipedia Productions: Salzburg 2006 (English subs) Part 1 Part 2 Opera on Video search link: Lucio Silla Mozart - Opera on Video Bonus: Not as clement as our fave Tito perhaps but this guy sure led an interesting life: Sulla - Wikipedia

[weaversweek]

42 "I'd do anything for love (but I won't do that)" - Meat Loaf

Written by Jim Steinman

Part of the UncoolTwo50 project, marking the best singles from 1977-99.

In the beginning, there was the combination of heaven and hell. Jim Steinman's gothic fantasy, brought to something larger than life by Meat Loaf. The album Bat Out of Hell captured forked lightning in a bottle.

Like a pair of starcross'd lovers, Loaf and Steinman went their separate ways. Meat Loaf made the copycat album Dead Ringer, which wasn't as good, and a couple of others were even less good, and he pretty much dropped off the cultural radar in the mid-80s.

Jim Steinman worked with Bonnie Tyler on her most bombastic singles, Air Supply, the Sisters of Mercy, turned down Andrew Lloyd Webber, and many more. By 1989, he'd come up with his masterplan - Pandora's Box, an all-woman hard rock band, who would sing tortured tales of love like "It's all coming back to me now". In spite of huge publicity, Pandora's Box flopped.

The two men reunited, got tinkling the ivories, and rediscovered their love for pop opera. Bat Out of Hell II: Back Into Hell took everything we remembered from the original, and cranked it up to twelve. The title line is reprised from something Steinman wrote for Bonnie Tyler. The motorbike sound is reprised from Meat Loaf's life. The duet at the end is with Lorraine Crosby, one of the lead singers from Pandora's Box. The sense of drama is heightened by the video, where Dana Patrick plays the love interest. It's a full-on mini-movie, where Mr. Loaf comes to accept himself through the power of love, complete with a Falling Chandelier of Doom.

Some people who didn't pay attention to the lyric are confused by what "That" is. Terribly simple: Mr. Loaf explains what he will do, (run right into hell and back, never stop loving you, pray to the deity of sex and drums and rock 'n' roll), and then a counterexample of what he will not (do it better than I do it with you, stop dreamin' of you every night of my life). The chorus refers back to all these counter-examples, as "I won't do that". Honestly, it's just as simple as "Never gonna give you up" (qv).

Originally written as a fifteen-minute epic, shaved down to 12 minutes for the album, the video runs about nine minutes, and the single version is 7-and-a-half. Unless you're listening to Virgin 1215, where they made a ham-fisted three-and-three-quarter minute edit, which completely ruined the point. This song is a luxurious bath, not a quick shower!

Massive and huge and a career peak for both men. For this project, I also considered Meat Loaf's "Modern girl", an under-appreciated classic; "It's all coming back to me now" in versions by both Pandora's Box and Céline Dion; "Holding out for a hero" and "Total eclipse of the heart" from Steinman's work with Bonnie Tyler; and "No matter what" except Meat Loaf's version was only ever a B-side.

[hamletthedane]

Still laughing at Brian May offhandedly writing the greatest understatement in the history of academia in his astrophysics doctoral dissertation:

Ah, yes - “various pressures.” Like being one of the greatest guitarists ever and playing/writing/singing for the most legendary rock band of all time.

Those various pressures.

[lansolot]

😵‍💫

[polariie]

[sleepyconfusedpotato]

🎭Phantom of The Opera! GhostJade🌹💀

Happy Halloween! ( •̀ .̫ •́ )✧

This took me longer than I wanted to admit and I'm obviously late 😭 But here it is! Did a poll on Tumblr about which character GhostJade should dress up as for Halloween, and Phantom of The Opera was the top one.

I took the colors/vibe from the 2004 movie with Gerard Butler and Emmy Rossum. Ghost with that mask looks better than I imagined! Jade is just so fun to draw as usual (not the dress though 😭)

Anyway, hope you like it and let us all welcome MWIII! ✨

Support me on Ko-Fi! ✨

[imsupposedtobestudying-whoops]

A sketch I did when working on the poster for The Fox (a chamber opera I composed - which premiered earlier this summer!) it’s one of the main characters - Henry, a young soldier. I always liked this drawing... 🦊

[tromroan]

Medusa-themed-Poster I designed for my next opera, a collaborative effort this time with a librettist and friend of mine! Monsters Made. A re-telling of 10 classic Greek mythological tales, but this time from the feminine point of view...

[monotonous-minutia]

Operablr Pride Month 2024 Week #4 (June 22-28)

I can't believe it's the final full week of the month!! Hope everyone is having as much fun as I am!

Eliogabalo (Cavalli/Aureli) Keywords: Baroque opera, genderbending, GNC character, historical opera, opera in Italian

Hadrian (Wainwright/MacIvor) Keywords: Canadian opera, gay characters, MLM, historical opera, historical Rome

Billy Budd (Britten/Forster/Crozier)

Summaries, libretti, recommended productions, and more under the line! (Disclaimer: I have not necessarily seen all the productions recommended here. Most of them are those that have been recommended to me.)

Eliogabalo

Libretto: unfindable Summary: help Productions: Paris 2016 (French subs) Opera on Video search link: Eliogabalo Cavalli - Opera on Video Bonus: A very unfiltered look at the historical Eliogabalo's life: Eliogabalo: Obscure Emperor, Obscure Opera (westedgeopera.org) A slightly more detailed (and filtered) look: 147. Eliogabalo (Cavalli) – The Opera Scribe

Hadrian

Libretto: guess Summary: Hadrian – Rufus Wainwright Productions: Toronto 2018 (English subs) (^the only video I could find was on VK. You need account but it is free--it looks sketchy but isn't. If anyone knows of another video let me know!) Bonus: A panel with the creators! World Premiere of Hadrian: A New Canadian Opera | Hadrian Opera | Talks at Google (youtube.com)

Billy Budd

Libretto: English (Translate enabled) Summary: English (Translate enabled) Productions: ENO 1988 (English subs) Des Moines 2017 (English subs) Vienna 2001 (German subs) Opera on Video search link: Billy Budd Britten - Opera on Video Bonus: Some info on the original source material for the opera: Billy Budd - Wikipedia Bonus bonus: A (very long) analysis of the opera and its themes: Sea-changes: Melville - Forster - Britten (oapen.org)

[ereyies]

i love my gothic literature menaces and they love me

+bonus

he’s not gonna pretend he’s on the phone because he meant every word and wants him to hear it

[storge]

Zhou Xiaobai was the best performer and singer here, but she had a conflict with Shifu and was chased out.

JIANG MENGJIE as Zhou Xiaobai Link Click (2024)

[bressynonym]

only then can you belong to me

[hamletthedane]