#music during Napoleonic era

[microcosme11]

Hero's death of Prince Louis Ferdinand of Prussia at Saalfeld on 10 October 1806. Richard Knötel (1857-1914).

A tragic loss to the world, he was a great musician and composer.

[clove-pinks]

"The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there," is the quote from a mid-20th century novel. The War of 1812 took place decades before the military funeral song "Taps" was written and popularized during the US Civil War.

Alfred Lorrain describes scores of men dying from disease at Fort Meigs in 1812-1813, which was the top killer of soldiers throughout the Napoleonic era:

They died daily. The mournful air of "Roslin Castle" became the prevailing music of the day, while the sharp rifle-cracks of the platoon told how many were borne to their long home. A deadly homesickness overwhelmed our troops, and we believe a repentance of war was kindled in every bosom, from the highest to the lowest.

— Alfred M. Lorrain, The Helm, the Sword, and the Cross.

It's a haunting melody (and new favorite song). When I was at Fort Meigs historic site earlier in the month there was also a fiddle player in period costume, which was wonderful.

[blue-and-gilt]

Georgian era Yeomanry officers sabre styled after the 1796 Pattern light cavalry sabre.

Produced by William Henry Archer of Dublin using a Solingen produced blade imported J J Runkel.

This sabre is another example of the many quirky swords that abounded during this period. While the government was working to establish regulation pattern swords, many officers, especially those in the yeomanry, volunteers or militia were content to continue using the equipment that best suited them. As a result there are many surviving examples that are next to impossible to attribute to a unit or branch or service. In only a few examples are we lucky enough to have identifying inscriptions on the sword or scabbard. And even these need to be viewed with caution.

Stylistically, animal motifs were a common decorative feature on swords of this time. With the lions head so popular that it became part of several British Pattern swords, including the sabre still in service with British naval officers. A variation of the animal theme. horse-heads pommels seemed to have been more common among the cutlers from Ireland, with Archer and Reed the more frequently encountered suppliers.

Because the hilt is broadly modeled on the 1796 Pattern light cavalry sabre, with the dual langets, P-shaped stirrup guard and a very functional blade of cavalry proportions, I believe it would have belonged to an Yeomanry officer based in Ireland. The gilt hilt also precludes it from having belonged to a regular army officer.

At the time, the yeomanry had been raised from the upper classes as a reserve force ready to protect Great Britain should Napoleonic France attempt to invade. They also had the secondary function of 'keeping the peace'. In a time before an established police force, the yeomanry were often called upon to break-up any unrest. Which meant that the ones based in Ireland were more active than most.

I estimate that this sword dates from 1798 to 1802 based near identical presentation examples produced by William Archer which have inscriptions dated to 1800. The blade is also decorated with the pre-1801 coat of arms so is unlikely to date after 1803.

William Henry Archer started his career as a sword cutler in 1783 when he married Margaret Shaw, widow of Richard Shaw.

Richard Shaw, was a sword cutler from 1765 to 1782 when he died of injuries caused by the collapse of Music Hall floor. Margaret continued her husbands business in her name until she married William Archer in 1783. It is quite possible that William was working as an apprentice for the Shaws at the time and the marriage was a way to maintain the business. Such arrangements were not unheard of in a time when women were not allowed to own property or enter into contracts.

Archer continued remained in business until his death in 1830, during this time he also served as Lord Mayor of Dublin in 1812 and 1830 so he must have been a successful and respected businessman of his time.

Stats: Overall Length - 945 mm Blade Length - 820 mm Curve - 55 mm Point of Balance - 135 mm Grip Length - 120 mm Inside Grip Length - 95 mm Weight - 970 grams Total Weight - 1,430 grams

[boghermit]

Pointing Out the Historical Inaccuracies (and Some Accuracies) of Ridley Scott's Napoleon 🤓

The only interesting parts of this film are the costumes, and maybe one or two music tracks. The rest of the movie is just awful. The story can hardly be called a story. It's just miscellaneous boring scenes duct taped together. None of the characters are developed beyond a single trait, if that. A period this broad shouldn't have been crammed into a movie this short. I honestly wouldn't have disliked the historical inaccuracy so much if it had been sacrificed for the sake of a good narrative, but this is bad. Even if you don't know about the era enough to nitpick it, I wouldn't recommend this film to anyone.

TL;DR go watch Waterloo or The Duelists instead.

Accurate Historical Details

There were some minor details that made me perk up like, "Ah, yes! It did happen like that!" The rest of the movie is so inaccurate that these details stuck out.

Napoleon tugged on peoples' ears as a sign of affection. You see this in the movie with Tallyrand and Josephine. He also did this a lot with his soldiers, which we don't see in the film. In fact, he doesn't interact with his soldiers much at all in the film.

The French fired a 101-cannon salute after Napoleon's first son was born.

Napoleon famously bumbled at the Coup of 18 Brumoire, and his brother Lucien had to step in to direct the French grenadiers.

It's contested whether or not Robespierre actually shot himself in the jaw, but I think at this point it's mostly accepted as truth? In any case, someone screwed up his jaw before he was arrested.

The British loved publishing political cartoons about Napoleon, including cartoons of him being cucked.

Joséphine did actually meet Tsar Alexander shortly before her death. I didn't know about this one and was happy to learn something new.

The depictions of line and square formations were okay.

Historical Inaccuracies

This is, in spite of its budget, one of most historically inaccurate pieces of media I've seen on the era, and on top of that it isn't even good.

There is so much historical context omitted from this film that I feel like anyone who doesn't have an interest in the time period will have NO idea what's going on. You are never really given the how and why of history other than "the Europeans are fighting and also Napoleon is there."

The overall characterization of Napoleon is just bizarre. Napoleon was smart, egotistical, ambitious, hot-tempered, and had a magnetic charisma and human charm that inspired a kind of blind loyalty in his soldiers. This is why he was so successful - and so dangerous. Napoleon never feels threatening or sinister in this film. He's just kind of there, slouching and sweating and mumbling under his breath as history unfolds. Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure does a better job of depicting Napoleon than whatever the hell is going on here.

Napoleon was not present at the beheading of Marie-Antoinette.

He didn't have his horse shot out from under him at Toulon, and he didn't send gore-spattered cannonballs to his mother, as far as I know.

The movie casts a younger actress to play Joséphine de Beauharnais, but Joséphine was actually older than Napoleon.

I'm pretty sure that Napoleon didn't find and return the sword of Joséphine's ex-husband, although there is a legend stating that he attempted to confiscate it and was persuaded by Joséphine's son to return it.

The French army never shot their cannons at the Pyramids in Egypt. They also didn't loot the Pyramids, although they participated in a lot of heinous looting elsewhere.

Napoleon didn't leave Egypt because he found out he was being cucked by his wife - he'd already known about that for some time. He left Egypt because the campaign was failing and because the political situation in France was becoming untenable.

Jacques-Louis David attended the coronation of Napoleon, but didn't start his studies for the painting during the coronation itself. (At least as far as I know.)

The lake scene during the Battle of Austerlitz is a bit of a legend, but probably not true. The gigantic lake was more likely a series of shallow ponds, if it existed at all.

Napoleon did not lead cavalry charges, and he sure as shit didn't lead cavalry charges at the Battles of Borodino or Waterloo. In fact, Napoleon infamously sat a safe distance away while watching the bloody Battle of Borodino unfold.

Napoleon was not exiled following the Russian campaign. He was exiled after the War of the Sixth Coalition, in 1814.

Joséphine died in 1814, when Napoleon was still at Elba, not in 1815.

Trench warfare and scoped muskets were not used at the Battle of Waterloo.

Napoleon never met the Duke of Wellington.

That's uh. The cut version of my complaints.

[britneyshakespeare]

French Lady Barbie, from the 1997 Great Eras Collection

It's France in the early 1800's and the name Napoleon Bonaparte is on everyone's lips. Self-proclaimed emperor in 1804, he and his beautiful wife Josephine are the leaders of French style and fashion. French Lady™ Barbie® pays heed to the dictates of the famous emperor. Her gown is all the latest rage in Napoleon's court. Its empire styling mimics the elongated elegance of a classical Greek column, a time and period most admired by Napoleon. Its predominant color is French blue, a color much favored by everyone royal in France. The underskirt is dotted with golden Fleur-de-Lis, a long-lived symbol of French royalty. Women of the era wore high heels on tiny feet, and often had a pair made to match every outfit. French Lady Barbie has hair gathered into a golden headpiece and her lovely face is trimmed in tiny chestnut curls. Her skin is fair, her eyelashes rooted, while her faux turquoise jewelry complements the French Blue of her gown. Napoleon had an effect on more than fashion and style. He gave France a civil code, religious tolerance and fair taxes. During his reign, the Bank of France was founded and France enjoyed freedom of the press, rare in its long history. While Napoleon led French armies in conquest, the beautiful, brooding music of composer Ludwig van Beethoven was heard throughout Europe. In France, artist J. L. David achieved fame and popularity as did portaitist Jean Ingres. In 1806, the Institut de France was created by combining Academie Francaise with other academies, all designed to protect and promote everything French, from art to architecture! The beautiful city of Paris began to take form and shape as the famous landmark, the Arc de Triomphe by artist Claude Clodion, was begun in 1806 and completed in 1836. Rarely in history has one nation ever commanded so much prestige, so much success and so much style. In this magical age of Napoleon, everything the French touched rang with glory. French Lady Barbie captures this glory in her brilliance of style and sophistication. It's not difficult to close one's eyes and imagine her gracing the balls of Paris, with the cry of Vive la France, ringing in her ears.

[mariacallous]

Like many non-Austrians, I first discovered Vienna’s winter ball season through German-language tabloids. The celebrity-studded Opernball (Opera Ball), the season highlight, is widely covered in the German-speaking world, where it is streamed live on TV and culled for clickbait online. Glittering details are consumed with a mix of aspiration and resentment: debutantes, tiaras, and pricey opera boxes (starting cost: $14,000)! The only sign of the 21st century is a name-drop such as Kim Kardashian, who attended in 2014.

The Opera Ball, I have since learned, is only the tip of the iceberg.

More than 400 formal balls are held in Vienna each winter carnival season. This February, I visited three. The tradition combines the public festivities of the medieval carnival with the legacy of the “Waltzing Congress” of 1814, better known as the Congress of Vienna. Held just a year before Napoleon’s final defeat at the Battle of Waterloo, the Congress—a series of diplomatic meetings between leaders of various powers opposing France—aimed to reinstate Europe’s monarchies and hash out the continent’s post-Napoleonic order.

Its more immediate effect, however, was to transform Vienna into a giant ballroom.

With representatives from Prussia, Austria, Great Britain, Russia, and France, as well as assorted royalty and nobility from across Europe gathered at the imperial Hofburg Palace, the prevailing atmosphere was that of a permanent “house party,” observed historian Dorothy McGuigan in her book The Habsburgs. The dance halls were packed, and the streets were filled with music and fireworks; to lubricate negotiations, Emperor Francis hosted evening balls and musical entertainment, including a concert featuring 100 pianos. The enduring epithet of the so-called Waltzing Congress stems from a quip by the rakish Prince Charles-Joseph de Ligne of Belgium, who proclaimed that “[t]he Congress doesn’t work; it dances.”

The Viennese ball season has been celebrated almost continually since 1814, breaking only for the two world wars and recent pandemic. In a country of only 9 million people, it draws more than 500,000 ordinary people out to waltz. Nearly every profession in Austria hosts its own celebration: A nonexhaustive season program includes the Police Ball, the Firefighters’ Ball, the Engineers’ Ball, the Doctors’ Ball, multiple farmers’ union balls, and the Lawyers’ Ball. Some of these dances, such as the Coffee Brewers’ Ball or the Hunters’ Ball, have outlived the imperial-era professions that they were created to celebrate. Others, such as the Ball of the International Atomic Energy Agency or the recently retired Life Ball—founded to raise awareness during the height of the AIDS crisis—are decidedly contemporary.

It was the improbable continuity of 19th-century traditions, however, that drew my attention. The frenzy of the waltz—still performed in the same ballrooms as in the imperial era—echoes a persistent anxiety for Europe’s over-touristed, economically uneasy, and politically pessimistic capitals: On a continent that relishes golden-era traditions yet finds itself slipping in the geopolitical world order, how do you face the future without romanticizing the past?

Viewed through this lens, the ball season refracts the flamboyant anachronisms of a region in transition. Dozens of guests and former debutantes—most balls include a debutante ceremony—described the events to me in terms of glorious contradiction. The balls, I was told, are elegant, tacky, rarified, intimidating, democratic, elite, ironic, gorgeous, decadent, tiresome, astonishing; they are both political and apolitical, accessible and inaccessible, international and decidedly Viennese.

This cacophony carried over to my own impressions. I saw tiaras and hoop skirts and a tattoo of the Sistine Chapel fresco framed in the V-line of a backless ballgown. Orphaned evening gloves and ostrich feathers drifted across the parquet floors of the Hofburg Palace; hair fixtures nested in updos like Fabergé eggs. I witnessed government ministers dance the disco and saw at least six debutantes faint.

I was told by veteran ball journalists that the publications I write for sound “serious and political,” and that a Viennese ball is neither a serious nor political event. A ball is frivolous, they said; a ball is for fun. I don’t disagree. But I also believe that a society’s attitude toward tradition shapes its expectations for the future—and how much that future should resemble the past.

Maryam Yeganehfar, the creative director of the Opera Ball, emphasized the balls’ capacity for rejuvenation and even escape. The carnival festivities were originally founded, she said, to give people “hope, life, enjoyment” in the weeks leading up to Lent, the 40-day period before the Christian celebration of Easter.

“[W]hy is enjoyment always framed as decadence?” Yeganehfar asked.

At a time when Europe’s post-COVID-19 pandemic headlines—on immigration, war, inflation, right-wing extremism, climate change, energy crises, and strained trans-Atlantic relations—often give reason for pessimism, the balls are a testament both to the temptations of nostalgia and to the resilience to party on.

The Science Ball

The first ball I attended was the Ball der Wissenschaften (Science Ball). Oliver Lehmann, who has served as the event’s director since 2014, is aware of the season’s appeal for foreigners: “For a lot of our friends and guests from the U.K. and the U.S., but also from Switzerland and Germany,” he said over a Zoom call before I arrived, “a ball sounds like a sugar fairy tale from a Walt Disney movie.”

Lehmann admitted that there is some truth to that image. But the balls might be better understood as the “Austrian version of a huge networking event,” he said. Even socialists once held balls; in the 1860s, party members at the Workers’ Ball waltzed wearing bright red ties, attracting attention from political censors.

The Science Ball, for its part, brings together representatives from Vienna’s nine public universities, its expansive network of private and vocational colleges, and numerous research institutions to celebrate—and boost—the city’s reputation as a center of innovation.

The Science Ball also has a unique, quasi-political agenda. It was first held in 2015 in part to undercut the claim of the far-right Akademikerball, or Scholars’ Ball, to “scholarship,” Lehmann said. The gathering of right-wing fraternities is organized by the nativist Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ). In 2014, the annual protest against the Scholars’ Ball turned violent, resulting in injuries and damaged property.

Today, the Vienna government offers the Science Ball its palatial city hall free of charge, signaling its continued support for the ball’s mission and helping to lower ticket prices for attendees. Regular entry is 100 euros, or $107, while students can attend for $43. It’s a win-win arrangement: Scientists celebrate field achievements; students attend on the cheap; local government discredits nativist misinformation; and a city whose reputation for innovation is often overshadowed by its cultural-historical attractions gets to advertise its technical heft.

To Lehmann, the Science Ball’s focus on contemporary Vienna is evidence that the balls have “nothing to do with nostalgia.” When I asked if the recent rise of right-wing nativism in Austria (the nativist FPÖ came in first in Austria’s elections for the EU Parliament this month and is currently polling at more than 30 percent ahead of elections this fall) has begun to politicize the balls, he replied, “Only counterintuitively, because we’ve never sold out so fast.”

When I arrived, the Science Ball proved to be many balls in one. The dancing unfolded through a series of rooms across three floors of the city hall, each with its own band and musical style. The main ballroom, lined with chandeliers and debutante couples in tuxedos and white gloves, opened onto a grand stairwell decked out with flowers. Beyond this lay the sultry tango room, followed by a baroque cloister where a cover band played “Que Será, Será,” and a ground-floor disco crowded with younger guests. The latter venue is where I spotted Austria’s federal climate minister briefly boogying to “Stayin’ Alive.”

This year’s ball was dedicated to promoting more effective strategies for communicating the threats posed by climate change. There were leaflets floating around with a carbon-emissions logic puzzle, plus a cryptic exhibit devoted to whales that featured a fog machine. In the flagstone courtyard, an 8-by-8 meter inflated cube (about 25 feet across), reminiscent of a giant bouncy house, offered a visual representation of one metric ton of carbon emissions; the average European Union citizen emits between 7 and 8 metric tons of carbon dioxide each year.

The importance of these issues to the Austrian government’s agenda was underscored by the presence of Vienna Mayor Michael Ludwig and Leonore Gewessler, the federal minister of climate action, environment, energy, mobility, innovation and technology. On the main stairwell, the politicians posed for selfies with students, many of whom expressed interest in climate-related issues. The balls can facilitate this sort of direct constituency engagement. But Gewessler also warned against overstating the events’ political importance: “A lot has changed since the Congress of Vienna,” she said. “As it should in an open democracy.”

She is right: Things have changed. Many young women—including the president of the Vienna student union—took advantage of the gender-neutral dress code, donning smart tuxedos and white ties. The organizers “don’t give a damn” about who wears what, Lehmann said, as long it’s evening attire. A couple of biologists I spoke to with roots in India, who now work at a Viennese research outlet, appeared in a tux and emerald sari repurposed from Mumbai’s wedding season. (The fact that I, too, had worn my wedding dress became a bonding moment.)

A group of American exchange students from St. Olaf College in Minnesota had bought their outfits at a budget shop in nearby Bratislava, Slovakia, about an hour away by train. They were starstruck. “It’s amazing,” one said. Another chimed in: “But the drinks are really expensive.”

The balls’ class dynamics are the subject of much local scrutiny. Open any Austrian newspaper in January and you will find an announcement about the average cost that each guest spends per visit: $371. About a third of that is paid for entry, and the rest on attire, taxis, styling, and infamously exorbitant concessions. Local headlines decry $15.50 pints and $17 Wiener sausages. In 2022, an Austrian state governor went viral for her tone-deaf tip that constituents restrict themselves to owning three—rather than 10—ballgowns.

The considerable spending associated with the balls is also a source of revenue that working-class Viennese—taxi drivers, caterers, dance instructors, and hairdressers—depend on. Norbert Kettner, the CEO of the Vienna Tourism Board, an independently run organization that also receives funds from the city, pointed out that the hundreds of millions of euros that this year’s 540,000 guests spent on the balls filter back into the local economy. At a “styling corner” at the Science Ball, where guests can stop by for touch-ups, one freelance makeup artist estimated that she makes more than half her annual income during the ball season.

Later that evening, my taxi driver explained that he organizes his night shifts around the ball schedule, which he pulled up on his phone; there were five events that night alone. When I asked whether he’d ever attended a ball himself, he laughed: “Just outside!” That is, at the taxi stand.

It’s natural to wonder whether the 19th-century aura does more to promote or impede democratic norms, especially when far-right nostalgia—such as that channeled through the FPÖ-sponsored Scholars’ Ball—is on the rise. The object of that nostalgia is pre-globalization Europe. There is a perception that the continent’s status has declined since then: The eurozone’s respective share of the global GDP, for example, has fallen by more than a third since 1960. On the other hand, Europe remains comparatively wealthy; Austria’s per capita GDP is the 14th-highest in the world, according to International Monetary Fund estimates.

Meanwhile, as war rages on in Ukraine, Sudan, and the Middle East, the EU Agency for Asylum predicts that 2024 could bring the highest number of asylum-seekers to the bloc since 2015, when 1.3 million refugees arrived in Europe, about half of them from Syria, Afghanistan, and Iraq. Just before this year’s carnival season, the 35-year old Austrian right-wing extremist Martin Sellner presented a bone-chilling “remigration” plan for migrants, asylum-seekers, and “unassimilated citizens” at a November conference of far-right actors near Berlin. He has since been banned from entering Germany.

The balls appear to offer a welcome respite from these thorny challenges—if they don’t feed back into the well of nostalgia from which these troubling political headlines are sourced.

Around midnight at the Science Ball, a psychology master’s student from Bavaria took a break from her heels on the red-carpeted stairs. She told me that this was her second time attending the event; she and a friend visited last year as well to celebrate the conclusion of a dreaded statistics exam.

“We love it,” she said, gesturing at the glittering crowd of young people posing for pictures behind us, “but we also hate it.” In her view, ball culture is elite and exclusive, reserved for the rich—but more so at other events than at this one. All the same, she conceded, “Why not feel super special? For 40 euros, look what you get.”

The Coffee Brewers’ Ball

Hosted by the Club of Viennese Coffeehouse Owners, the Kaffeesiederball, or Coffee Brewers’ Ball, is another of the season’s most-anticipated events. It celebrates and promotes the history of Vienna’s famous coffeehouse culture, which was inducted into the UNESCO list of intangible world heritage practices in 2011. Were there a people’s choice award for balls, the Coffee Brewers’ Ball would likely win; multiple guests, none of them coffee brewers, told me that it’s the most beautiful ball of the season.

The stately Hofburg Palace, where the ball was held, took on the atmosphere of a black-tie nightclub. Attendees—whose ages spanned from 18 to 80—had traveled from Munich to celebrate a 40th birthday; from Dubai, for the glamour; from Austria’s southern Carinthia region to see the scheduled performance by the Vienna State Ballet; and from northern Austria, to see a disco cover band (called the Bad Powells). Most were from Vienna itself. They had come to see the Hofburg, whose status as the former imperial palace lends the events held there a particular lure and elegance.

The guests were there, above all, to dance: the polka, the quadrille, the polonaise, and the tricky Viennese “left waltz,” in which couples follow a double rotation, revolving on their own axes while simultaneously orbiting the room, like planets hurtling around the sun. The dancing spilled from the main ballroom into gold-trimmed apartments leading deeper and deeper into the palace; I finally reached a dead end at the storied Redouten Rooms, which ball-enthusiast Empress Maria Theresa renovated in 1748 to better accommodate waltzes and masquerades. That evening, they had been furnished with neon lights, a gin bar, and a DJ spinning techno.

The balls have long dramatized a broader European tug-of-war between democratization and aristocratic control. From the 16th to 18th centuries, the monarchy strove to regulate, then ban, public masquerades and dances in the weeks leading up to Lent. The prohibitions were issued on the grounds of mischief (murders were known to be committed from behind the anonymity of carnival masks) and the threat of popular uprising.

Meanwhile, the nobility began to host their own masquerades in private ballrooms such as the Redouten Rooms. When Emperor Joseph II opened these rooms to the nontitled public in 1772, the nobility retreated once again to exclusive spaces, where they could better monitor the guest list (and, by extension, the marriage market). The same trend followed the rise of public dance halls at the turn of the century, when every profession began to hold its own celebrations.

Today’s balls are also increasingly international and cross-cultural. “Twenty years ago,” a 40-year-old Viennese guest told me, “you wouldn’t see so many international guests.” This year, he had brought two friends from Paris. As the night wore on, I also met a fashion journalist from Switzerland, a reporter from South Korea, and a correspondent from Munich. In one of the palace’s many golden bars, a local journalist pointed a camera at two models posing in a black tuxedo and a frothy pink gown. When I asked what the photoshoot was intended to advertise, he gave a cheerful answer: “Vienna!” The staged images will run in an international travel magazine.

For European states, the continent’s golden era is readily monetizable through foreign tourism. In cities such as Barcelona and Amsterdam, the annual total of visitors outnumbers locals by more than 10 to 1, prompting some local governments to dissuade further travelers from coming. Today, tourism makes up almost 10 percent of Austria’s economy, the same share as for the eurozone as a whole, which also claims more than 60 percent of the world’s international leisure travel.

There are many reasons to be drawn to the continent; Vienna itself is frequently ranked as the world’s most livable city. Yet among locals, the pandemic, climate change, and geographic proximity to Russia’s war in Ukraine can contribute to a mood of perceived domestic decline.

One former debutante reflected on her experience with a contagious nihilism: “Europe is lost,” she said. There’s “Ukraine,” and “nobody has money. Everything is fucked, basically, so why not party?”

It is not the kind of sentiment that will make the travel magazine spread.

Despite signs of disillusionment, Kettner—the Vienna Tourism Board CEO—said that young people such as the former debutante have “rescued” the balls. The discotheques and increasingly gender-neutral dress codes are part of a concerted effort to appeal to younger generations.

It’s been successful: Debutante classes ahead of the balls, which draw from the under-30 crowd, are full at the city’s top dance schools. Post-pandemic participation across all ages has risen from 520,000 in 2019 to an estimated 540,000 in 2023. The challenge of keeping the ball season relevant is a microcosm for Europe’s overall challenge: How to protect proud cultural traditions while also making sure that they can keep up with the times.

The Opera Ball

This official state ball, the “ball of all balls”—Austria’s most beautiful, decadent, and exclusive event—arrived on the scene in the year 1935. It is a fundraiser, with revenues flowing to the Vienna State Opera, in whose building the dance is also held. In 2019, the event raised  the equivalent of more than $1.1 million for the national opera and ballet.

In recent years, the Opera Ball has also developed a side reputation for celebrity antics. This is in large part thanks to Austrian reality TV star and businessman Richard Lugner; the reveal of his date is an annual tabloid event. In 2005, Lugner was accompanied by former Spice Girl Geri Halliwell, who, headlines gleefully reported, refused to dance with him. His other previous companions have included Pamela Anderson, Kim Kardashian, and Grace Jones. This year, he took Priscilla Presley.

A livestream broadcast of the ball is popular with viewers at home. This winter, more than 1.6 million Austrians and 1 million Germans tuned in.

The Opera Ball, with its outsized media footprint, also attracts dissenters. An annual demonstration that has been held on the same day as the ball since the late 1980s has become as much a part of the tradition as the waltz itself. Organized by the Communist Youth of Austria, this year, 400 to 600 people marched to the slogan “Eat the Rich.” More specific demands included a nationalized housing policy, the reinstatement of a national inheritance tax, and wage increases to keep pace with inflation.

The group’s media relations manager, Johannes Lutz, said that the protest stands against the inequity that the Opera Ball “symbolizes” rather than the ball itself. The minimum entry price of about $426 ($38 of which is earmarked for charity) is a point of contention; basic tickets for the season’s other exclusive balls range from $107 to $208.

Yeganehfar, who has served as the creative director of the Opera Ball since 2023 and also runs a successful local event production company, conceded that the ball “has its price.” She compared it to a major sporting event: Some fans will save up to attend, but many more will watch from home. (By comparison, the average ticket price to attend an NFL football game in the United States was $377 in 2023.) It is precisely because ordinary people “save up to be in this room” that Yeganehfar said she aims to make the Opera Ball so memorable.

“This is the most beautiful event in the entire country,” she said. “We should put it on a pedestal.”

The ball unfurled throughout the entire opera house—onstage, in the wings, in the basement, and in the many gilded bars and cafes—lending a night-at-the-museum giddiness to the evening. From a lobby erupting with Pink Floyd roses, arriving parties filtered through linoleum hallways and past dressing rooms usually reserved for singers and ballerinas. The dancing took place on the stage itself, which had been extended over the orchestra pit.

To debut at the Opera Ball, one breathless young debutante told me, is to occupy the same stage where the “the greatest singers in history” have performed.

The idea that the Opera Ball is something “you should see once in your life” is a sentiment that I heard from guests again and again. A couple from Berlin—a retired secretary and the manager of a hydrogen firm—said they were in attendance because Vienna is “the city of music.” Eight middle-aged women from Kyrgyzstan had arrived in matching pastel gowns after discovering the Opera Ball on the internet. Two Austrian students—a couple studying education and social anthropology, whose gelled hair and all-black palette gave the requisite dress code a punk twist—told me that they are usually at the leftist demonstration outside. This year, they’d saved up to attend the ball itself, saying, “[o]nce at the Opera Ball, the rest of the time at the protest!”

Onstage, I was asked to participate in a disastrous waltz. A ball veteran leading me through the polka, a step I do not know, insisted that the point of the Opera Ball is to escape reality. “For one night,” he said, “you don’t think about war or poverty. You just celebrate.”

But we were thinking about these issues—he mentioned them without my prompting. Awareness of the world outside was inscribed in the price of concessions, 10 percent of whose revenues were earmarked for an Austrian charity initiative in addition to the $38 earmarked from the ticket price. I saw three young men pass around a flask of liquor, a common workaround to the exorbitantly priced drinks. Exiting the stage, I dodged waiters rushing into private opera boxes with trays of petits fours and canapés.

This is about “tradition,” guests told me. It’s about prestige. It’s about attending the same ball as celebrities. (Later, I discovered that Italian actor Franco Nero was also in attendance.) It’s about “seeing and being seen.” It is, above all, about the illicit, dreamworld feeling of being where we’re not supposed to be: backstage at the Vienna Opera House and also, possibly, in the 19th century.

In the lobby, VIPs were being interviewed on live television. The sense that I’d fallen through the looking glass became more overwhelming when I stumbled into the basement, which had been transformed into a club. On a velvet sofa adjacent to the writhing dance floor lay a tulle hoopskirt, evidence of someone’s late-night costume change.

Like a hypnotist’s signal, it was my cue to head out and catch my early morning train.

Out in the real world, Yeganehfar’s comment lingered with me the most: “Why is enjoyment always framed as decadence?”

The taxi driver who picked me up outside of the opera house was originally from Poland. Our conversation drifted to the rise of right-wing politics in his native country. “History is turning back on itself,” he concluded, a reference to the ascendence of the far-right Law and Justice party in Poland and the accompanying decline in German-Polish relations. The observation compounded my sense of being drawn through multiple timelines at once.

By the time we arrived at the hostel apartment where I was staying, it was dawn. I exited onto the sidewalk and tipped my driver everything I had. Teetering in the sunrise in a pair of borrowed heels, I wondered if ball critics’ hand-wringing over decadence speaks less to a distrust of pleasure than to a profound sense of dissonance. Europeans still enjoy a quality of life that is the envy of much of the world, yet populists have managed to create—and spread—a narrative of a continent in imminent decline.

“Let us hope the future will be better!” the taxi driver said in parting. I found myself a little too eager to agree.

[empirearchives]

Ceres-Diadem / Ears of Corn Tiara, France

Early 19th century

Featured in an exhibition at Schmuckmuseum Pforzheim about jewelry during the Napoleonic era: A Newly Ordered World – Treasures from the Napoleonic Era

Currently located at: Albion Art Collection, Tokyo

Napoleon Bonaparte reorganized the European world in many respects… Back then, the Neoclassical “style of the Revolution” and the decorative Empire style spread all over Western Europe well into Russia. The moral concepts developed during the Enlightenment called for an aesthetic inspired by reason, which met the taste of an increasingly powerful, self-confident and educated middle class, and influenced all areas of culture – starting from architecture, painting, furniture, garments and jewellery all the way through to literature and music. The visual arts were expected to lead to the emergence of an intellectual aristocracy to break with the tradition of hereditary aristocracy. Over the course of Napoleon’s imperial reign, the Empire style unfolded its representative splendour to perfection.

[aaverageguy]

MODERN DAY NAPOLEONIC AU

josephine

Millennial (derogatory)

Scene queen who cant let go of the past

Big on myspace and degen tumblr aesthetic account owner

Barista in starbucks (broke ass)

Promiscuous individual

Cheater (red flag)

Hates her boyfriend because better people exist (lmao)

Wears uggs

Doesnt reply to texts when she sees her bf name come up on her phone, doesnt return calls either

Studied art history and couldn't get a job

Likes fancy perfumes but cant afford any, so just uses the display bottles and runs away immediately after

Taylor swift fan, but also loves classic scene music and modernday scenecore as it makes her feel young again

Went to BOTDF concert in her youth

Unironic BMTH fan, the edgelord inside still remains

napoleon

Strategy game lover

Wears the plainest clothes imaginable, doesn't put effort into outfits

Full on obsession with josephine, loves her dearly but she doesnt know

Only has around 4 close friends outside of his gf

Undisclosed and undiscovered homosexual tendencies (hmmm)

Pathetic person

Yearns for alexander after their sexcapade (joesphine doesnt know)

Insecure about height

Has anger issues and takes them out on josephine a lot a lot (purrr)

Listens to NU metal, fav band is limp bizkit

Has to ask Josephine to reach things on the top shelf for him

Loves military history

Watches anime and collects manga

Bedroom covered in band posters and anime posters

Unemployed

Had a bowl cut when Josephine was in her scene queen prime

Thinks the 7 years age gap is hot

IBS warrior 🔥

alexander

Tried to run away from home when he was younger

Openly zesty

Manager at Sephora

Dyes his hair blonde

Went on a camping trip with Napoleon and made the first move

Escalation ensues

Has the best fashion sense out of everyone around him

Speaks russian for the ladies (and sees their comments)

Aspiring tiktok beauty influencer (check out that foundation)

Listens to pop music and cheesy russians classics (мой мармеладный)

Cosplay anime characters with Napoleon (Josephine doenst get it)

Plays genshin impact AND overwatch

Collects antiques and trinkets

Lactose intolerant

Had a YouTube channel during the pandemic

general world building

takes place in Portland usa, modern days

Events take place from 2023 and present onwards (develops alongside major and minor world events)

Napoleon and Josephine live in a shitty dusty rusty apartment in the city (broken windows and all)

Alexander lives in the suburbs because having a job actually gets you places (ironic, word play)

Everything in this world is the same as ours but the Napoleonic era just never happened lol

As a group they all meet up in a pretentious expensive Cafe that sells pistachio lattes and pecan flavoured pastries

Napoleon frequently hangs out at Warhammer

Josephine met Alexander in uni and introduced him to Napoleon

They went to the university of Washington

Napoleon fucked Alexander after having an argument with Josephine one time (it's fine she has 3 side pieces on speed dial at all times)

Everyone in the city knows that Josephine is NOT to be trusted

[pargolettasworld]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZV1N3NGg8Q

There are two things of interest about this performance.  The first thing, what the Klezmer Institute would like you to know, is that klezmer music is more than just shtetl wedding music.  (Although shtetl wedding music was a big part of the klezmer repertoire.) Klezmorim didn’t just play Eastern European folk dances -- horas, shers, bulgars, freylakhs -- they also played more “modern” dance music that you might hear at a party or a dance hall in an urban setting.  This piece is a Padespan, a kind of ballroom dance similar to a waltz that was popular among the rooty-tooties during the Napoleonic era.  The name comes from Pas d’Espagne, the “Spanish step.”

The second thing of interest is that this particular Padespan comes from the pen of Dave Tarras.  Dave Tarras was one of the two men whose recordings inspired not just the current ongoing klezmer revival in the United States, but also the whole concept of what an American klezmer band ought to sound like.  For the record, it does not sound like this.  You see, Tarras was a clarinet player.  The idea that his music might be performed on an accordion trio would probably have him rolling in his grave.  We love to see it!

[thiefbird]

tagged by @oleolesimeeligen but making a new post to save everyone's dash from a post challenging "do you love the colour of the sky" for length! Thanks for the tag <3

❤︎ are you named after anyone?

no, i was named after the poem Afton Water by Robert Burns! So indirectly i was named after a Scottish river? Anyway heres the poem: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43799/afton-water

❤︎ when was the last time you cried?

couple months ago when i reread the first temeraire book and levitas died. my poor baby deserved so much better than rankin

❤︎ do you have kids?

jesus fucking christ on a cracker no

❤︎ do you play/have you played any sports?

i did fencing in elementary/middle school, and i both competed in and taught archery through high school! currently i am a sedentary rock but if i continue being in less pain+fatigue i may think about joining a roller derby league, bc clearly im not obviously queer enough

❤︎ do you like sarcasm?

yes. im not always good at it when other people do it but i do enjoy it

❤︎ what do you notice about people when you meet them?

hair colour and how their voice sounds. im moderately faceblind and have difficulties with audio processing, so i cant tell their facial features well and i dont understand WHAT they're saying, but i will recognise voices and hair immediately

❤︎ what’s your eye color?

blue-grey but if i wear purple my eyes look purple which is funky

❤︎ scary movies or happy endings?

scary movies i love to terrify myself

❤︎ any talents?

eh? i can write okay i can sew okay i can crochet+knit tolerably well and i can play guitar well enough

❤︎ where were you born?

austin tx. you can probably doxx me with just the info in this one post idgaf

❤︎ what are your hobbies?

knitting writing drawing crochet cosplay and historical recreation

❤︎ any pets?

my beloved cat. she has next to no teeth bc her body keeps making anti-tooth antibodies and then i have to pay 500 buckaroonies to have them removed but it is worth it because she is the cat of the world

❤︎ how tall are you?

5'5" short king

❤︎ what are your favorite school subjects?

no longer in school but the 3 months i went to high school were at an absurdly tiny charter school. it was so small they couldnt support a concert/marching band or an orchestra so the two music classes offered were classical guitar and "rock band" which was essentially a free and in-school version of the School Of Rock summer camps. we learned like fifteen songs and how to set up and do live mixes and at the end of the semester we did three shows (one for the middle schoolers during school hours, one for the high schoolers during school hours, and one after school) and i blew out a microphone and gave a whole horde of middle school kids a sexuality crisis by being Visibly Queer and also cool af

❤︎ what’s your dream job?

either the person who picks out fabrics for period piece films, or captain of a reproduction napoleonic war era frigate. i d charge billionaires absurd amounts of money to serve as ratings on my frigate. they have to sign waivers saying im allowed to have them flogged and also the frigate is not responsible if they die. i am actively seeking investors for my Billionaire Torment Ship

tagging @sapphirablue @gabrielnovakgoestomyschool @everythingmustmoveon @sesamie @glowing-blue-feathermage and also YOU if you want to do it <3

[klqrambles]

From here

Doing this for the Kmusical Frankenstein pt 2: tumblr deleted the original electric boogaloo

gonna say why I did/didn't circle certain things under cut if people are interested

This is gonna be in whatever order I think is most fun :3c

The names of characters have been changed because of reasons -> Victor is still Victor Frankenstein, but Henry is Henry Dupre and Elizabeth is Julia. Victor also has a sister named Ellen and a butler named Runge, and Julia's father is named Stephan. Also Julia's family is the one who takes in Victor.

Set in the Victorian or Regency era instead of late 1700s -> it's set in 1815 during and post the Napoleonic Wars

Victor is a doctor -> Well, we don't know exactly, but he is the head of R&D in the military, so presumably?

Adam is not brought to life in a college dorm room -> He's brought to life in Victor's family laboratory (Victor's father was a doctor)

Adam has the memories/personality of a person that his body parts came from -> the Creature's head is Henry's (he was beheaded after being accused of murder long story lol also each of the main character actors play 2 roles in the musical it's really fun) and some actors choose to have the Creature remember bits and pieces of his past as Henry.

Adam's movements are neurodivergent coded to make him "scarier" or more "childlike" -> Definitely to make him more "childlike", but as such he ends up "growing out" of it

Adam never mentions or references Paradise Lost -> He might, but if he does it's lost on me since I haven't read it lol. But also he doesn't have any time to read it because instead of living with the DeLacey's, he's captured and forced to fight in an illegal fight ring.

We are expected to actually like Victor and Elizabeth as a couple -> I put this as "???" because I think so, but also Henry and the Creature get in the way of those two's relationship so often, and their relationship hinges on one promise they made as children so idk compared to Henry and Victor's relationship it really doesn't hold any ground LOL

No Walton -> The ending doesn't involve a boat so for all we know maybe Victor did meet a Walton on his way there, but he sure has left him behind by that point.

Victor is buff for some reason -> I put this as "depends" because it depends on which actor is playing Victor lol. You have everything from "Used to be a baseball player but shifted to musical acting post career" Min Woohyuk Victor to "My friends and I call him a flamingo for a reason" Jeon Dongsuk Victor to "Super Junior Idol" Kyuhyun Victor so, every flavor of Victor exists LOL

Some things I didn't circle I want to talk about cause why not

What do you mean Frankenstein had more themes than "don't play god" -> While that's definitely one of the major themes of the musical, there's definitely some themes of "What undiagnosed trauma does to a motherfucker" and "behold the consequences of your actions"

Adam doesn't like fire -> The Creature's big number involves him setting fire to the fight ring that captured him so, I mean, I rather think he likes fire lol

Heterosexual Clerval -> Henry in this is gay, he is so gay, he is unbelievably gay. More people have to listen to "In Your Dreams" and tell me that Henry is so gay for Victor and people have to listen to "Life in a Glass of Liquor" and tell me those two are so gay for each other fr fr

Anyway, while this definitely isn't the best Frankenstein adaptation, it's definitely one of my favorites XD

[songsforthepierce]

Odd Tracks: They’re Coming to Take Me Away Ha! Haa!... - Napoleon XIV

So this is a song I haven’t thought about in YEARS. when I was looking through what music I had I saw this and went “...oh yeah, this song.”

I debated about doing this but content warning for light discussions on ableism and institutionalization. I didn’t really expect doing that on this fucking song but here we are.

So I found this song in a video that was similar to AMV Hell back in...maaaybe 2007 or 2008? Hard to remember. But anyway, I remember buying the song, listening to it from time to time and then just moved on. Now that I came back to this song I realized this only could have been used during the big AMV Hell era of the time. I cannot imagine this being used today. Well I say that when as I am typing this maybe someone will use it in a TikTok or something.

I looked into this song and learned some things. First off is that the artist goes under Napoleon XIV which I know isn’t interesting but to me the only reason that stands out is because when I got it on itunes at the time they label him under “Napoleon’s Ghost”. Why? I don’t know. Moving on from that the artist’s real name is Jerry Samuels and he is from America. Secondly the song was released in 1966 and was a chart hit reaching number 1 on U.S. Cash Box Top 100, number 3 on US Billboard Top 100, number 4 in UK Singles Chart, number 2 on Canada RPM Top Singles, and number 40 on Australia’s Kent Music Report. I am actually surprised it topped that high in the US, Canada, and UK during the time period (find it funny it was lower in Australia though). You know, I can 100% believe this being a one hit wonder. Novelty songs getting that status isn’t new (i.e. Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer). However, this being high within most of the charts is what baffles me. It being number 40? more believable. But it being within the top 4? That is just confusing for me. Was there nothing else going on in 1966 for this to happen? I guess so. Hell, the guy was awarded a gold disc. Well with all of that said what is this song about? What made this such a hit?

The song is about a man, or in this case Napoleon XIV (this was Jerry’s character or something), being taken away to a mental institution. Why? Because his girlfriend broke up with him which is what is causing his insanity. Actually wait, no, it was because he lost his dog. Haha...funny...okay look, I get it is one of those “Oh tee hee look how CRAZY this character is. Oh isn’t it funny they went insane and are being institutionalized! Oh how quirky!” songs which are not uncommon. I am not gonna say it is the worse song or even the worse song about this type of thing. But I will say it did not really age well and it is very much partially a product of the culture. Well I say partially because Samuels did point out he felt like this song would come off like it was making fun of the mentally ill but that him throwing in the line at the end about the dog would somehow make this okay. You know, how wikipedia worded what he said is weirdly better than what he actually said at the time. The whole “Sickies” line is not great. I know I could talk about how a song like this technically makes light about mental illness and institutionalization especially since the abuse that goes on in places as such has gotten more attention over the years. However, I think we all know this and I already stated my general feelings on the song. Plus the guy was 28 at the time which does explain his attitude at the time. Nowadays I actually don’t know what he does and frankly I really don’t care.Though, I would I have ended this all here but I found more info on the song.

The song you may noticed uses snare drum, bass drum, tambourine, and hand clap rhythm throughout. Samuels’ vocals are not sung melodically but instead spoken rhythmically while the pitch of his vocals rises and falls at key points which creates an odd glissando effect. This is increased by the wailing sirens that were added in the song as well. Now this made me look up what a glissando is which is described as “a glide to one pitch to another”. Though what was interesting to me was the fact that Samuels was able to do the vocal pitch shifts by basically doing a variation on what the creator of Alvin and the Chipmunks did. Samuels at the time was working as a record engineer at the time which does explain all the sound stuff he was able to do on the track. A lot of it is talked about in Who Wrote a Book About Love? which I actually recommend reading the parts where he talks about all the technical stuff he did for the song. To be honest how he made the more technical aspects of the song is way more interesting than the song itself. I would have also ended all this here but then I found out this song as sequels.

Okay yeah, this song has sequels which I do not understand. Yes, this was a popular song which got banned by some stations because of the subject matter but were there people who REALLY wanted a sequel to this? Though I guess before I talk about that I should start will saying this song has a B-side. So the B-side is the same song but it is played in reverse. This fucking sounds like a song people would try to make theories about subliminal messages being inserted in. That or something out of a bad creepypasta. The most notable thing about this song is that rock critic, Dave Marsh, in his book Book of Rock Lists said the B-side is the “most obnoxious song ever to appear in a jukebox” which he claims this song cleared out a diner of forty people two minutes flat. I don’t know why but that made me remember that whole What’s New Pussy Cat meme from years back. Anyway, the fact this B-side was on a jukebox in a diner is just baffling to me. Why would someone put that on there unless they really wanted to annoy everyone in the restaurant? I would leave too if that came on. Now that I got the B-side out of the way now I can talk about the multiple sequels. The first one is I'm Happy They Took You Away, Ha-Haaa! and it’s just the same fucking song. The instrumentals sound like a bootleg of the original. The only difference is that this is about the woman happy she sent the guy away. The only notable things about this song was this was recorded Bryna Raeburn of CBS Radio Mystery Theater under Josephine XV. The second sequel is They Took You Away, I'm Glad, I'm Glad  which is I guess recorded by Josephine which appeared on These Are the Hits, You Silly Savages by Teddy & Darrel. The video of someone playing it on a promotional CD is all I could really find. I think there was one other video with the song but I guess this wasn’t popular. I am not shocked though because it is just the same song, again. I am not going to count the variation of the original song where Samuels says, “THEY'RE TRYING TO DRIVE ME SANE!!! HA HA“ different at the end as a sequel but I guess I should mention it for completion sake. “Emperor Bob” Hudson made a song called I’m Normal which is about the brother of the main character with the claims that no one will get him because he is so normal. The concept on paper sounded more funny to interesting for me because it just makes me think of all of those “I’m so normal memes”. Sadly when I listened to the song it sucked. How many times are they going to make the same song but slightly alter the tune of the song? Well, I guess they only did this four times because the forth and final sequel was made by Sameuls himself in 1988. All the other sequels were made in 1966, the same year as the original, which kind of makes sense with the fact that would be at the height of the popularity of the original. But 1988 feels like it is late to the party. Anyway, the last sequel is called They're Coming To Get Me Again, Ha Haaa! where Napoleon XIV has been released from institutionalization but alas that doesn’t last long as his fear of going back leads him being taken in. My opinion on all of these songs is lower than the original mainly because they really don’t really do much from the original concept. All of them just sound like bootlegs of one another but not even an enjoyable bootleg.

I was originally going to look into the covers of this song (yes this song had covers) but I just don’t care anymore. I already spent more time on this song than I originally intended. So yeah, this song exists and I won’t be listening to it or any of it’s variants again.

[some-cold-and-some-violence]

Tagged by @mooseofthesea, thanks!

Last Song: Our Wedding Waltz by Slim Dusty and Joy McKean (RIP). Set up my turntable and found my box of records yesterday, most of which are ones my nan nicked from my grandad during the divorce. She took all his Dolly Parton lmao (and then she gave them to me, and then my brother stole them… he did eventually give me all his Jethro Tull so we're cool). With Joy McKean's recent passing it seemed fitting to listen to all the music I have of hers!

Currently Watching: I don't have a TV set up yet nor do I have internet nor enough data left to justify videos. In my mind I am perpetually replaying Aces High and the entire Hornblower series, though, if that counts.

Currently Reading: Most of my books are in boxes right now and I need to wait until I can get the good antihistamines before I start unpacking them, and I haven't had the time to make it to the library. So I'm limited to what's on my phone. I just started Young Nelson's: Boy Sailors During the Napoleonic Wars by D.A.B Ronald, and I'm part way through an old translation of The Robbers by Friedrich Schiller. In addition, I'm also reading The Sorrows of Young Werther AGAIN through an email subscription (I love getting letters from my dear friend Werther), and Moby Dick. I also have an audiobook of Biggles of the Camel Squadron which I've been trying to listen while I do housework but I'm slightly hard of hearing and I never retain much in non-music audio format anyway, so it's mostly background noise.

Current Obsession: Going through a bit of a WWI thing at the moment, as you've all probably guessed, on top of the perpetual age of sail thing. In particular, I'm interested in anything to do with the 26th, 12th, and 40th Battalions AIF. The impression I'm very, very slowly putting together is 12th Battalion C. 1916. I'm also diving into the topic of aviation of the era for the first time so I've been trying to find anything I can on that, especially the AFC. Not being able to go to the library is KILLING me!

Tagging (no obligation, of course), @cadmusfly @gohoubi @a-french-guardsman @werewiire

[wemade-an-arrangement]

During lockdown, I became passionate with history~ mostly European. I loved the fashion, society and stories of their lives. How things were before and how they evolved.

This was like before I got into Hamilton~

I thought it was a recent production lol, when i heard tiktok audios that came from the musical. I just found that the songs were so good (and hella catchy)

~~~

Anyways, back to Europe.

I love French history (Louis 14th, Marie Antoinette and the French Revolution, Napoleonic period of course~)

British history (anything actually~ but I'm still confused about the Plantaganet Era and I'm not much of a WW1 AND WWII person)

I'm not an expert. I just learn for fun (on the historical side of tiktok as well)

As you can tell, I like royal history 😄

~~~~

I really love the Georgian period and their fashion. Also I find that Queen Charlotte and George iii are so interesting. I admire how they were close and truly in love. Love is a rare thing to find within an arranged marriage during a time where marriages were seen as political.

During George's illness, it's seen how thay society views mental illness and medicine on the whole. Their methods of treating him would be classified as torture today~ and their medication would be said to be poisonous.

It's interesting that not even a king would have proper treatment for his illness.

Medicine, treatment and understanding of an ailment had come a long way.

It shows us that, whoever we are, we're all human.

~~~~

Like here in Trinidad, some older people still believe that epilepsy is caused by spirits (which is obviously not true~ it's a neurological disorder) but it's an example of certain stigmas.

(T&T is a bit of a third world country so~)

~~~

Those depictions of King George are very cool tho😄. I love how one figure can be depicted in various ways~

Like there's the queen charlotte version~

(He's seen through her pov. So that's why he's seen as dashing, charming and always confusing)

Hamilton's version~ which is just how the colonials see him. Especially when they heard that he has gone mad.

I love him as a comic relief!

They even gave him that British sarcasm 😄.

There's another movie/play about him, where there's no pov. But it shows his struggles of balancing his bouts of psychosis, and his duties as a king and husband.

There's this line, "there's a lot of words in my head and I must let all of them out"

.....

And that's why, folks. I like the Georgian Era.

[unknown171204]

A first attempt fell into nothingness :

The very first musical Made in France

Which is neither a foreign adaptation nor an operetta from another time, was initially just a simple disc without great ambition .

The disc existed in two different copies :

The original double album from 1973 containing the vinyl and twelve pages of unpublished comics

and

The triple album black and gold from 1977 where the song of the assassination of Marat was completely rewritten .

Stars of French song of the time are nevertheless present on the album :

Alain Bashung as Robespierre , Antoine is Napoleon , and the Charlots (a group of comedian actors/singers) as priests

( Note the tiny participation of a still unknown Daniel Balavoine in the chorus . )

The story follow the impossible love story of Charles Gauthier, a boy from the people for Isabelle de Montmorency, daughter of aristocrats during the great events of 1789 (This plot will be copied without any embarrassment by the musical comedy "1789 les Amants de la Bastille" many years later)

The Disc will be such a surprise success that a stage adaptation will be carried out, first at the Palais des sports with the presence of Alain Bashung still in his role of Robespierre then at the Mogador theater the following year with a new troupe and without the presence of the stars of the album .

Despite its success, the show was not filmed or archived.

All we have left are some fairly poor quality TV archives and the full audio of the original album :

The full album :

Today this show has completely fallen into oblivion, no attempt at a revival had been started, until this year !!

I invite you to follow the path to my main masterlist to learn more about French musicals and their stories :

[drogba-prospect]

Painting Model

Scouts for Diamond and Rose Gold Buyers

Protection Racket through Freeports

Lobbying through Martinique Tax Shelter

Smurfing though Art Galerie

Culture Catalyst are Berri-UQAM Central Station, Fragrance Festivals, et Nuit Blanche

Artisanal Plantation for Lavender, Synthétique Musk, Red Cedar (Shoe Déodorant), Linen Canvases, et Acrylic Paint & Additives

Abstract Painting Style is Triadic Hormony et Contrast avec Action Painting et Poertry

Time Période

La Belle Époque (French: [bɛlepɔk]; French for "The Beautiful Era") is a period of French and European history, usually considered to begin around 1871–1880 and to end with the outbreak of World War I in 1914. Occurring during the era of the Third French Republic, it was a period characterised by optimism, regional peace, economic prosperity, colonial expansion, and technological, scientific, and cultural innovations. In this era of France's cultural and artistic climate (particularly within Paris), the arts markedly flourished, and numerous masterpieces of literature, music, theatre, and visual art gained extensive recognition.

Theory

L'art pompier (literally 'fireman art') or style pompier is a derisive late-19th century French term for large 'official' academic art paintings of the time, especially historical or allegorical ones. The term derives from the helmets with horse-hair tails, worn at the time by French firemen, which are similar to the Attic helmets often worn in such works by allegorical personifications, classical warriors, or Napoleonic cavalry.[1] It also suggests half-puns in French with pompéien ('from Pompeii') and pompeux ('pompous'). This type of art was seen by those who used the term as the epitome of the values of the bourgeoisie, and as insincere and overblown.

The bourgeoisie (/ˌbʊərʒwɑːˈziː/ ⓘ BOOR-zhwah-ZEE, French: [buʁʒwazi] ⓘ) is a class of business owners and merchants which emerged in the Late Middle Ages, originally as a "middle class" between peasantry and aristocracy. They are traditionally contrasted with the proletariat by their wealth, political power, and education,[1][2] as well as their access to and control of cultural, social and financial capital.

Drugs

Solvent Levelling Effect Chemical Reaction Engineering et Placebo Effect (manufacturing), Suicide Tuesdays Levelling Effect (Rolling Tobacco, Oxytocin, Pain Killers, and Ecstasy) [Brain Chemical Dealing], Cash Back Program (Buy within 3 days of paycheck for extra Tobacco), Razor-Razor Blade C2C: Streetwear and PC Gaming (Business Model), Popcorn Marketing (Prices) et Real Estate Brokerage Trust Account (Money)

Jolán Cadieux