#sassy tamino

[mindofstardust]

shoutout to the Dutch lady at the Glasgow show who shouted something to Tamino that sparked the following conversation also:

Tamino: ...someone’s been learning Dutch. Lady: I am Dutch! Tamino: You are Dutch? ...well now it’s not special.

[duskysprings-if]

other characters

your twin sister (tweety)

name customisable.

tweety is your twin sister, younger than you by 27 minutes. she is your rock and the person you can always trust to have your back no matter what. she’s bright and optimistic and spontaneous and always seems to have a plan for the situations that you end up in. bonds with the most chaotic people (and creatures) and has a girlfriend who she is currently in a long-distance relationship with.

blu anderson

the manager of the museum of mystery. extremely bubbly and seemingly always happy to lend a hand, nothing appears to deter blu. never mistake kindness for weakness however. they are not someone who’s bad side you want to be on.

fc: tamino amir

inez herrera

the newest employee of the museum of mystery. inez is sassy and sarcastic and bonded with tweety and aspen almost on sight. she has a particular fondness for blu and is ready to throw hands with anyone who she feels is taking advantage of their kindness.

fc: dina denoire.

[katriaraden]

Where do you get a lot of your inspiration from? Anything from media, to other artists, to just random things come to mind?

Hi, thank you for your question! To be fair, it's a bit harder for me to reply to it right now because I feel like my art is going through a lot of changes and I'm reaching a lot farther and deeper for inspiration than I ever was. In general, I think music and nature I find inspirational at that moment have the biggest sway over the feel and vibe of my art. My favorite musicians and bands are Hozier, Tamino, Wardruna & a myriad of other folk bands. I also read a lot and I'm most drawn to books about strange woods, pastoral fantasy and sassy characters. As a kid my favorite toys and books were about animals, and I'm still very much like that. So when it comes to themes and ideas portrayed I made myself a nice little box of plants, animals and neat objects that I try to improve upon by asking myself "how can I make this weirder?" I will sometimes literally scroll through photos of everyday objects, thinking how to make them more interesting and peculiar and find inspiration from there. Just perusing social media and pinterest is great for inspiration, but I try to be careful. If I'm using direct references I try to diversify them as much as I can and pull from multiple sources. Sometimes it's clear which pictures I used to reference a character's pose and things like that, but I do try instill something new and personal into everything.

[tra-le-patatine-a-fuoco]

Tagged by @technicallycleverdetective to post my 5 current favourite songs (good thing I saw it on my dash because I didn’t receive a notification somehow 😶), not sure about the order or anything because I feel like I’ve been listening to the same 10 songs all year long, but these are definitely songs I never really skip when they come on

1. Abissale - Tananai

2. Crocodile - Tamino

3. La Recette - Slimane

4. Chiedimi Come Sto - Marco Mengoni

5. Rétine - Amir

I tag @omarfor-mp3 @pezzo-di-paradiso @sassy-sara @waitstay @barellino, feel free to ignore though :D

[daily-coloring]

Best of 2022 - Albums

What a boring year it was. No big surprises, nothing out of the blue, only a few perfect records. 

01. Rosalia - Motomami - “The Spanish singer’s third album delivers gem after gem, as flamenco rhythms rub shoulders with sassy party flexes.” The Observer

02. Tove Lo - Dirt Femme

03. The Smile - A Light of Attracting Attention

04. Walt Disco - Unlearning - Definitely not for everyone. “Flamboyant goth-glam that doesn’t care what the boomers think.” NME

05. Tamino - Sahar

06. Marian Hill - Why Can’t Be Just Pretend?

07. Marlon Williams - My Boy

08. The Wombats - Fix Yourself, Not The World

09. Joywave - Cleanse

10. Charlotte Adigéry & Bolis Pupul - Topical Dancer

11. Nilüfer Yanya - Painless

12. The Fear Ratio - Slinky

13. Wojciech Rusin - Syphon

14. Lyndsey Lawlor - Dearest Philistine

15. Honey Dijon - Black Girl Magic

16. Moin - Paste - “Moin’s approach on Paste is barebones, but discerning – taking a craft knife to 80s and 90s indie music and using it to fashion their most fleshed-out release yet. “ The Guardian

17. Belle and Sebastian - A Bit of Previous

18. Florence + The Machines - Dance Fever

19. Moderat - More D4ta

20. Fontaines D.C. - Skinty Fia

21. Jockstrap - I Love You, Jennifer B

22. MO - Motordrome

23. Virgil Enzinger + Submerge - At The End

24. Ange Halliwell - Lullaby For The Dead

25. Everything Everything - Raw Data Feel

26. Röyksopp - Profound Mysteries - All versions are the same. Mostly great songs + few you can easily skip. Would be a great record if they could release the strongest songs on one record. 

27. Caterina Barbieri - Spirit Exit -  “For music that evokes empty clubs and shuttered churches, built on patterns dictated by a “mechanical fortune teller,” its humanity is its most haunting quality.” Pitchfork

28. Badawi - The Book of Jinn + The War of Art

29. Mykki Blanco - Stay Close to Music

30. Rival Consoles - El Caso Figo

31. Archive - Call to Arms and Angels - “What is so impressive about these songs – all of them, not just the lengthy ones – is the daring and almost fearless way with which they progress. Archive aren’t afraid to have hugely infectious would-be mainstream hits such as ‘Freedom’ collapse inward on themselves. They’re also not shy about dangling the carrot in front of their crescendo-expectant audience only to have things fade out to the gorgeous trickle of a classical piano. In the same token, there are moments when you think you’ve floated into a quiet pasture for respite when Archive will suddenly whip out the electric guitars and flood that space with noise. The transitions can be jarring but tend not to be, as Call To Arms & Angels feels less like a puzzle held together by separate pieces and more like a painting in which the different colors bleed together to form a beautiful image. It all feels interrelated, the product of a bold, creative, and eclectic vision that’s been executed to perfection.” Sputnik Music

32. Bodi Bill - I Love You, I Do

33. Get Well Soon - Amen

34. Methyl Ethel - Are You Haunted?

35. Working Men’s Club - Fear Fear - “The album tells its own superbly structured story, bathing in synthesis and heavily grounded in the contexts of lockdown, while allowing these very contexts to steer the process beyond angst and towards a utopian catharsis.” Clash

36. Stabbing Westward - Chasing Ghosts - “Stabbing Westward fans will get everything they love about the band and fair weathered fans might just be won over with this album. An absolute must buy for your industrial rock collection.” Spill Magazine

37. Hot Chip - Freakout/Release

38. Daniel Avery - Ultra Truth

39. Spoon - Lucifer on the Sofa

40. Benjamin Clementine - And I Have Been

41. Purity Ring - Graves

42. Ben Shemie - Desiderata - “Shemie has described Desiderata as "a soundtrack to a movie that doesn't exist." While this statement rings true (opener "The Departure" could have fit nicely on the score to Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey), it's also a bit of a disservice to the album.” Exclaim!

43. Local Suicide - Eros Anikate 

44. Deliluh - Fault Lines

45. u-Ziq - Magic Pony Ride

46. Ovend - Rush

47. Maggie Koerner - The Bartholomew Songs

48. FKA twigs - Caprisongs - “In a discography filled with experimental pop played at an overwhelming intensity, Caprisongs offers both a feeling of playfulness and self-assurance.” The Young Folks

49. Beyonce - Renaissance

50. Subjective - The Start of No Regret - “Goldie takes a breezy trip through various avenues of electronic music with this real goodie bag of an album that’s focused, well-produced, and great fun.” Music OHM

[feysandfeels]

Who are your top five celebrity crushes?

Five? Just five? babe are you new here? I can't make a top five. It's just not in me.

So I will do ten.

Matthew Daddario. Honestly god took special special care when making him. Holy fuck I would leave it all behind to marry him. No one comes above him. I think we would make a very very good couple. He loves cows I have a farm... you know? it's meant to be.

Tom Holland (who is on fucking thin ice but I still love him).

V from Bts. I have no coherent thought where that man is concerned. Our babies would be stunning and he would sing to me and dance. He is so sassy and dorky in a weird way, charming, good looking.. i want to say he is smart and he is dedicated... yes yes yes yes yes.

Tamino. I WANT TO DATE HIM AND BE HIS MUSE AND HAVE HIM WRITE THOSE GODLY TUNES WITH ME IN HIS MIND.

Zoë Kravitz. Who doesn't have a crush on Zoë? Lets be real.

Dua Lipa. The amount of times I have watched her grammy performance has to be alarming for whoever is monitoring my computer.

Avan Jogia. Have you seen his face? I - that man is stunning.

Hunter Schafer. That woman is an angel a fucking angel and I would treat her so right.

Garrett Hedlund. I saw him as AcHiLlES CoUSiN in Troy and I have never been the same. That man just butters my croissant. He seems so... like rough on the edges kinda guy, can chop wood and is tender, and that is everything to me.

Logan Lerman. How could I not include him? legit the most consistent crush on my entire life. Those eyes? that skin? his hair? thank now has some grey streaks?? I die for that man.

:)

Lets start manifesting me with them.

Honorable mention to Taylor Lautner who was my twilight crush and to Robert Pattison and Orlando Bloom (in his pirate days) who are eternal to me.

[monotonous-minutia]

Third question: pick an opera you’ve seen several productions of and compare/contrast those productions in as many or few ways as you wish

So, Zauberflöte is one of my favorite operas, but I don’t talk about it too much. I think it might be because it’s honestly hard to find a decent production of this one. Like, yes, the opera itself is super whack, but I don’t understand the need to make it even more ridiculous with bizarre sets/costumes/staging/etc. So most of the time I don’t even finish them. My method is usually this: 1) See if the overture is staged and how. 2) Check out the set and costumes and see how bizarre/distracting they are. 3) Watch Papageno’s first aria to see how they handle him. 4) Watch Monostatos’s first scene to see how they handle him. 5) If the first Monostatos scene is questionable watch his aria. If all of this is passable, I’ll start over and watch the whole thing. A lot of times, productions don’t pass the test. However, there are four that I have seen that I really enjoyed.

Drottingholm Court Theater, 1989

The first Zauberflote I ever saw was also the first opera I ever saw, so it’s very special to me. The production is glorious; lush sets and costumes set in the time it was written; intricate staging that really brings out the character’s personalities and motivations; an excellent cast with an especially expressive Pamina who most of the time isn’t there for Sarastro’s BS. Papageno is adorable and hilarious and the production does NOT make fun of him, which is refreshing. This is my favorite Sarastro; the actor (Lazlo Polgar) is so phenomenal that I can actually see Sarastro as the kind, wise, loving figure he’s supposed to be (but the misogyny is still there because it’s unavoidable). The Queen of the Night is regal, majestic, and terrifying. During her second aria she spends a lot of the coloratura staring manically into the audience. Two of my favorite bits of staging: At the end of Act I, when the villagers start to arrive to greet Sarastro, Papageno notices a cute girl in the crowd and starts flirting with her. Later we find out that she’s Papagena, and it’s simply adorable and makes their reunion all the more genuine. The other is at the very end during the Act II finale. They stage it as if Sarastro is performing a wedding ceremony for Pamina and Tamino and in the last moment Papageno and Papagena run in holding hands and go stand next to them so it becomes a double wedding and Sarastro gives them this huge smile and my heart just melts. An interesting choice they make is that the Pamina-Tamino duet where they’re saying their “final farewell” (“Soll ich dich teurer nicht mehr sehn?”) is at the beginning of Act II before Tamino leaves for his trials, which makes more sense because he is talking to Pamina and if it happens after Pamina’s aria it doesn’t make sense because he just listened to her say she was going to kill herself without responding and now all of a sudden he’s talking to her. So I like that they put it here because it makes their conversation more believable. The only thing I don’t like about it is the way they handle Monostatos; it’s not unique to this production, but that obviously doesn’t excuse it. A sad mark on an otherwise impeccable production. Unfortunately I can’t find this anywhere online; I just own the DVD, so while I’d recommend it highly, I doubt people will be able to find it.

Convent Garden, 2003

The second one I ever saw. Delightful in so many ways. I LOVE this Papageno and Pamina and the production really highlights the fact that they’re a team in the second part of Act I and it’s so stinking cute. The costumes don’t have a specific theme going on as far as I can tell, but I’m also not great with recognizing stuff like that. The set is relatively simple and doesn’t go out of its way to be flashy or outstanding. We get the cutest Pamina in existence, Dorothea Röschmann, who also isn’t there for Sarastro’s BS and frankly not Tamino’s either but there’s not a lot she can do about any of that. Damrau is the Queen of the Night and she is a QUEEN. Eek. This Tamino is VERY annoyed with Papageno to the point of being almost mean but Papageno eventually starts fighting back which is heartening. His line about being able to be a man too by not saying anything during Pamina’s suicidal aria is clearly a burn and after that he takes his stuff and goes offstage, instead of following Tamino like he does in every other production I’ve seen, as if he’s just done with him. They actually don’t interact again after that so I can imagine they just go their separate ways, which is kind of sad, but this production really doesn’t portray the bromance between them that others do. I do hope he gets to see Pamina again though. Papageno’s duet with Papagena is the cutest thing in the world and Papagena herself is illegally adorable. Also Pamina deserves much more than what these men give her. I hope either Tamino shapes up or she leaves him eventually. This one also remedies some of the racism by having Monostatos and his minions be zombies, which looks odd compared to the rest of the set and costumes but is appreciated. They also fix some of the wording in his aria (which I caught with my limited German skills) which also helps. This Sarastro is pretty nice too but not as expressive as Polgar and his staging isn’t as intricate. Overall though I love this one primarily for Keenlyside’s Papageno, Damrau’s Queen, and Röschmann’s Pamina.

Bronx (can’t find a date)

This one is in English and the translation is really good and best of all gets rid of some of the racism/misogyny so yay! The cast is really good at portraying the characters, and they embrace the comic and dramatic elements with equal weight, and there’s more diversity than is often seen. This Queen freaking SLAYS. And Pamina makes me cry. A lot. We get a lot of the missing dialogue here which helps flesh out the story and which I really appreciate because I’m kind of tired of people bashing the libretto when a lot of the confusion comes from bad translations and the fact that huge chunks of the dialogue are taken out because conductors want to get to the music faster. Like there is SO MUCH banter between Tamino and Papageno that’s freaking hilarious but we hardly ever get to hear it. And there’s a lot more exposition in the Papageno-Pamina conversation at the top of Act I Scene II that clarifies a lot of what people complain is so confusing, as well as a longer conversation between Pamina and her mother in Act II that explains more of her backstory and the significance of the flute. So I love that this production keeps a lot of it in. The set and costumes are detailed and very pretty. Papageno’s feathers and green wig are kind of Extra but he’s so funny I can forgive it. Papagena is TINY and adorable. We actually get some genuine chemistry between Tamino and Pamina which is a rare treat. At the very end Papageno and Papagena run onstage and Papageno goes to hug Tamino which is very sweet, and Papagena goes to Pamina, which makes me wonder if maybe they knew each other before. After all, they’ve both been hanging out at Sarastro’s place for some time waiting for their men to get it together.

Loyola University New Orleans, 2014

This one also gets rid of a lot of the racism/misogyny through another great English translation and taking out the entire duet with the Two Priests where they’re basically just saying women are terrible and making changes to the portrayal of Monostatos and his lines. The cast is more diverse too which helps. It’s set in what looks like maybe Egypt, which kind of makes sense given the whole Isis/Osiris thing. However, Sarastro is obviously imitating Zeus with a huge white beard, white robe, and he carries a giant lightning bolt in some scenes, which makes for an odd juxtaposition. This Tamino is less Stand There and Look Handsome and more Let’s Get This Over With which is refreshing. Monostatos is hilarious and I kind of feel sorry for him. We get an extra sassy Papagena and it’s a joy. The Three Spirits are actually portrayed as women in this one instead of boys which also helps with diversity and lessening misogyny. It also keeps a lot of the missing dialogue which is appreciated. The interactions between the characters are detailed and genuine and make for a heartfelt production overall.

so there’s that. Thanks for the ask; I especially love ranting/rambling about opera productions!!

[infinitelytheheartexpands]

for the production asks; the magic flute and don giovanni?

Ooh, do I have Opinions.

The Magic Flute:

For production design, the more bizarre/fantastical/fairy-tale-esque it is, the better (at least for the main body). The external frame would be...dark.

This is the rare opera I absolutely would not play straight: my concept would be some variation of the “show-within-a-show” technique, and Papageno is the Sassy Gay Friend who is just trying to get everyone in the show to realize how dumb it all is (and it eventually gets so bad that you have the attempted suicide scene). There would be an onstage audience.

Sarastro would be the big storyteller, trying to pull off this piece of sexist, racist, Freemason propaganda for the cult’s own benefit. Tamino and Pamina are helpless audience members who get pulled into it (so are Papageno and Papagena), the Queen of the Night, the other magical characters, and Monostatos are deliberately depicted as stereotypically as possible, although the production repeatedly comments about how there’s actually more depth to these characters beyond them being “weak power-hungry women” or “bad because they’re black” or any of that. Essentially, Sarastro is a big liar who makes all of this stuff up. 

(Sidenote: the way I’d do the whole “Monostatos tried to rape me” thing is that it’s part of the script for this godforsaken propaganda show.)

(Further sidenote: after reading over it, I say that alternatively, this could be staged as a Trump rally with more overt audience participation.)

Costumes: Big, bright, beautiful. Except that Sarastro wears black the entire time and looks as shady as humanly possible.

Don Giovanni:

First and foremost, DON GIOVANNI IS THE VILLAIN. (And Anna was raped. Thank you for coming to my TED Talk.)

The setting: it works at any time period, because sexual harassment of women by powerful men is not confined to any time period or even place. HOWEVER, I think setting it further back (possibly at the time of composition) stresses how revolutionary Mozart and da Ponte’s treatment of the subject was- and still is.

Leporello is absolutely sympathetic and not a villain. It’s important to both you and me. :)

Ottavio sucks, the Commendatore is brave and deserves more credit for sticking up for his daughter with no questions asked about what happens, Masetto’s not half-bad either.

Anna, Elvira, and Zerlina. MY GIRLS, MY LOVES. They are all incredibly complex, strong women who must stand out individually and bond with each other. They can’t all just be either “angry women out for blood” or “sweet little innocent thing”. Spoiler: NONE OF THEM ARE THAT. And as such, none of them should be portrayed as anything less than the brave, strong, fierce, complex women they are.

I’d like to think the other characters firmly accept Leporello after Act II, Scene 2 because he deserves friends.

I’d include the sextet but change it so Elvira doesn’t become a nun because that does not feel right for her at all. Same goes for Anna marrying Ottavio.

You were right when you said that Giovanni is a flat character. I’m taking that approach 100%.

Make the whole dinner party as scary as possible. Use all the special effects available. Make it genuinely terrifying for the audience.

The costumes/production aesthetic: I’d actually like a set with a bunch of moving interlocking walls to create different spaces (a la the Bartlett Sher Otello), with the walls progressively growing taller and closing in more around Giovanni, ushering in the inevitable. Lighting and other setpieces will make all the difference.

Lovely costumes are a must, except Giovanni’s are incredibly over-the-top and garish, as if he’s overcompensating for being flat. Everyone wears different colors (I’m picturing various neutral tones for Leporello, ruby for Donna Anna, purple for Donna Elvira, a really pretty pastel shade of some kind for Zerlina…)

Let the music and libretto do its thing, because it’s a good and important thing. :)

[squonkhunter]

Why have you given me Hoof Fellas when I asked for Tamino?

I would like to explain a few things so that all of you are kept in the loop as to what's going on and what exactly is the method to all this madness.

The following is the order in which I wish to complete my major projects:

1. Hoof Fellas (comic)  Comedic comic in black and white. 2. Tamino and the Magic Flute (comic)  High fantasy comic adaptation of Mozart's final opera, full color, ink painting and pencil. 3. The Devil in Vienna (game)  Horror/drama/historical fiction visual novel based in 1786-87 Vienna in which you play as a servant to a demon-possessed Count. 4. Rathuni (comic)  Fantasy/sci-fi/horror/drama original full-color comic taking place in multiple universes. My oldest story, and what I consider to be my magnum opus. 5. Grotesques of New Faro (comic)  Homosexual love story/drama/horror sci-fi about the horrors of conversion therapy. My darkest tale.

Originally I'd set my completion date to something more like early 2017 for Tamino and the Magic Flute, and obviously that didn't pan out.

I'd drafted the script in mid 2014 and inked the first page late 2015. Within that time, I'd moved from Honolulu to Seattle and taken on a job that left me too exhausted to pursue anything creative and was in an awkward living situation. The comic took a hiatus while I gathered my bearings.

I was eventually able to squeeze something out, and that something was Hoof Fellas. Here was an easy comic strip that I didn't have to think too hard about and at least I was putting something out there; it didn't matter what. The consistency of a weekly deadline was therapeutic and helped to organize many things in my head.

That strip eventually became a full-blown comic and no longer easy, nor a throwaway concept. I began to care about the characters and their wacky journeys, yet Tamino was still nagging at me every time someone discovered my old posted art for the project. I felt more and more like I was letting everyone down, and that they might perceive Hoof Fellas with disdain, as it was the very thing blocking them from their Magic Flute adaptation.

Yet it's not the only thing. The three-volume Tamino and the Magic Flute has many flaws, especially in the last two volumes. Volume one is pretty solid, I'm not going to lie. However, I wanted Tamino to experience the Trials as trials of the spirit, yet I had not properly undergone my own. The script fell flat when it got to the marrow, simply because I was writing from ignorance.

I am still on that spiritual journey within myself. When I started Tamino, I hadn't connected to any of my past lives. Now that I have, my perception on...well...the entire world, has changed. I am far more informed and can give these Trials the life they need.

This I intend to do after Hoof Fellas' completion, as I am still on that spiritual journey myself. Hoof Fellas is fluffy enough for me to handle right now, and is at its core a story about self acceptance. All my stories are, but Hoof Fellas explores it in a lighter manner than the rest, at a level I am comfortable expressing at this time. Tamino will have its time soon, but I am still lost within my own Trials, and I cannot write an end to something I do not know.

As always, I appreciate your patience and understanding. I see no sense in rushing a project that will be shoddy forever, so thank you for waiting with me for the proper time to breathe life into this story. I want all of my stories to be genuine, so they must come from a genuine place, and I am on Tamino's journey now. I will know how to write it in the years to come.

In the meantime, I hope you will continue to join me and my sassy blue demon as we go on an adventure that promises to be fun and (considering the characters are all demons and murderers) strangely wholesome.

Love,

Paula/Cesare/Chess/squonkhunter

P.S. If you are looking for ways to help, you can make a monthly donation to my Patreon, which helps me pay for art-related things, like supplies, plane tickets, etc. If enough people donate, I can start paying for essentials like rent and food, and can spend less time at the office and more time inking Hoof Fellas and working on the Tamino script. I will also be able to take on less commissions, as I won’t need the money, and will focus solely on my own work. In return, you get early access to the comic, sneak peeks of the projects I mentioned above (including Tamino), and annotations, thought processes, and paneling drafts for the latest comic page. In addition to illustration, I also post my musical compositions on Patreon. I hope to see you there and I deeply appreciate your support.

[revuedepresse30]

Le festival Iceland Airwaves annonce une programmation à l’éclectisme fou

Pour fêter ses 20 ans d’existence le festival Iceland Airwaves peut se targuer d’avoir un line-up à la hauteur. Toujours fidèle à son statut défricheur, l’événement reste l’un des meilleurs moyens pour les artistes nationaux d’exprimer leur talent devant un public cosmopolite, et de côtoyer des artistes internationaux. Si la plupart des musiciens islandais de cette programmation sont méconnus, il faudra tout de même compter sur un parrain en la personne du producteur Ólafur Arnarlds qui sort un nouvel album le 24 août, et viendra présenter un tout nouveau live avant sa tournée américaine (il passera par la France du 21 au 24 octobre).

Par ailleurs, la scène internationale de tous horizons sera bien représentée : The Voidz, Alma, Natalie Prass, Blood Orange, Sorry, Superorganism, Cashmere Cat, Bedouine, Fever Ray, Girl Ray, JMSN, Mavi Phoenix, Rejjie Snow, Sassy 009, Smerz ou encore Tommy Cash. Mais aussi certains groupes sensations du festival Great Escape à Brighton comme Tamino, Stella Donnelly ou Jimothy Lacoste.

Pour ce qui est de la programmation islandaise, il faudra passer outre la barrière de la langue et avoir la patience de feuilleter la programmation pointue d’Iceland Airwaves afin d’avoir la primeur de la découverte. Parmi eux : Sturla Atlas, Emmsjé Gauti ainsi que l’artiste Sóley, Ateria, vainqueur du tremplin Músíktilraunir et Ljósfari et Mórókóar.

Toutes les informations sont disponibles ici.

from Les Inrocks - musique https://ift.tt/2J7eixC via IFTTT

[monotonous-minutia]

Second question: favorite non-trouser-role characters from ten operas you love and why?

...you know me so well that you would specify the question that way

In no particular order:

1-Figaro (Barbiere & Nozze) There's a bit of " 'nuff said" with this one but I'll say it anyway: he's so clever, resourceful, funny, and caring. He would be a great person to have as a friend. Even though he's supposedly motivated by gold in Barbiere, you can tell he genuinely cares about the others and wants to help Rosina and Almaviva get their happy ending. And in Nozze he's willing to go through a lot of trouble to help out the Contessa and Cherubino, even if it infringes on his wedding plans. He's so unflappable and ingenious, and (in good productions) very adorable. Also if I was a baritone I would want to sing all of his music. 2-Elizabeth (Don Carlo) She's such a strong person who goes through so much but manages to stay true to herself through it all, even though she can't get her own happy ending. I might be in love with her. 3-Rosina (Barbiere) Feisty, adorable, quick-witted, sharp, and defiant. One of my favorite operatic heroines in general. Breaks a lot of stereotypes. Also her music is amazing. 4-Nancy (Martha) Nancy is amazing. She's devoted, determined, clever, quick-witted, flirty, sweet, sassy, and she's a mezzo. She loves her Lady dearly and is willing to put her happiness aside in order to help her even though she's head over heels for her baritone. She never backs down or gives up even when the people around her are willing to. Her character development is great; their journey really opens her eyes to the world outside of her luxurious existence and she gains a greater appreciation for people who are "simpler" and learns to find the joy in everyday things. Even though most of this is overshadowed by the story of the soprano and her tenor we know it's going on. She gets some of the best lines (and lots of puns which sadly don't translate into English) and some of the best music (again, her duet with Plumkett kills me). If I was an opera singer I'd love to play her. 5-Carmen (Carmen) I mean who doesn't love a strong, independent woman with a wicked sense of humor and an amazing voice? 6-Iphigenie (Iphigenie en Tauride) In general I just love the mythology of this character--her backstory and her whole family history is super Messed Up in the Greek Myth tradition and she's like the only nice person in her whole family but kind of gets the worst of it all and yet somehow remains strong and pure. 7-Rodrigo (Don Carlo) I talk about this guy a lot I feel but in sum he's a great friend, super devoted to his cause (and his boy), very gay, and learns a lot through his journey and I am kind of a sucker for tragic baritones. 8-Nevers (Les Huguenots) I was going to say Valentine or maybe Raoul (who is one of my favorite Clueless Tenors) but the more I watch this one, the more I like Nevers. I feel so bad for him. At first I didn't like him at all but the more I read the libretto and watched the productions I've seen (though just the two) the more I started to empathize with him. See also: being a sucker for tragic baritones. 9-Olivier (Capriccio) I relate to this guy because I fancy myself to be a writer and also I am extremely awkward when it comes to flirting. 10-Papageno (Zauberflote) He's adorable. And funny. And sweet. And basically the show is about him. He just wants to be happy and settle down with his Papagena and have a family and in the end he really is willing to go to hell and back to get his happy ending. Plus he really cares about Pamina (and Tamino, even though he's kind of an asshole to Papageno).