#sortileges

[newyorkthegoldenage]

Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, during their first marriage, spent an evening at the Stork Club, ca. 1945. The bottle in front of Lucy is Sortilege, the club's house perfume, which it gave to guests (probably only the famous ones) as a gift.

Photo: Getty Images/Daily Mail

[gatabella]

Ava Gardner & Le Galion: L’ASTRE – Ava, Incendiary Star

The year 2022 marks the centenary of the birth of an icon of Hollywood cinema: Ava Gardner. Archetype of the femme fatale, personification of luscious femininity, the great actress was close to the house of Le Galion at the end of the 1950s. She met Paul Vacher and became an ambassador for Sortilège, before asking him to compose a tailor-made fragrance for her. The perfumer, close to many stars of the time (Marilyn Monroe, Judy Garland, Grace Kelly…) complied. In 2022, Le Galion is launching L'Astre, a contemporary rewrite of a formula that has remained private for decades. Worked in collaboration with the heirs of Ava Gardner who offer access to their archives, L'Astre symbolizes the brilliance of these two great names of the 20th century, whose influence continues today Created by Rodrigo Florès-Roux, this new version of L’Astre is, according to the perfumer, a “large, exuberant and magnetic floral.” After a catchphrase made of sensual spices, the perfumer worked on “a spectacular floral accord” made of white flowers, before continuing with an amber, warm and enveloping background.

[solace-and-sortilege]

Welcome to a world where war dominates all.

Two clans battle for dominance, the reason for fighting lost beneath blood-soaked dirt. Blindly they maim and murder, some with frivolity and others with hidden apprehension. High up in the caverns of the mountains, separated only by abandoned farmland and an aspen grove, is rumored to be a sanctuary for cats young and old. A place of peace, where nary a day goes by without it. Join the fight for your life in this action-packed role-play. Will you become yet another victim of senseless war or will you rise above it and find peace amidst chaos.

Fogclan...

A marshy territory almost constantly obscured by a dense mist. Mud underpaw gives the never-ending feeling of unease. Like your very life may slip out from underneath you at any moment. These cats are known for their cunning and trickery. Using disorienting menuvers to mimick the fog that coats their lands.

Boulderclan...

A thick oak forest brimming with creatures. Eyes peer out from the foliage, constantly watching and waiting. No cat goes unnoticed. These cats pride themselves on their nobility, resorting to noble yet effective means to get what they want. Like the rocks inside their camp, cats here are unmovable and steadfast.

The Sanctuary...

Hidden up in the mountains, and made up of old mine shafts and a large quarry. Snow rains down almost constantly up here, letting cats imagine that they too, walk along the clouds. Here, peace reigns supreme and it serves as a safe haven for all those who are lost.

Please note! The RP is still under construction but is set to launch sometime in late November!! Until then, feel free to send asks regarding the nature of the rp or any other questions you may have. As of right now the Discord is not available for public access but it will be soon! We here at Solace and Sortilege thank you so much for your patience <3 Dividers credit to @/saradika-graphics

[muerelibre]

[mauricemylittlemeowmeow]

L'ENFANT REVIEW!!!

The best staging I've seen of L'enfant et les sortileges so far!!! I cried, I laughed (the cat scene!!!), I cried again. The direction of this was so fucking sublime and added so much depth to the story that I've only ever seen on this staging. And the singing!!! It's really good!!!

In depth review of each song/scene below!!

Opening

Ok so in the opening, we see the child staring into the mirror with bloody hands and it adds a sinister flavour to his character. This kid IS naughty (or however you translate mechant) and from the get go with how he's presented, we already see his cruel nature.

The costuming for this production is VERY meticulous. Yes, it's a student production so of course the budget is limited, but the direction is so brilliant that they work on the costuming to build on storytelling rather than pure aesthetics.

Enter Maman, and we see her in what looks to be a uniform. This is significant because all characters from the first act are dressed as her. Her presence is felt all throughout the opera.

Chair and sofa

!!! The choreography for this song is so good! This is also the first appearance of the furniture and it was really surprising to see both of them dressed as Maman—both the male and female role!

The choreography is definitely my favourite part for this one. It mixes in well with the song beats and really characterises them well!

Clock

The fire

Really enjoyed the direction on this one in regards to the costuming. Liked the way the clock picked up the pieces of himself that the child broke and put it back on his (the singer's) body. Thought it was real neat!!

Coffee mug and teacup

(breath of relief no blackface)

THE GAG IS FUNNY!!! they put marmalade on the child's face and made him eat a sandwich from it 😭😭 and the nonsense japanese??? they actually tried to make it make sense??? at the "harakiri" part, the teacup picked up a knife and dragged it across the child's neck (not the stomach but close enough)

very threatening but also slapstick-y. it's nice!!! almost makes me forget how lowkey racist this song is lmao (the no blackface helps a lot and i try to turn my brain off for the nonsense asian babbling)

!!! The orchestration for this is limited (a piano, a cello, and a flute only, I believe) so each note of the aria really stood out!! There were times I was tense because of how difficult the song was but the singer delivered it really well and without any obvious faults!! The direction for the last part was really tense!! In other stagings of this opera, you see the flames grow more sinister towards the end before fading away, but in this one, she was dying and in pain and it was very apparent!! It felt very heavy in a way that it doesn't in other productions.

Really intense, I liked it a lot!!

Shepherds

I cried at this one because holy shit!!!

Instead of a storybook, the shepherds are shown to be from what looks like a family portrait which makes this all the more intense. With everyone dressed as Maman, it felt like the entire family ancestry was disappointed at the child for ruining and destroying their lineage.

This is usually sung in chorus but with the limited cast, it was more of a duet with the other Maman-furniture joining in on the choral hums. It was still a good rendition though!

With the added interpretation, it felt like one of the heaviest and most moving performances of this song I've seen. It's not just characters from a storybook. This is the child ruining his family by being a terrible son.

The princess

OK I'm gonna reach a little bit for the interpretation here but holy shit this scene also made me cry.

So throughout most of the opera so far, the child has been fixated on one of the props which is a mirror. Most of the props in the set relate to each furniture but there was never a mirror in the original libretto so I was a bit 🤔🤔🤔 at its presence.

After the shepherds leave, the child returns to the mirror to look at his reflection. The mirror pulls away from its frame and reveals the princess. Her upper half seen within the frame is in a sequined top fit for her role, but the lower half outside of it is still in Maman's uniform like the rest of the furniture.

My brain was like "oh it must be significant that she appeared from the mirror" and here's my personal interpretation for it:

The princess, the child's first love, appears in a mirror where he sees himself. She's still dressed similar to his mother. He sees his mother in his features, and his first love is someone who reminds him of his mother and that adds a really bittersweet flavour to it. The child loves his mother a lot!! He's still a boy!!!

Interpretation aside, singing was great, and it's funny how they directed her to disappear via the trapdoor as if she was being pulled back into where the mirror used to be.

Arithmetics

!! This part is usually sung with a children's chorus but the cast is all made up of conservatory students so it was interesting to hear the chorus part sung with adults. Nice change of pace!!

Also on the costuming: Arithmetics is still dressed as Maman but!! The chorus is dressed as the child!! All of them were wearing the same outfit (albeit in a shade more similar to the mother's uniform so you could still differentiate the child) and it was interesting to see how chaotic they were!! (really enjoyed the student who played the Shepherd going wild and dancing lmao)

I also liked Arithmetic's pointing stick. In the milimetre, centimetre, decametre part, he was smacking it on his hand in time with the music and I liked the beat it provided! Very cool!

Cats

Cats.

Costuming was interesting. Probably the only one that was distinct throughout the entire production. Which is fair because. Cats.

Each cat wore a shirt that looked like a cat's eye. The effect was really cool in the dark stage where it looked like it was glowing. And with both cats together, it looked like one whole giant cat!!

Laughed because at the end/climax of the song, the singers just literally started tearing their clothes off. The female cat was in her bra, the male cat was unzipping his trousers and taking them off but thank god they went off stage and it went black before it escalated further.

Good direction. Maurice and Colette were insane for that part so I'm glad it was portrayed with the same unhingedness.

Act 2

im gonna be real w u, i cannot for the life of me remember the animals in part 2 so i cant separate each scene well lmao.

the scene has moved to outside of the house so we are finally free of Maman! The costumes aren't her uniform anymore!! These are insects and animals instead of symbolism and motifs now yippee

I don't really have as much to say. (But yes it was good!!!) I was quite confused at the dragonfly scene (Ou es tu? Je te cherche) because why was she carrying a giant rock lmao.

In the pre "Il est sage" scene where the child faints and the animals gather to be like "He dressed the wound! What was it he said? Maman?", I really liked how well the singers' voices blended together! These students are very good singers and they breathed so much life into the production!!! Especially with the limited orchestration, the quality of their singing really stood out!!

During the "He is wise" scene, the child wakes up from the animals chanting Maman and starts putting the set back together. I'm gonna be real I was nervous because I didn't know if he was going to make it in time before the opera ended (the set was really torn apart by the child lol) but the animals helped so it was all put together well before the end!!

And the ending!!! The ending for l'enfant is always special to me because it's a boy calling out for his mother!!!

In other productions, you'll see the mother return to embrace him or you'll see her shadow on the set. She's almost always present during the ending.

In this one, the boy cleans up the set and then returns to his desk in the beginning to work on his pages. But before he does, he flips over the chalkboard used during the Arithmetics scene and on the other side of the math equations was an entire board of what looked to be penmanship practice with one word written over and over again:

"Maman"

That made me cry. This entire production is so saturated with the love between a mother and a child. And that's what l'enfant is about. In the house, her presence was felt everywhere. And once outside, she's nowhere to be seen. The opera ends with the child having reflected and returning, reciprocating the love that she shows to him.

Idk man I really love L'enfant and this production was swag. Best interpretation I've seen so far. (Alongside the ballet production ofc but that's bc I love ballet 😎)

[polyphanes]

A Proposal for a Sevenfold Lot Oracle (with a bonus twelvefold one!)

We all like the number seven, don’t we?  Of course we do!  It’s one of those mystical and magical numbers that keeps cropping up in system after system and tradition after tradition, and for any number of reasons besides: the seven days of the week, the seven planets, the seven seas and the seven continents, the seven colors of the rainbow, the seven arms of the Menorah in the Temple; the seven…

[addictivecontradiction]

A dark song, 2016

[hellmasterphibrizo]

The most beautiful portrayal of Hellmaster's death that I've ever seen...

[reno-matagot]

Bouteille sorcière en Belgique (Article en français)

A witch bottle was found in Belgium! (2010)

[rockartfashion]

SORTILEGE, PRETTY MAIDS, MEGADETH et DEEP PURPLE-Heavy Weekend , Nancy, Day 2 -Review

[crepuscule-pourpre]

[elgallinero]

Practice English

share.libbyapp.com/title/1737049

[solace-and-sortilege]

well well well :3

👁👁

[ahozinloko]

Marabout Voyant, depuis plus de 30 ans, M. AHOZIN LOKO GRAND marabout africain, est un homme qui a toujours su donner toute son attention à sa clientèle, sa disponibilité et son sérieux est bien là preuve de son habileté. Tel+229 67181911