Igenlode Wordsmith

I turned up some of my old research about the running costs/ticket prices etc at the Opera Garnier (weirdly, this appears to have been a totally *different* set of research from the additional values cited in my existing post of assorted opera research!)

---

While trying to find out which operas were actually produced at the Palais Garnier during the early 1880s (in order to give Raoul and Philippe a plausible production to attend for the third chapter of my Christmas story!), I came across a very useful book mentioning various facts about opera in Paris, for example https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=KSQGZOTQKmwC&pg=PA2

The Opera might take 20,000F in ticket sales from a single performance, which puts Erik's 'salary' into perspective -- on the other hand, it cost 16-17,000F per night to stage an opera at all.( Read more... )

I located the original 'Vicomte of the Opera' reference: https://fdelopera.tumblr.com/post/61559039983/spindleshanking-phantines-one-thing-that-has

Le Fantôme de l'Opéra without Raoul would still be an intensely gripping and tragic story. Le Fantôme de l'Opéra (Le Vicomte de l'Opéra, perhaps?) without Erik, however, would be quite bland, at least by comparison. (Think about it – a young, wealthy vicomte falls in love with his childhood sweetheart when he sees her perform at the Opéra, and after several months of courtship, he marries her, against the wishes of his older brother. The end.)

(This being the reference to which my response was: "I already wrote it, as Count Philippe Takes a Hand" :-D)

I sat down to try to write my long-overdue reviews on my fellow-competitors' stories for the Writers Anonymous challenge, having eventually succeeded in downloading them via the library for offline reading despite the worst that FFnet could do, but completely failed to do so -- however I have, instead, finally managed to finish typing up and checking the next chapter of Hertha back against the manuscript. And I have also -- as of September 2^nd -- managed to complete the rewrite on Chapter 24 of Arctic Raoul (after three months of delay) and even got as far as typing up the first scene of Ch25, although I still have another two scenes comprising a total of 3,500 words or so to be typed. (Those chapters are definitely getting longer and longer, and it massively inflates the editing time because the prospect becomes so daunting...)

---

( End of Phantom's Broadway run )

---

Chapter 9 — “Well-Beloved Wife”

As I’d anticipated, Raoul returned to follow me out almost before the carriage had been brought round. He looked tired and rather dispirited despite the splendour of his costume, and was disinclined to talk even once we were seated and driving back.

Madame Giry had been less than helpful, I gathered. She’d disclosed what she’d heard or guessed about the Ghost’s origins — a carnival freak and deformed genius who’d gone missing years before, evidently quitting the sideshow life to take up existence outside the law — but she’d said nothing of how she came to be delivering his notes, or of where he could be found, and Raoul was convinced she had to know more than she was telling.

“You know, carnival origins could explain quite a lot.” Despite myself, I found my interest caught. “Not least the use of mesmerism. And the oddly theatrical flair — this isn’t just lunacy, it’s an insane performance.”

( Read more... )

Phantom of the Opera as a 'Symphonic suite' (and not the same as the orchestra arrangement we played).
It's interesting listening to the bits that are *not* the melodies to see what has been added...

But I can't help noting that thanks to the lighting choices the entire orchestra appears to be ginger-haired ;-p

I have almost finished my second notebook, and the Phantom has *finally* made his entry in person on the stage of this story -- I suspect this is probably the only fanfic where almost the entirety of the Masquerade chapter is taken up by something completely unrelated to his sudden appearance! ( Read more... )

Thanks to 120 Ways of using Bread, I made a meal out of half a packet of stale bridge rolls :-p
( 1930s economy cookery )
I also got two new (second-hand) shirts; one is pink and the second one really needs its collar stand unpicked and reversed, as the collar fold is visibly worn, but beggars can't be choosers. They are both quite nice quality fabric, and I very badly need replacements for the two shirts that recently wore out altogether.

---

Meanwhile, in Phantom terms, the chandelier has fallen at last (this time it actually falls *on* Raoul and Christine, because Hertha unintentionally distracts him at a critical moment). ( fic progress )

---

Oh, and while the towel-tomatoes are now sprouting all over the place, the six seeds that I planted in the egg-carton are now showing sprouts as well -- despite their roasting. (The towel sat on top of that same radiator for quite some time before I realised the side-effects of the central heating's having come on in the winter, so apparently they can survive the process unimpaired, although I'm pretty surprised!)

Why do people write 'Messieur' instead of 'Monsieur'?

Why do they have absolutely no idea about how titles work in English, let alone in French? (Hint: they're geographical. You can't be 'Duke Wellesley' -- or even 'Sir Drinkwater'.)

Why does Raoul always live in 'Chagny Manor', when the French don't have manor houses, the house described is never anything like a manor, and manors are also geographical rather than having family names tacked on the front?

Why do they keep inserting inappropriate modern slang into the characters' mouths alongside laborious attempts to prove how 'period-accurate' their social attitudes are? (NB: 19th-century French characters did not think of themselves as 'Victorian' -- why would they care about the English Queen? -- and they certainly didn't walk around monologuing about oppressive 'Victorian' beliefs and clothing; they saw themselves as modern and in general more enlightened than anything that had come before them. Nobody in the 1960s talked about 'Sixties attitudes', for example -- they talked about 'modern attitudes', whether with disapproval or satisfaction.)

---

I suspect the answer to most of these is that the authors all copy each other in a game of Chinese whispers, just as they all crib the same bad sex motifs because they don't have any experience in that department either... but what exactly is the point of those unbearably cutesy titles all in lower case? Are they supposed to represent some kind of hashtag communication, or just a postmodern attitude to punctuation?

I think I'm now fairly definitely embarked upon Chapter 4 of "An Outsider and a Foreigner" (though I'm not entirely satisfied with the end of Chapter 3, where I never really found an effective form of words for the final sentence).
( Il Muto timeline issues )

Chapter 4 so far has ended up being about musical-Christine's backstory and her parents; what I haven't worked out is where Raoul fits into all this in terms of the characters' mutual chronology. I wish I were happier with this story as a whole.
( Problems with handling Raoul )

---

( More beta-reading of Arctic Raoul )

"What Do We Mean by Opera, Anyway?"

A very interesting -- and readable -- article from the Journal of Popular Music Studies, bringing a positive critical approach to Lloyd Webber's work; the suggestion of "Think of Me" as being closely aligned to Balfe's I Dreamt I Dwelt in Marble Halls, for example, reminding us that 19th-century opera did indeed contain such catchy folksong-style 'lollipops' as well as the grand arias designed to show off technique, as sung by Carlotta.

As often in Lloyd Webber's economically designed musicals, the “aria,” or song, does a good deal of dramatic work, effectively introducing Christine, setting up her rivalry with Carlotta, and establishing her relationship with Raoul de Chagny, who joins in singing to the same melody from his box.

Naturally I'm also entertained by the conclusion that "the sterile modernism of [Don Juan Triumphant is] proof that Christine does not belong with the Phantom" ;-p

I bought some double cream and made twenty or so pumpkin tarts out of half a butternut squash.



The recipe is intended to fit larger American muffin tins, so my mince-pie-size tarts have what feels like a rather high proportion of pastry to filling; clearly mincemeat or jam are more strongly flavoured :-p

(I was just trying to identify the tune that is running through my head, and most improbably it turns out to be the "Hannibal" entry chorus -- not the part of "Phantom of the Opera" one would expect to remember subconsciously!)