It is totally awesome that it is set in Boston! I love how that's the place Verdi thought of as "eh, it's the wild frontier, no one cares what happens in Boston, right?"
It is really a little frightening how much more sympathy I have for Renato than for Riccardo, given that Renato kills him in the end (and I knew that going in). But like you say Renato is totally loyal and a good friend (and I have all kinds of loyalty kink going on there as well), and Riccardo is just SO exasperating and I really believe that if Renato hadn't showed up right then in the graveyard, that Riccardo would have totally gotten it on with Amelia (or at least tried). (I mean, what else am I supposed to take from Oh sia distrutto il rimorso, l’amicizia nel mio seno: estinto tutto, tutto sia fuorché l’amor!) It probably also didn't help that I watched this right after Forza, so going from a terribly sweet tenor directly to a really exasperating one was a bit of whiplash.
This is also why I found it so impressive that you made me believe in the friendship from both sides in your fic! So I started writing that I think I would have loved the opera more if Riccardo had been worthy of Renato's devotion -- but actually given that there's this whole betrayal theme I think it would have been more painful and harder to watch. I guess what I really want is More Operas with Best Friends Who Are Awesome And Don't Betray Each Other, gosh darn it.
The only other thing I've heard with Sumi Jo is that my first Zauberflote recording (Solti) had her as the Queen of the Night, though I don't listen to that recording much (I bought it a long time ago, before I really understood what I wanted). But I do remember her being good!
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Date: 2018-08-23 05:23 am (UTC)It is really a little frightening how much more sympathy I have for Renato than for Riccardo, given that Renato kills him in the end (and I knew that going in). But like you say Renato is totally loyal and a good friend (and I have all kinds of loyalty kink going on there as well), and Riccardo is just SO exasperating and I really believe that if Renato hadn't showed up right then in the graveyard, that Riccardo would have totally gotten it on with Amelia (or at least tried). (I mean, what else am I supposed to take from Oh sia distrutto il rimorso, l’amicizia nel mio seno: estinto tutto, tutto sia fuorché l’amor!) It probably also didn't help that I watched this right after Forza, so going from a terribly sweet tenor directly to a really exasperating one was a bit of whiplash.
This is also why I found it so impressive that you made me believe in the friendship from both sides in your fic! So I started writing that I think I would have loved the opera more if Riccardo had been worthy of Renato's devotion -- but actually given that there's this whole betrayal theme I think it would have been more painful and harder to watch. I guess what I really want is More Operas with Best Friends Who Are Awesome And Don't Betray Each Other, gosh darn it.
The only other thing I've heard with Sumi Jo is that my first Zauberflote recording (Solti) had her as the Queen of the Night, though I don't listen to that recording much (I bought it a long time ago, before I really understood what I wanted). But I do remember her being good!
Ohhhh, your plot summary is awesome!