(no subject)

[cahn]

All right, I've wanted to do this for a while:

The problem with operas is that they're too long. By which I mean, if anyone in them was sensible they'd all be at most half the length.

So: comment with an opera name (*) and I'll respond with a short snippet of a canon-divergence AU where the opera is Much Shorter. Warning, of course, that at least some of the characters will be wildly out of character. That is to say, probably much more sensible. :)

(*) If it's an opera I know, you'll get the ficlet much sooner. If it's one I haven't watched yet, I'll put it on my list to watch and you'll get the ficlet once I've watched it. This is a good opportunity for you to get me to watch your favorite opera, since after I finish Norma with Caballé I'm gonna go back to RL opera friend and ask for more DVDs! (Though given my previous track record, this might also take a while.)

(cross-posted to tumblr)

Comments

[cahn]

I, uh, was led to it in the way that I seem to be led to all operas these days -- by the fact that Thomas Hampson sang it in a recording! Unfortunately said recording is not available on Spotify, so I haven't actually listened to it. But Simon Keenlyside also sang it (I think I've linked you to it before, but here you go: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WdGSryj5RQ) and it is available on Spotify and he's amazing! I've never seen it but I really like Britten's music, so it's fun for me to listen to (although Britten is a bit of an acquired taste, I think).

Hee, about all the first paragraph and a bit of the last are direct quotes from the opera (only the opera ending is, as you have probably gathered, far more tragic).

[iberiandoctor]

Holy crap, Keenlyside sounds amazing! And, uh, you might have failed to tell me the CD cover features a sinewy young Keenlyside in a skimpy open-necked white tank top bound to the wheel of a ship. Not that that kind of thing is at all appealing to me, of course.

Plus, I might have gone internets-trawling, and it seems like this is the kind of opera which lends itself to baritonic shirtlessness? As evidenced by this, and even this, which makes the bold but deserved assertion that Keenlyside makes the hottest Billy Budd ever. I, uh, might have to take a private moment in my cabin XD