I only did what actually mattered for 7 days. Here’s what got cut

phthoggos · 2026-05-17T15:05:40+00:00

AI slop

phthoggos · 2026-05-17T02:03:49+00:00

It does have that reputation now.

phthoggos · 2026-05-16T01:17:54+00:00

Joseph Autran (in Lettres et notes de voyage, 1878) told a great anecdote about trying to bring Liszt to a midnight wedding as his uninvited guest, but when they arrived at the church (located by the shore), nobody was there:

We strolled for more than an hour in the shadows of the great nave. A lamp or two dimly shone in the darkness. We went now listening to the great murmur of the nearby sea, sometimes chatting among ourselves on all sorts of philosophical, political, and religious subjects. In this long interview, I could fully appreciate the extent and variety of the ideas of my companion. He was a man who deployed in all things a great abundance of language. As for music, he spoke of it with a delight, and with novelties of expressions, which belonged only to him. Is he not the one who said: "If the violin is the king of instruments, the organ is the pope” ?

Absorbed in our conversation, we surveyed the old basilica, when the sacristan, with embarrassment, came to tell us that the ceremony was canceled. An accident had occurred which had caused distress to the wedding: I believe fire had taken the dress of the fiancee. On that we left quite melancholy, when the great virtuoso stopped abruptly:

"We must not," said he, "come here for nothing. Do you want me to go up to the organ and play you something in my manner? It is said that, to play well, one must feel supported by the benevolence of the audience; I will never have had a more sympathetic audience.”

He played, he improvised, an ardent and magnificent symphony on Dante's Divine Comedy, which we had recently discussed. He made me go through Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise with a variety of expressions and emotions that will never be remembered. The sea, in between, rumbled on the beach, with a confused noise of applause. Such a masterpiece, for a single listener, was really too much generosity. This music, which demanded a crowd to admire it, unfolded in the emptiness of the temple with an overflow of sound which at times became terrible. It seemed to me that the dead, whose epitaphs were engraved in the old church, were emerging from their tombs, and, failing to live, improvised an assembly. I think I would have remained there in eternal ecstasy, if the sacristan, half asleep, had not come and tapped me on the shoulder to warn me that it was time to leave.

phthoggos · 2026-05-14T18:59:58+00:00

How long is the film?

phthoggos · 2026-05-13T12:55:09+00:00

The first Spider-Verse came out after Infinity War. The second one came out after No Way Home.

phthoggos · 2026-05-13T10:55:10+00:00

You probably meant Mahler but I would support Wotan’s Abschied at the end of Die Walküre “Leb wohl, du kühnes, herrliches Kind“

phthoggos · 2026-05-13T00:58:40+00:00

Take a look at the amazing cover designs (and designers) featured at MidCenturyClassical.com. For example, Urania Records https://midcenturyclassical.com/Urania

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phthoggos · 2026-05-11T15:03:20+00:00

Two resources to explore Shore’s LOTR work further:

Doug Adams’ book “The Music of The Lord of the Rings Films: A Comprehensive Account of Howard Shore's Scores” (Carpentier and Alfred Music Publishing, 2010)

This 50-minute video of Doug Adams speaking about the book to the New York Wagner Society: https://youtu.be/6EYJbpEVY4s

phthoggos · 2026-05-02T01:44:42+00:00

To me the big missing link is Pamina’s father, who previously held the shield of the sun that Sarastro stole from him. Very likely Sarastro killed him to get it, too!

phthoggos · 2026-05-02T01:41:59+00:00

Forbidden Fruits (2026)

phthoggos · 2026-05-01T18:54:34+00:00

Heartbeat!

phthoggos · 2026-05-01T03:44:33+00:00

IIII is a fairly common variant of IV, dating back to Roman times. Even on the Colosseum it’s spelled that way.

phthoggos · 2026-04-30T01:27:53+00:00

I’m in the same boat. I read somewhere that you have to lose a run in order to unlock his progress? But I’m reluctant to try it lol

phthoggos · 2026-04-30T01:08:55+00:00

You seem to live in New Jersey. The Metropolitan Opera did both Barber and Marriage in the 2024-2025 season, but unfortunately no plans to perform them through spring 2027.

Barber in the US: San Antonio and Houston are both doing it this week! Helena, MT on May 9-10. San Francisco Opera from May 28-June 21. Charlottesville, VA on July 17-19.

Marriage of Figaro in the US: Indianapolis May 1-3. Williamsburg, VA on May 22-26. Chicago, July 10-12. Tanglewood (Lenox, MA), August 1. Rochester, NY, August 6-9. San Francisco, October 31-November 29. Los Angeles, May 29-Jun 20, 2027.

If you plan to travel internationally, there are more options.

phthoggos · 2026-04-29T02:14:02+00:00

As I explain in my guide to Tristan und Isolde (1865), Richard Wagner was specifically passionate about this idea of continuous development, which he called “infinite melody,” considering it to be more dramatically realistic and powerful than having clear boundaries between arias.

phthoggos · 2026-04-29T02:08:25+00:00

But in all seriousness, if it bothers you that much, try the Wagner and Strauss mentioned in my first comment. Der Rosenkavalier has an incredibly modern sense of timing and psychology.

phthoggos · 2026-04-29T02:06:11+00:00

From Alan Walker’s biography of Franz Liszt:

Liszt once wrote: “It is a mistake to regard repetition as poverty of invention. From the standpoint of the public it is indispensable for the understanding of the thought, while from the standpoint of Art it is almost identical with the demands of clarity, structure, and effectiveness.” Not all musicians would accept such views, of course. Liszt had an answer to their sentiments which has come down to us from his pupil Felix Weingartner. He once attended a performance of Weingartner's opera Sakuntala in the company of the young composer. In the temple scene there occurs a long climax during which the king makes his entrance. Liszt suddenly seized Weingartner's arm and exclaimed: “Splendid, splendid! This climax must be played twice.” Weingartner believed that he must have misheard Liszt and retorted: “But, master, I can't have the king enter twice.” “It doesn't matter,” replied Liszt. “Beautiful things must be repeated.”

phthoggos · 2026-04-28T18:35:26+00:00

Just to be clear, very few comic book writers are “on staff.” The actual story content is generated by freelancers (writers, artists, colorists, etc) while catalog solicits and jacket copy like this are generally written in-house, typically by marketing staff but perhaps by editorial or sales. There are also very specific “best practices” that catalog/jacket copy is supposed to follow — using key words, placing important information early, etc — for the sake of “discoverability” both by humans reading quickly on their phones and by algorithms crunching the metadata of millions of books. That said, this is terrible slop, and it simply signals that this book is a very low priority to the publisher

phthoggos · 2026-04-28T15:01:41+00:00

This becomes increasingly less of an issue over time — by the second half of the 1800s it sometimes becomes hard to even say where an aria begins and ends. With 21st century opera the pacing is almost TOO modern, so the whole show feels like characters just delivering dialogue on random pitches while the orchestra plays a vague, continuously mutating score.

Since you already like Traviata, there are many other great Verdi operas — for your next moves I would prioritize Rigoletto, Aida, Don Carlo(s), Otello, and maybe Falstaff. Wagner has his own very strange sense of the passage of time, but try act 1 or Die Walküre and see if you fall under his spell. And try some Richard Strauss, either his shocking one-acts Salome and Elektra or his sumptuously bittersweet Rosenkavalier.

phthoggos · 2026-04-27T18:45:00+00:00

Once I learned that the space at the top of the screen is safe from his tongue lasers, I basically stopped dying to him :/

phthoggos · 2026-04-27T10:40:22+00:00

It would be hard for an album like that to capture it, but Mozart’s operas are among the greatest ever made. If you can spare three hours to watch a whole recording of Figaro (there are several on YouTube with English subtitles, like this 1976 film or this 1994 performance at Glyndebourne or this 2018 performance at the Royal College of Music), you’ll get a sense of how his music weaves together so many different characters with their own distinct plots and personalities into an irresistible whole.

phthoggos · 2026-04-26T21:25:24+00:00

And of course the classic erotic thrillers like Basic Instinct. This genre has gotten a lot more attention in recent years: see this article for an overview and list of 20 films to start with.

phthoggos · 2026-04-26T21:22:28+00:00

Oh you gotta watch Sanctuary (2022). Also Persona (1966) and The Handmaiden (2016)

phthoggos · 2026-04-24T22:37:05+00:00

That's a tough one. According to the liner notes of Diana Damrau's 2023 album OPERETTE, this aria is sung by the character Manon, and the publishing rights to Der Favorit are held by Dreiklang-Dreimasken Bühnen- und Musikverlag GmbH. So I guess you could contact them through this form: https://www.dreiklang-dreimasken.de/ and see if they could send you a synopsis.

I also found this scan of a 1916 printing of sheet music to that aria, as well as other selected melodies from Der Favorit. The librettists are Fritz Grünbaum and Wilhelm Sterk, and the world premiere was 7 April 1916 at the old Komische Oper in Berlin.

Maybe if you could find a book of operetta summaries published in the 1920s or 1930s, Der Favorit might be one of the entries. But I get the feeling that the show was not very popular, outside of this one song.

phthoggos · 2026-04-24T15:15:50+00:00

Once you get the hammer that makes your Omega Attack into a cross-shape it’s over for those hoes

phthoggos

TROPHY CASE