Sylvie

A layer of orange and clouds behind trees and above a lake

Typical California bullshit.

PSA for anyone trying to grow a haunted corn maze for this fall: you need to have your plants in the ground now!

Given that I'm not a huge fan of MOONLIGHT I'm probably less surprised than others would be by that but I guess it proves my point.

The Globe audience reaching out to the actor playing Hamlet in HAMNET

My favorite thing about the HAMNET discourse on social media is that the haters talk about it as if it's an extremely contentious film when the reality is it's the highest-rated of all the Best Pictures nominees on both Letterboxd and IMDB.

Drop something BLACK & WHITE 🖤🤍

Could have sworn I was following but I guess not. Fixed now.

Letterboxd posters for (from #1-#10) SINNERS, HAMNET, BUGONIA, THE SECRET AGENT, SENTIMENTAL VALUE, ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER, MARTY SUPREME, TRAIN DREAMS, F1, FRANKENSTEIN

So I finally watched SENTIMENTAL VALUE and can present my ranking of the Best Picture nominees. Note, however, that 3-7 are essentially ex aequo according to my scoring rubric so who knows how this might shift on rewatch. A pretty good year overall. #Oscars #Filmsky

Same

A scene from LA TRAVIATA (1982) by Franco Zeffirelli

Finally Franco Zeffirelli, of THE TAMING OF THE SHREW (1967) and ROMEO AND JULIET (1968) fame, made a number of opera films, including Puccini’s LA BOHÈME (1965) as well as Verdi's LA TRAVIATA (1983) and OTELLO (1986). #OperaSky🧵 [10/10]

Opera 101—Can You Do the Cancan? Jacques Offenbach (1819-1880) is perhaps best known for his “cancan” music, the “galop infernal” from Orphée aux enfers (1858). But his most popular operettas (such as La Belle Hélène, La Vie paris…

Another great cinematic option, though harder to find, is Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger’s THE TALES OF HOFFMANN, a glorious Technicolor adaptation of Jacques Offenbach’s LES CONTES D’HOFFMAN, one of my favorite SF Opera productions, which I write about here:

The Queen of the Night from Ingmar Bergman’s TROLLFLÖJTEN (THE MAGIC FLUTE) in extreme close-up.

If you don't want to leave the comforts of your own home, and want to dip your toe in via film, one of the best options is Ingmar Bergman’s TROLLFLÖJTEN (THE MAGIC FLUTE), available streaming on the Criterion Channel. #OperaSky

Opera 101—People Stand in Line to See the Boy King Philip Glass, Akhnaten (1984) Based on: various Egyptian texts of the period, including the Book of the Dead Setting: Egypt, 1370 B.C.E. Sung in: Akkadian, ancient Egyptian, English, Hebrew Plot in…

If you are looking for something more modern, get yourself to L.A. stat and take in Philip Glass's AKHNATEN, a production I saw there almost ten years ago. Maybe by now they've cut out at least some of the seemingly endless juggling. A girl can dream.

Opera 101—Blood Money Gaetano Donizetti, Lucia di Lammermoor (1835) Based on: The Bride of Lammermoor, a novel by Sir Walter Scott Notable Cultural References: Anna Karenina, The Fifth Element Setting: Scotland, late 17…

If the idea of Wagner scares you as much as it scared me in the beginning, but you want something that just screams opera, might I suggest LUCIA DI LAMMERMOOR? (Side note: This would also be a great starting point if you are a WUTHERING HEIGHTS fan.)

Opera Plots in 101 Words or Less, Act III In the third act of our series on concise opera plots, it’s all German all the time. Specifically Wagner, or, as I like to think of him, Vague-ner. Not that he’s vague so much as his plots seem to …

If the warhorses seem too basic, and you want to go all in, here are summaries of various Wagner operas, including the notorious/beloved Ring Cycle. It's not for the faint of heart, but if you like to dive into things head first (or are simply a big Tolkien fan), it may be the perfect introduction.

Opera 101—Inglourious Basterd As a short respite from what was quickly turning out to be the season of the bitch, last night La Maratonista and I saw Mozart’s Don Giovanni. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect since the plot of t…

Probably the only opera above that I wouldn’t recommend for a newcomer is DON GIOVANNI. Musically, it's probably my favorite Mozart opera, but it can be hard to get the tone just right. However, it did inspire one of my most popular opera posts, so maybe read this and see if it piques your interest.

Opera Plots in 101 Words or Less, Act II Today, we continue with the plots of opera “warhorses”—those repertoire standards most likely to be referenced in pop culture. Again, despite any snark below, I love all of these works and heartily…

Here are plot summaries for the next five most performed operas in the world, with shout-outs to AMADEUS, FATAL ATTRACTION, HOPSCOTCH, THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION, SCREAMERS, and TRADING PLACES, among others.

Opera 101—Plots in 101 Words or Less* In honor of my late mother, who always wanted to teach a class in what she called “cocktail party culture” (this was before the heyday of “cultural literacy”) and because the subject came up recent…

First of all, you can’t really go wrong with any of the so-called warhorses. I give fun summaries of the plots of the ten most performed operas in the first two posts of my “Opera Plots in 101 Words or Less” series (and, no, that should not be fewer). #OperaSky

Rehearsing Verdi's MACBETH in Dario Argento's OPERA

With all this talk about the merits of opera and people wanting to explore the genre for the first time, I thought it might be helpful to provide some places to start. 🧵

The Art of the Deal: Let me enact policies that negatively affect my voters and swing voters the most!

Now that Timothy Chalamet has brought opera into the national conversation, if you haven't been to one before, it's fun! The LA Opera is great because you can dress up, but also go casually if you want. Also you can get tickets around the $40-50 range.

I really don't get how those are at all legal in California given that it's a two-party consent state.

this rhetorical trick has made a lot of very stupid people think they’re society’s most important intellectuals

When The Math Greek moved up from L.A. for the COVID shelter-in-place (and ended up staying a couple of years), not ever having leftovers almost killed me. I couldn't figure out why eating homemade everyday was so much more exhausting than before. And it took me way too long to figure out why!

S&S was my least favorite of the novels until I experienced Emma Thompson's adaptation.

Also, having just watched the latest Downton Abbey film (which was a nice send-off btw), it was sort of amazing to realize that Alessandro Nivola played Henry Crawford more than twenty-five years ago. He must have access to same fountain as Paul Rudd.

Yes, I thought it was a good example of adaptation. Not slavish but the essence is there.

Elle Fanning is Mary Shelley in MARY SHELLEY

The bottom half of tonight's Regency double feature is MARY SHELLEY (2017) by Haifaa al-Mansour, director of my beloved WADJDA. Again, per Letterboxd, this is her most popular film. I figure it can't be any worse than GdT's FRANKENSTEIN. #FemaleFilmmakerFriday #52FilmsByWomen #19 #Filmsky 📽️

Fanny Price breaks the fourth wall in MANSFIELD PARK.

It's #FemaleFilmmakerFriday and for #WomensHistoryMonth I'm filling in #DirectedByWomen filmography gaps. Tonight's focus is on the Regency era. First up was MANSFIELD PARK (1999) by Patricia Rozema. Unsurprisingly, per Letterboxd, this delight is her most popular film. #52FilmsByWomen #18 #Filmsky

If you are looking for a director to focus on this #WomensHistoryMonth look no further than my 2025 thread on the subject. This year, I'll be using #FemaleFilmmakerFriday to fill in the filmography gaps I found while creating that thread, including films by Scherfig, Sciamma, and Varda. #Filmsky 📽️

I wrote 900 words on THE BRIDE!