So I succumbed and set up the threatened @FAKEfrindley twitter account (don’t bother following it) in order to feed my nascent #operaplot addiction. Turns out I needn’t have bothered: in a late change of rules, the Omniscient Mussel decided to remove the 10-entry restriction.
Meanwhile the frindley fake had been hard at work:
1. Can we sort out this Olympian scandal with Euridice, Aristaeus/Pluto and Orpheus’s infernal fiddling? Yes we Can-Can! #operaplot
[A possible improvement on the real frindley’s entry? I’m undecided. Sometimes it’s better to leave well alone.]
2. craigslist: Antiquity - Fertile woman willing to sell shadow to royal animaga staving off hubby’s petrification - (SE Islands) #operaplot
3. Ki-kiri-kuku! Silly recumbent king finds that relying on avian warning system for border control costs him sons, bride and life. #operaplot
4. Saintly forest maid weds prince (cue balalaikas) Tartars disrupt honeymoon (cue Bb min) Ghostly reunion in misty city (cue bells) #operaplot
[If I’m honest, 3. and 4. represent Russian operas that I will probably never see because they’re almost never done, but which I know quite well as orchestral suites. I was especially pleased in 4. to be able to give a sense of the music as well as the plot. But then, I realise, I’ve been doing that in various entries all along.]
5. The nuclear-physical Trinity meets the metaphysical three-person’d god in Adamsian setting. John Donne wins. #operaplot
6. Reasons to take up flute: provides protection & good cheer, calms wild beasts, gives safe passage thru elements, gets u the girl. #operaplot
[A bit pedestrian. Doesn’t capture the outrageousness of it all.]
7. Polly is a sad slut: finds upwardly mobile marriage is more encumbered than suspected. Madness & folly in a totally Gay pastiche. #operaplot
8. How do you solve a problem like Lucia? Feuding kilts, secret marriage, forced marriage: all leads to madness, murder & suicide. #operaplot
[Potential of opening not really sustained. I did so want to get the word “moonbeam” in there.]
9. First the music then the [Italian] words? Or a flustered impresario auf Deutsch? Opera vs Singspiel playoff in Joe 2’s orangerie. #operaplot
10. Pretty respectable widow & proud former flame waltz around the matter of money in the shadow of the Pontevedrian economic crisis. #operaplot
The whole thing finishes up on Monday afternoon at 2pm (Sydney time) and I fear the unlimited entry allowance will not be a good thing. Meanwhile Mozart calls.
