have you ever seen or listened to something that you were certain would be excellent but you ended up disliking or even hating it? then this is the place for you, my friend. the tv & movies section seemed the most fitting for this, however feel free to post about music or anime or etc. as well
i've had many such experiences, though perhaps the most egregious is the opera salome by richard strauss. it's an opera directly based on the short play by oscar wilde, in which the princess salome who is the daughter of herodias falls in love with john the baptist, who was taken prisoner for condemning her mother's marriage to king herod for flagrantly violating jewish law. he continues to preach loudly within his cell, and she's captivated by it. she charms the prison guard to allow her to speak with him directly, but the wild-man prophet rebuffs her strange attempts at flirting. she ominously tells him before leaving that she WILL kiss him regardless, and john returns to his cell. later, herod begs for salome to dance for him, claiming he will grant her any request even to his half of the kingdom if she does, and she agrees. immediately after dancing she asks for the head of john on a plate, which is given to her despite the protestations of herod who is afraid of the prophet. presented with the head, she professes her undying love for it and kisses it, after which she is put to death by herod for being nutter butters
it's literally like someone wrote a play just for me. it's got two of my favorite things, john the baptist who is the coolest most bomb ass prophet ever, and an absolutely insane girl with way too much power, aka my favorite type of girl. so clearly the opera by strauss has to be one of my favorites of all time, right?
NOPE
last sunday evening i was hanging out with my polish buddy ryszard, and like usual we enjoyed quite a bit of quality bulgarian cognac together while talking about life and the world at large, while listening to selections of his fine collection of classical music and opera on vinyl. since i'm the guest i'm the one in charge of the music, and when i went to find another album to throw on i stumbled across a full production of salome with an accompanying libretto. all the cognac had me in a pretty open-minded mood, it couldn't have been that bad, right? maybe i was overreacting, and my tastes have changed over the years. surely it would be better than i remembered. i put the first record on and brought the libretto over to the parlor, reading out of it aloud when necessary so ryszard could follow along as well
and i had to shut it off before it was even halfway over
strauss composes his female leads like daggers that stab the ears mercilessly. what could charitably be called melody is so insanely discordant that it feels like a man is sawing my head in two, and a vast majority of the time it sounds like the orchestra is either being tortured or going through a collective stroke, but nope! it's just written that way. it's intentional, you see!! it's bad on purpose!!! that's so fucking ARTISTIC !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
call me a rube, call me a fucking philistine, i don't care. fuck richard strauss, he was a talentless hack and i still feel that way to this day. i really, really, REALLY want to like this damned opera, but he makes it impossible. that anyone can claim to like this man's works is insanity to me. elektra is another fucking slap in the face, arguably even worse, but i'll get into that some other time
anyone else?
i've had many such experiences, though perhaps the most egregious is the opera salome by richard strauss. it's an opera directly based on the short play by oscar wilde, in which the princess salome who is the daughter of herodias falls in love with john the baptist, who was taken prisoner for condemning her mother's marriage to king herod for flagrantly violating jewish law. he continues to preach loudly within his cell, and she's captivated by it. she charms the prison guard to allow her to speak with him directly, but the wild-man prophet rebuffs her strange attempts at flirting. she ominously tells him before leaving that she WILL kiss him regardless, and john returns to his cell. later, herod begs for salome to dance for him, claiming he will grant her any request even to his half of the kingdom if she does, and she agrees. immediately after dancing she asks for the head of john on a plate, which is given to her despite the protestations of herod who is afraid of the prophet. presented with the head, she professes her undying love for it and kisses it, after which she is put to death by herod for being nutter butters
it's literally like someone wrote a play just for me. it's got two of my favorite things, john the baptist who is the coolest most bomb ass prophet ever, and an absolutely insane girl with way too much power, aka my favorite type of girl. so clearly the opera by strauss has to be one of my favorites of all time, right?
NOPE
last sunday evening i was hanging out with my polish buddy ryszard, and like usual we enjoyed quite a bit of quality bulgarian cognac together while talking about life and the world at large, while listening to selections of his fine collection of classical music and opera on vinyl. since i'm the guest i'm the one in charge of the music, and when i went to find another album to throw on i stumbled across a full production of salome with an accompanying libretto. all the cognac had me in a pretty open-minded mood, it couldn't have been that bad, right? maybe i was overreacting, and my tastes have changed over the years. surely it would be better than i remembered. i put the first record on and brought the libretto over to the parlor, reading out of it aloud when necessary so ryszard could follow along as well
and i had to shut it off before it was even halfway over
strauss composes his female leads like daggers that stab the ears mercilessly. what could charitably be called melody is so insanely discordant that it feels like a man is sawing my head in two, and a vast majority of the time it sounds like the orchestra is either being tortured or going through a collective stroke, but nope! it's just written that way. it's intentional, you see!! it's bad on purpose!!! that's so fucking ARTISTIC !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
call me a rube, call me a fucking philistine, i don't care. fuck richard strauss, he was a talentless hack and i still feel that way to this day. i really, really, REALLY want to like this damned opera, but he makes it impossible. that anyone can claim to like this man's works is insanity to me. elektra is another fucking slap in the face, arguably even worse, but i'll get into that some other time
anyone else?
