![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
saturday.
THE LADY OF THE CAMELLIAS by Alexandre Dumas fils.
The fact that her passionate life had somehow produced the virginal, childlike expression that characterized Marguerite's face was something we were forced to accept without understanding it.
__________
PAS DE TROIS - the lady of the camellias (neumeier)
No lie, I love The Lady of the Camellias in every incarnation I've seen, maybe minus the opera which was okay, but not as good as the book or the ballet. Even so, there are parts of the book I dislike (the exhumation, ugh) and there are parts of the ballet that I... well, maybe not dislike, but generally don't feel is as smoothly executed as all the rest. This pas de trois in the beginning of the first act is one of those parts. It didn't work very well in my favourite version with the Paris Opera Ballet and was still clunky in the original taping of the Hamburg Ballet. I don't remember it from the Bolshoi Ballet, though it must have been there, so I'm guessing it wasn't fantastic either - will have to rewatch...
Anyway, in this little clip, I actually think it works quite well. Des Grieux and Armand are perfectly in sync and Manon
It'll probably never be my favourite piece of choreo from the ballet, but I can see, here, how it's effective, at least.
__________
I had a visit from my parents yesterday. It was an arrangement made from one day to the next (they live an hour away by car) and I'd really looked forward to it, but didn't sleep well the night before, so woke up tired, drained and not having much energy to be a conversationalist or putting in the work that our relation might run smoothly. It was an okay visit, they kept saying it was okay I was tired, but at the same time I got the distinct feeling that they thought it was bothersome or that, at least, it frustrated them. Which drained me even more. We said goodbye after an hour, so I could go buy some meds I needed.
It might be unfair, because it is probably just the way it is, with them and me, but I feel so discouraged that it seems like it's always me who has to carry the mood of our meetings and conversations. Like, it depends solely on me whether the energies in the room go up or down. And since I'm often down, it feels like it's my fault the energies between my parents and I are down as well, a lot of the time. Sorry, I'm not explaining it very well, it doesn't even make sense to me, but it's a feeling I get. A sense of guilt and urge to explain myself, apologize. When, in reality, I've been sick for ten years at this point, my parents should have accommodated and accepted it or at the very least, gotten used to it.
Plus, it never helps when they bring the dog(s).
K. and I finished the evening on a better note, watching Tales of the Jedi. While Ahsoka is one of my favourite Star Wars characters and while I liked her storyline very much, I actually think Dooku's spoke to me more. I really liked how they'd shown what lured him onto the dark side and his moral struggles with being there. Very good. Also, fantastic voice-work. Just stunning, all the way around. It felt like a good way to end a not so good day, so that was nice.
We also had take-away for dinner, really good tzaziki and then, pizza. Spared us the cooking session which was the important part yesterday. K. got home late after having attended some political stuff downtown (we have elections on the 1st of Nov). I just sat around playing with Photopea and changing my mind about my NaNoWriMo project a hundred times.
__________
As of this moment, I think I'm going to go with an "old" idea I've had since seeing that one Russian fic on AO3 that I can't read with the pairing. Manon/Marguerite, The Lady of the Camellias ballet, Neumeier. I kinda want a Black Swan-ish vibe from it, mood-wise, Manon existing only in Marguerite's head while she sees herself reflected in the character, but unlike Black Swan this isn't told from the outside, seeing Marguerite descend into "madness", but rather from within, from the point of view of Manon, the hallucination. That way I can also tie in parts of MacMillan's Manon and just, bring it all together that way. Kinda a crossover, kinda not.
Since crossovers are apparently my deal at the moment, I think it's a fitting way to stay with one canon, but just hint at the existence of another similar one, like a bridge. Expanding upon one world with the limited access or view to another.
We'll see what I think by Tuesday, but yeah.