saturday.

On a day that has been a mental wild ride, I've spent approx. 10 hours collecting myself enough to watch the Royal Danish Ballet's Manon (part 1 & part 2) from 2014. I never got to see it when it was showing, so very grateful that someone has put the full performance on YouTube. Don't quite know why I haven't watched it before, though, since it's been available for years. I think the costumes irked me a bit, plus it's Alban Lendorf in the lead and he was always one of my least favourite dancers. Joke's on me, this is actually the best I've seen him and I genuinely enjoyed especially his partnership with Alexandra Lo Sardo who made an extremely nuanced and believeably ambiguous Manon. Her dancing isn't on par with Sylvie Guillem, obviously - or other star ballerinas in the role, but her portrayal of the duality in Manon was spot on.

I have watched the full performance by the Paris Opera Ballet with Sylvie Guillem and I have to honestly say, I prefer the Danish one by far. The costumes are atrocious. Aside from a few good pieces for Manon, the costumes are not very well tailored for dancing. I can totally see what the designer was thinking with it, it looks like modern rococo exploded all over the stage, but what works conceptually doesn't always work in practice and this is one such time.

I will never again watch the gaoler scene (giant trigger warning for sexual assault there), but the rest of the ballet was well danced, well acted and just very entertaining. I believed the relationships between the various characters and understood where all of them came from. I also got a few fanfic ideas, so hold tight for those ships to sail (looking at you Manon and Lescaut's mistress + those two harlots)...

One thing that this rewatch did, however, was convince me that I might actually give the ballet a try, should it ever make its way to Copenhagen again. With the right cast, I'd love to see it live (I guess I'll just have to close my eyes throughout the gaoler scene or look somewhere else) and I might even forgive the ugly costumes, in the light of the thrill of seeing a performance on stage. Maybe they even look better in person. One can hope.

In terms of RL, today has been a tough one. I think I'm on my last stretch of flu, it's just congestion and a little bit of sore throat, but I've stayed in the spare room all day since K. has had a friend over who shouldn't get infected. It's been okay, but my mind has run some rounds with me, creative input in everything and everywhere. I think the next project is going to be some Manon fanfics for the Fannish Fifty stuff I'll be doing on the other side of New Year, which is appropriately lowkey and easily accessible not to stress me out more during X-mas which is already extremely stressful for me.

For some reason I'm excited and nervous about presents this year. Don't know why, normally I put absolutely no stock in either giving or receiving (though giving more than receiving), but this year I'm giddy about it like a little child. It's strange. It makes me feel restless and impatient.

I think, in the end, I just want X-mas to be over. The presents given, the presents received, my parents' home visited and left in the horizon once more.

It's the last Sunday of Advent tomorrow and I'll be posting my final chapter of Humility, my Lady of the Camellias Manon/Marguerite fanfic. My big rebel NaNoWriMo project. I'm so insanely proud of this fic and I'm sad it doesn't have more hits, at least. I know I suck at writing summaries for my fanfic and I know this one isn't as good as the fic it summarizes, but still. People, click the link, damn it. It'll be nice having it up and finished, though. Maybe I'll feel more comfortable about moving on to other things, then.

Things like "the story of how the reason for Manon going to a convent was that she had had an affair with her brother's mistress and he wasn't too happy about that, explaining the difficult relationship between them and the things he's willing to do to her, besides the fact that he's a dick in general".

Get excited.