I'm up on The Opera in my pneumoniac FFVI playthrough and reading @sebsational.bsky.social's great book on the music of FINAL FANTASY VI—& a paragraph of his finally unlocked the dramaturgical question of "how would you stage Maria & Draco" for me: You make the *entire sequence* an opera - ThreadSky

maxgladstone.bsky.social • 96 days ago

I'm up on The Opera in my pneumoniac FFVI playthrough and reading @sebsational.bsky.social's great book on the music of FINAL FANTASY VI—& a paragraph of his finally unlocked the dramaturgical question of "how would you stage Maria & Draco" for me: You make the *entire sequence* an opera

Comments

maxgladstone.bsky.social•96 days ago

Maria & Draco has opera bones, but the meat of the opera sequence lies in the Mozart-level tangle / tango of plots and sexual obsessions and dropped notes and duels and disguises—if you did *all of it at once* you'd end up with this beautiful chaotic opera-in-an-opera-in-an-opera

maxgladstone.bsky.social•96 days ago

Treat it like Marriage of Figaro — a particularly tangled messy day in the life of characters with larger histories and contexts. Opera can do the in-cluing well!

maxgladstone.bsky.social•96 days ago

We start with the conflict, Our Party - Celes, Locke, Sabin, and probably Cyan though I would also accept Edgar here - wants to fight the Evil Empire and needs to reach their capital city to save their sick friend (Terra gets a sickbed aria?)

aett.bsky.social•96 days ago

If the entire party isn't there (as someone suggested), then it's gotta be Edgar - he provides the two-headed coin in the scene immediately after the opera and it's best to have him and Sabin together for that.
(This is all amazing, btw)

maxgladstone.bsky.social•96 days ago

You're right! Yes, absolutely Edgar. But the more I think about it the more I think "whole party" is the way to go

maxgladstone.bsky.social•96 days ago

We need, I think, an Imperial agent of some sort - not Kefka, more of a Javert type, an antagonistic presence - to arrive in Jidoor looking for Celes (former imperial general, escaped, now disgraced) - Celes, attempting to hide, gets mistaken for opera singer Maria by the Impresario or the Rich Guy

maxgladstone.bsky.social•96 days ago

Locke is amused / upset / enamored in a very Figaro sort of way by Celes being made much of; he gets an aria about how he's frantically trying to Fight the Empire but haunted by the loss of his love, Rachel

maxgladstone.bsky.social•96 days ago

Impresario has a problem: swashbuckling gambler / owner of the world's only airship Setzer has threatened to kidnap Maria (and make her his bride!). Celes and team hear "airship" and think, "this would solve our getting-to-the-Empire problems"

scifantasy.bsky.social•96 days ago

General Leo.

maxgladstone.bsky.social•96 days ago

Ooo, I can see Leo here, would be a great use of him actually

scifantasy.bsky.social•96 days ago

(That way he has something to do between the poisoning of Doma and his appearance later, and his chasing Celes now means that when she shows up for Thamasa you have even more reason to believe she's gone back--because Leo, who chased her, is now with her.)

ghpelton.bsky.social•96 days ago

Sudden vivid memory of being a teenager playing FFVI and hearing the reprise of the opera theme as Celes reaches her moment of deepest despair on the island and thinking "holy shit, video games can do that?"

maxgladstone.bsky.social•96 days ago

I feel bad for always letting Cid die but he died on my first playthrough of that sequence (I think he's supposed to die on everyone's first) & Celes' despair is a moment I've never seen surpassed in gaming

ghpelton.bsky.social•96 days ago

And then she finds the bandana ... man. Sonic the Hedgehog never made me feel real emotions, I can tell you that much. Although based on the internet, I may have been in the minority.