This might be of interest to a few: Verdi and Piave’s “Rigoletto”, transformed by Taiwan’s Li Baochun 李寶春 into a Beijing opera. In Mandarin Chinese, with Chinese and English subtitles. Available for six more days. #京劇 #京剧 #BeijingOpera youtu.be/UGCYbEG_ICY?...

「腸化為筋」 This may become my new euphemism for “power bottom”.

This really does sum up Twitter these days: “I didn’t read the article but whoever wrote it needs to read my book.”

Today’s follow-up:

Balancing a Crutch on the Head aka the Drunken Immortal Field Sobriety Test #新義和歌劇團 #歌仔戲 #kuaáhì #TaiwaneseOpera

I’d sooner kick over a kid’s sand-castle than disturb the lovely foam on my latte. What am I to do?

The indomitable 孫凱琳 delivers a knockout for the 春美歌劇團. From the stage at Kaohsiung’s tiny 九天堂 #kuaáhì #歌仔戲 #TaiwaneseOpera

While this federal administration has been busy empowering ICE to become, essentially, an extrajudicial militia allowed to disappear people from our streets, the Bay has been organizing. We will not be beaten down.

It’s never too early to start drilling your tot on the basics of aerial stage combat. From Tainan’s lively 水錦歌劇團, up north for a short stint at Bali’s 安福宮. #TaiwaneseOpera #歌仔戲 #kuaáhì

I gave up on German crosswords the day I came across the clue “Menschenrasse” for a five-letter word beginning with “N”.

Your best ever night at the #theatre? Join us @ihr.bsky.social on Thurs 13 Nov to recreate it - or stage the show of your dreams - & discover the use of #toy theatre in #heritage #research! From my fab PhD student @pdwebster.bsky.social. @beinghumanfest.bsky.social www.history.ac.uk/news-events/...

I return to Taipei next week for 2+ months and am simply overwhelmed by the number and quality of outdoor temple-fair opera offerings for the first part of October. And on the weekends there are shows in the indoor theaters. It’s bonkers! #kuaáhì #歌仔戲 #TaiwaneseOpera

I’m so looking forward to episodes of MorseGPT, where the curmudgeonly detective hallucinates a crime, all the suspects, & an unexpected solution. “You see, Lewis, this arsobromine we found at Oxford’s King’s College could have been made at home from Marmite and cigarette stubs. It was the dog.”

The joke’s on them. I registered my account under the name Anna Karenina.

只可說以指喻指之非指，以馬喻馬之非馬。 "Well, you know," with an almost Saussurean air, "a finger signifying a finger is not actually a finger. Just as, of course, a horse signifying a horse isn't actually a horse!"

Hanns Eisler was a singular composer: scrupulous yet vibrant. He achieved far less than what he was capable of, due to the circumstances alluded to by Professor Wolff. youtu.be/LvB_XNCaJKo?...

It’s always a special day when someone from the Sinosphere’s theatre world discovers Zeffirelli’s “Turandot” production for the first time and are gobsmacked by the production’s sheer idiocy. #MetropolitanOpera #Turandot #FlamingGarbage

And Etsy pulls through in the nick of time.

Meanwhile, i would like to see this cold case reopened.

Dear diary: today my dental hygienist was particularly keen on giving me an introductory lesson on (Southern) Vietnamese. #活到老學到老

For reasons I can no longer remember (jet lag?), I apparently thought it was a good idea to do this entire interview holding my hands behind my back. I look like I’ve been handcuffed. #kuaáhì #歌仔戲 #TaiwaneseOpera

I would not call myself Johann Adolph Hasse’s #1 fan, but this recitative from Piramo e Tisbe (1768), sung by a cruel father and accompanied by bare, chromatically-rising octaves, is positively hair-rising. And I don’t even have that much hair left!

Bringing fowls to Athens.

Me explaining to my husband that we need to travel to a bunch of different countries so that I can continue shopping for books.

It’s that time of day when half of Taiwan hops onto social media to type in all caps: 地牛乖！

As sad as I am about the death of UChicago, my alma mater and one of the world's great universities, there is something tragically poetic about the university being done in by the very same neoliberal logic that the UChicago econ department did more than almost any other institution to foster.

I still think pride of place goes to the time when an elephant in Opera Omaha’s production of Aida, spooked by a scenery mishap involving the leopard riding on its back, made a dash for the section of the audience reserved for the elderly and infirm. www.upi.com/Archives/198...

Ugh.

I’ll be damned - the old “sprinkle your musty books with baking soda and throw them in the freezer for a week” trick really does seem to work.

Unlike Norman Lebrecht, Taruskin never had a book pulped after losing a defamation case.

老歌仔的脚歩手路03 潮劇 งิ้วแต้จิ๋ว Hong Kong Opera Teochew opera Chaozhou opera youtu.be/5VQ_Bp5nOP4

At an event for Taiwanese democracy activist, politician, and novelist 姚嘉文, and I was just handed this (unrelated) book. I am afraid to look inside. Maybe I’ll open it up during a stay in one Taiwan’s Talmud hotels, as is the custom of my people.

Wow, guess there's no English wikipedia page for Ranking Flowers and Precious Mirrors 品花寶鑑 (1849), good thing that, as far as historical novels go, it's not very important!

#musique #racisme #France #decolonial Les artistes issus de l’immigration #postcoloniale figurent aujourd’hui parmi les plus écoutés en France... Sauf que cette exposition d’une société métissée ne plaît (toujours) pas à tout le monde. www.mediapart.fr/journal/fran...

The 戲曲 scholars used to be the cool kids in town, knocking back tea with mobsters, hitting the Bund and going to the best parties (ahem, I mean conferences). Then came the 文和大革命 and we all had to burn our stuff and go into seclusion. Still, on the evidence this new book, we’re not yet dead yet.

Attention Austinites, Houstonians, and Orlandonians: Beijing opera is headed your way!

Bao Zheng did it first…

The bartender tonight at San Francisco’s Bow Bow Lounge could sing both Cantonese opera and (to my surprise) Revolutionary Model opera.

This happens to me from time to time, for largely the same reasons. My stock response has become, “I am not a priest, I am 法海 and I have come to wreck your marriage!” This goes over pretty well in opera circles. (法海 is the meddling Buddhist priest of the White Snake legend)

I guess that after the success of the “Modern Toilet” restaurant, something like this was inevitable.

Fly me to the moon, Let me play among the stars. And while you’re at it please do leave that Elon Musk on Mars.

Thrown out of a sound check by Tom Waits.

Have a smoke? One operagoer in Gansu found a new way to break down the fourth wall. Zhu Xiaolu 朱曉路 maintained his composure. #秦腔 #ShaanxiOpera

New from me: Yat Sing Music Club in Portland, Oregon, is one of the longest standing Cantonese opera groups in North America. It was founded in 1942 by Chinese immigrants to raise funds for China’s defence against Japan during WWII. The group is still rehearsing every weekend.

The great suona master of Shanxi, 张桐 Zhang Tong, demonstrates his skill with the Dragon-head Horn in an arrangement of an operatic excerpt (it’s in the 北路梆子 style, but I can’t place it). #山西 #龍頭號 #龙头号

A new installment of “Trump: the Cantonese Opera” is headed to Kowloon’s Opera Centre next month. Apparently ping-pong diplomacy is out, arm-wrestling Zelenskyy is in. #粵劇 #CantoneseOpera #Oy

Bonus photo

Sanchong, the land of floating stages. #歌仔戲 #kuaáhì #TaiwaneseOpera

I am desperately hoping this was an April Fool’s joke, and not A Sign of Things To Come. #婺剧 #婺劇