Brokeback Mountain

Dw twin
They normal Brokeback Mountain 
𝑌𝑜𝑢 𝑜𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑎 𝐵𝑟𝑜𝑘𝑒𝑏𝑎𝑐𝑘 𝑀𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑡𝑎𝑖𝑛

Dw twin
They normal Brokeback Mountain 
𝑌𝑜𝑢 𝑜𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑎 𝐵𝑟𝑜𝑘𝑒𝑏𝑎𝑐𝑘 𝑀𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑡𝑎𝑖𝑛

Bruh I hate when the ghost of my wife’s dead father tells her I’m gay and then gets his goons to kill me :(

Bruh I hate when the ghost of my wife’s dead father tells her I’m gay and then gets his goons to kill me :(

I had been putting off watching this for the longest time, and now I can see that I was in fact right to do that. It not only fails as a Brokeback Mountain adaptation, but also as an opera. The only thing that carried me through this was the wide range of considerably more interesting tasks that I did whilst watching. Including, but not limited to: --
- Completing a past paper for further maths
- Practicing saxophone
- Decorating my phone case with shark stickers

This is the first opera I’ve ever seen in its entirety so I'm not an expert, but I cannot say that I enjoyed any part of it. It sounded uncomfortable, unnatural and completely disjointed; failing to capture any of the emotion the film did with some line delivery bordering on comical I'm not sure if this is standard of an opera, but I cannot imagine it is, because it absolutely brought pain upon my ears worse than the 7 major surgeries I’ve had on them. In fact, it has got me considering never wearing my hearing aid just to avoid the risk of ever having to hear something like this again. I think the problem was that essentially the whole thing was in opera. There were no speaking sections as each conversation happened in opera which just led to it sounding very non-human and a lot more wordy than an opera should be. At first I suspected that maybe the performers weren’t English speakers. Or at least weren’t native, but after learning they were I really cannot explain this. My only refuge came 55 minutes in when there are just randomly 3-4 lines where Ennis and Alma inexplicably switch out of opera before they go back to opera for the rest of the show.

The orchestra, also wasn’t great, constantly alternating ominous little stabs on the oboe and some unnecessary blasting of the contrabassoon - always a little dissonant no matter what was going on. It was too busy and there was way too much going on. I understand that the intention was to reflect Jack and Ennis’ emotions and whatnot, but it was more unsuccessful in conveying any emotion more than that you’d feel trying to swat a fly that simply will not die. I would have at least thought that with the orchestra continuing on and on that it would at least do something for the scenes where it may have been appropriate, but no. They completely missed the opportunity to have any music that could have possibly evoked any emotion aside from annoyance in any of the scenes that should have been sad and should have had some big accompaniment, but no. Instead the orchestra does the same thing it does for the whole rest of the opera, which is just playing a completely inappropriate and ill-fitted suspense accompaniment. I'm sure I could have written something more appropriate with my Grade 6 GCSE Music nevermind a whole master's degree.

In terms of a Brokeback Mountain adaptation, it also failed. It was an adaptation of the short story,with Wuorinen proclaiming this opera to be more true to the original story than the film is, which I can’t help but agree with, however this is absolutely not a good thing. I am reviewing the opera and not the story and would like to keep it that way, but I think it is absolutely important for me to mention that I do not like the short story whatsoever. And even still this has somehow managed to make it worse in all areas but one. My one and only positive comment for this is that it managed to be slightly less perverted than the short story, which didn’t go unnoticed. Despite this though… I struggle to find any strengths in its writing. It’s a complete and utter bastardisation of Brokeback Mountain. The pacing was nightmarish with cuts at times where I can say there definitely should not have been cuts. It also just fails to capture any of the emotion of the story even when compared to the short story as opposed to the film. It felt like a husk of both the original short story and especially of the film.

Another thing I didn’t really like was the staging. I didn’t think it was awful but it certainly didn't do much to help this already failed abomination opera from hell. I don’t know what they were going for at all. But this is just the cherry on top of all the things I hated about this. This is certainly the most confident I’ve ever been about rating something a half star. I don’t think I’ve ever felt more tempted to click on something in the first 5 minutes than I did for this. But I fought through, and all I have to show for it is a review longer than my personal statement. And that's without even mentioning the worst. NO JAKE GYLLENHAAL! So now I can only sit and grieve the 3 hours I have lost and lament that as Percy Bysshe Shelley said in my GCSE poetry anthology ‘Nothing besides remains. Round the decay of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare’

Stay safe and don’t watch this
Tom

I had been putting off watching this for the longest time, and now I can see that I was in fact right to do that. It not only fails as a Brokeback Mountain adaptation, but also as an opera. The only thing that carried me through this was the wide range of considerably more interesting tasks that I did whilst watching. Including, but not limited to: --
- Completing a past paper for further maths
- Practicing saxophone
- Decorating my phone case with shark stickers

This is the first opera I’ve ever seen in its entirety so I'm not an expert, but I cannot say that I enjoyed any part of it. It sounded uncomfortable, unnatural and completely disjointed; failing to capture any of the emotion the film did with some line delivery bordering on comical I'm not sure if this is standard of an opera, but I cannot imagine it is, because it absolutely brought pain upon my ears worse than the 7 major surgeries I’ve had on them. In fact, it has got me considering never wearing my hearing aid just to avoid the risk of ever having to hear something like this again. I think the problem was that essentially the whole thing was in opera. There were no speaking sections as each conversation happened in opera which just led to it sounding very non-human and a lot more wordy than an opera should be. At first I suspected that maybe the performers weren’t English speakers. Or at least weren’t native, but after learning they were I really cannot explain this. My only refuge came 55 minutes in when there are just randomly 3-4 lines where Ennis and Alma inexplicably switch out of opera before they go back to opera for the rest of the show.

The orchestra, also wasn’t great, constantly alternating ominous little stabs on the oboe and some unnecessary blasting of the contrabassoon - always a little dissonant no matter what was going on. It was too busy and there was way too much going on. I understand that the intention was to reflect Jack and Ennis’ emotions and whatnot, but it was more unsuccessful in conveying any emotion more than that you’d feel trying to swat a fly that simply will not die. I would have at least thought that with the orchestra continuing on and on that it would at least do something for the scenes where it may have been appropriate, but no. They completely missed the opportunity to have any music that could have possibly evoked any emotion aside from annoyance in any of the scenes that should have been sad and should have had some big accompaniment, but no. Instead the orchestra does the same thing it does for the whole rest of the opera, which is just playing a completely inappropriate and ill-fitted suspense accompaniment. I'm sure I could have written something more appropriate with my Grade 6 GCSE Music nevermind a whole master's degree.

In terms of a Brokeback Mountain adaptation, it also failed. It was an adaptation of the short story,with Wuorinen proclaiming this opera to be more true to the original story than the film is, which I can’t help but agree with, however this is absolutely not a good thing. I am reviewing the opera and not the story and would like to keep it that way, but I think it is absolutely important for me to mention that I do not like the short story whatsoever. And even still this has somehow managed to make it worse in all areas but one. My one and only positive comment for this is that it managed to be slightly less perverted than the short story, which didn’t go unnoticed. Despite this though… I struggle to find any strengths in its writing. It’s a complete and utter bastardisation of Brokeback Mountain. The pacing was nightmarish with cuts at times where I can say there definitely should not have been cuts. It also just fails to capture any of the emotion of the story even when compared to the short story as opposed to the film. It felt like a husk of both the original short story and especially of the film.

Another thing I didn’t really like was the staging. I didn’t think it was awful but it certainly didn't do much to help this already failed abomination opera from hell. I don’t know what they were going for at all. But this is just the cherry on top of all the things I hated about this. This is certainly the most confident I’ve ever been about rating something a half star. I don’t think I’ve ever felt more tempted to click on something in the first 5 minutes than I did for this. But I fought through, and all I have to show for it is a review longer than my personal statement. And that's without even mentioning the worst. NO JAKE GYLLENHAAL! So now I can only sit and grieve the 3 hours I have lost and lament that as Percy Bysshe Shelley said in my GCSE poetry anthology ‘Nothing besides remains. Round the decay of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare’

Stay safe and don’t watch this
Tom

More like backshot mountain😭

More like backshot mountain😭