An expanded and revised entry on blood opera. Enjoy
The high alchemical Art, incorporating all other Arts. Drama. Music. Architecture. Dance.
And, of course, love and revenge.
Ven opera (the actual ven word best translates as “The Art that encompasses all other Arts”) is full of spectacle. Jim Steinman meets John Woo. The thunder of the music cracking the plaster in the walls. Actors bursting their throats, their eyes full of rage and tears. Musicians in the pit, playing furious anger and beatific joy. Choirs chanting choruses over and over and over.
There is no word in the ven language for “understatement.”
Like everything else, the ven are obsessed with the proper presentation of opera. So much so that they only recognize six plots as appropriate to the stage. This requires a bit of explanation.
Think for a moment about our own King Arthur. Just saying the name summons images and names. Camelot, Gwenevere, Lancelot, Excallibur, Mordred, Merlin, Morgana, love, loyalty and betrayal. Arthur’s story has been told thousands of times in thousands of different ways, but the key characters and elements remain. And though storytellers have taken liberty with Arthur’s tale, we accept those liberties so long as the truth of the story remains intact and honored.
When Arthur’s story goes too far from what we expect, we feel betrayed. Not an emotion easily explained. An instinct. An understanding. Almost as if we have to protect the story in some way.
So are the ven and their opera.
Only seven stories are worthy of the stage. The ven recognize these stories from the character’s names. Just as we would know the plot the moment Hamlet’s name was mentioned. Or Odysseus. Or even James Bond. And while the plot may weave differently, certain key elements remain. Secondary characters come and go, but the lynchpin personnae remain.
Authors and composers work to re-tell these six tales with different voices, using each to communicate a new moral, a new truth. Just as Arthur’s tale can communicate the conflict of true love and duty, so can it tell the conflict of Christian against pagan. So can it tell the tale of Britain’s natives against her invaders. Just a tweak of the pen and a familiar tale delivers a different message.
So are the ven and their opera.
Lesser tales are delegated to playhouses and street theater. But not the opera house. Not that great and sacred place. Seven stories. Only seven.
And there is only one ending. Blood.
The High Alchemical Art, combining all the disciplines into a transcendent experience. Music. Poetry. Drama. Transforming the opera house into the place of imagination, where heroes and stories wait to be discovered.
This time in ven history is the golden age of opera. Unfortunately, we have precious few texts from this time (because of the Dire Times that would soon follow), only a handful of the manuscripts from these amazing works. Most of the documents we do have are severely damaged, giving us only a glimpse of the work.
WORKS AND FOOLS
“Fate and Chance are the undoing of us all.”
— from the libretto of Ufaltir by Rhondir Yvarai
The ven were very specific about their opera. So much so they recognized only seven operas as “official.” All other operas were lesser works, not truly inspired, not Art.
These seven operas, or Great Works, may be called tragedies if there were not so much joy in the libretto and orchestration. It seems the ven found great joy in blood and death and calamity. But ven tragedy is very specific, and since the word has taken on so many different definitions in our own culture, I’ll take a moment to specify what the ven meant by the word.
For the ven, tragedy has specific necessary elements. To begin with, the ending must include the death or undoing of the hero. Also, the hero of the tale must be responsible for his own undoing. This may be a slight at the beginning of the opera that triggers a series of events eventually leading to his demise or it could be a deliberate action, a decision that destroys him. In short, “accident” does not belong in ven tragedy. Chance and Fate work against him, his end always inevitable, but his end is due to his own shortcomings. His own lack of Virtue.
The Great Works are based on seven characters that appear in all operas. Each opera focuses on one of these seven characters, otherwise known as “the Seven Fools.” These seven characters alternate as the main character. While the appearance of the characters may alter—the genders, the names, the relationships—the Seven Fools are consistent through all the Works.
Like I said, the Seven Fools have been portrayed as both genders, but the role itself is always referred to as gender specific. For example, there have been both male and female characters who fit the role of “the Rake,” but because he first appeared as male, that role is always referred to in the male gender.
The Seven Fools are: the Actress, the Dowager Duchess, the Husband, the Rake, the Swordsman, the Wife and the Wise Man.
THE ACTRESS
The character known as “the Actress” rises up through ven society through some sort of Art. She comes from humble beginnings, but convinced by the praise of others, she loses sight of those beginnings.
The first Actress was Q’vanna Yvarai from the opera of the same name. A common theater actress she took to the stage only to bring enough coin to feed her aging and crippled father. She was discovered by a slumming lord (the Rake), and enchanted by her beauty and talent, he trained her in the ways of the Great Art, bringing her to Shanri’s most magnificent opera houses. But her pride blinded her. She abandoned her lover, destroyed her reputation with scandal, and ends her life with suicide. The variations on the Actress are many, but nearly all of them end with the ambitious youth taking her own life.
THE DOWAGER DUCHESS
The Dowager Duchess is a woman (or man) who is advanced in age, but refuses to acknowledge the inevitable grasp of Solace. She acts like a young woman until the cruel truth of the world comes knocking on her door, and finding her unprepared, she faces death, losing the sleep of Solace forever.
The first Dowager Duchess was Lady Peacock, a very popular character in ven literature. A tragedy in every sense of the word, the opera begins as pure farce, a comical satire of ven culture’s hypocrisies and double-standards. She spends so much time with banter, she never takes advantage of opportunities to say something meaningful, to say and do the things she should before Solace takes her away. The opera ends with the Duchess’s inevitable passage into Solace, surrounded by friends and family, unable to speak, weeping, longing for just one more minute so she can say what needs to be said, to alter a tragedy of her own making. Of course, Solace claims her voice and all she can do is watch. The theme of the opera is plain: the end is sooner than you think.
THE HUSBAND
The Husband is often portrayed as the neglectful spouse. He is often male, although he has been portrayed as female on rare occasions (and equally rare success). His undoing is underestimating his wife’s (or husband’s) desires for independence and happiness.
The first appearance of the Husband occurs in the opera Darby’s Pride. Darby Steele spends all his time securing his lands, building a great castle, and ruining his enemies. All the while, his wife’s own desires are neglected. The opera portrays her as devoted, loving, and willing to sacrifice for security. She gives away a chance at true love with a less ambitious baron for Darby, and slowly regretting her decision. At the end of the opera, Darby discovers her in the arms (and bed) of another man. He kills them both and burns down his castle, racing into the wilderness, completely mad.
THE RAKE
The Rake is unmarried, either male or female, looking to rise through society through romantic conquests. His undoing is his own shallow heart and misunderstanding of the sacredness of love.
Of all the Great Works, it seems the ven were most liberal with the Rake. Identified by his name—a play on Sh’van, the original Rake—each opera seems to be a different argument about the true nature of love. He may be young, he may be old, he may even be a woman, but he always faces the conflict of love versus duty. In the original opera, he is a young noble seeking to restore the lands of his wounded father. Unable to maintain the lands himself, the Rake seeks allies by seducing wives of other nobles, secretly making alliances behind their backs. But true love calls in the form of a family friend, thought long lost, and everything the Rake has worked to accomplish comes crumbling to the ground when he must choose between the woman he loves and a woman who can save his lands. How the Rake chooses changes with each tale, but it always ends with a betrayal and tragedy.
THE SWORDSMAN
His prowess unmatched, he walks the streets of Shanri unafraid, taking all challenges. This is Cyrvanto, the Swordsman. Arrogant, and proud of it, he refuses apology, demanding the sword answer all threats to his honor. All of which, of course, lead to his undoing.
In Cyrvanto, we see the swordsman: a man of courage, wit, and cruelty. He has no mercy for those who would oppose him, no mercy for those who taunt him, no mercy for those who question his honor. But then, he meets his match: a woman of equal skill, of equal wit, of equal cruelty. It is she who undoes him. Looking to make a reputation for herself, she wins his favor and eventually his heart. Then, using the knowledge and trust she gained, she challenges him to a duel. Unable to kill the one thing he learned to love in all his life, her sword finds his heart, ending his life and the opera.
THE WIFE
The Wife is demanding, selfish and proud; the things that allowed her to reach the pinnacle of society. Unfortunately, these same qualities are her undoing.
The story of Benejitrix is a familiar one to the ven, found in the opera, One Stitch Too Many. Benejitrix is a beautiful woman married to a scoundrel of a man. Marrying for his lands, she hopes to end his life prematurely, claiming his lands as her own. Her stepson, equally ambitious, plots with his mother. (Many versions play up the sexual implications only hinted at in the first production.) Her plans are thwarted, however, by her own ambition and the betrayal of her stepson, leaving her scandalized and alone.
THE WISE MAN
The character of the Wise Man is one of the least popular subjects in ven opera. Of all the Fools, his tragedy seems the most difficult to make compelling to a ven audience. Most Artists see the Wise Man as a challenge, attempting to make this character into high Art. Most fail. Neglected for decades, it seemed the Seventh Fool would fall from grace… until one Artist succeeded to such a degree, all his following work was said to pale in comparison.
Entitled Bjornae, this particular Wise Man was not wise at all. Instead, he was a simple soldier thrown into circumstances beyond his control. On the verge of an attack from a legion of swordsmen, the desperate Count turned to a ragged soldier, seeking any advice at all. The soldier, completely over his head, gave the Count his advice. “Swimming requires stamina,” he said. This nonsensical statement was seen as deeply profound by the Count, who used it in a brilliant maneuver to defeat his enemies. After that moment, Bjornae becomes the Count’s advisor, giving him nonsensical advice the Count interprets as deeply insightful. The tragedy of the tale, of course, does not fall on the Wise Man, but on those who think themselves wise. Yvala Mrr wrote the opera, a daring shift from paradigm that stuck in ven consciousness for generations.
THE SERVANTS
Another omnipresent element of ven opera is the presence of “the Servants.” Two Servants, always named Ythala (a woman) and Talsho (a man), appear in all variations, acting as a kind of Greek chorus, giving exposition to the audience with their gossip.
Traditionally, the servants have the last word, giving the moral of the opera to the audience, although more bold artists use the Servants to comment on the moral. Dangerous. But then again, true Art is always dangerous.