You've been talking in your sleep (1/2)

[marysutherland]

BBC Sherlock

Rating: 12 (non-explicit femslash)

Summary: Anthea's trip to the opera brings some strange effects

Many thanks to Kalypso for betaing

Several months ago, fengirl made some requests for the Five Acts meme. She asked for sleep and bedding themes and her pairings included Anthea/Ella or Anthea/ACD!Irene. Inspired by her Sleeping

Comments

[fengirl88]

thank you very much for this - I like your updating of ACD!Irene as Renée a lot, and am looking forward to seeing how the story turns out. I don't know the Bellini opera, but enjoyed your account of it.

[marysutherland]

I'd never heard of 'La sonnambula' before I started researching for this fic, but once I realised there was a whole opera on sleepwalking that could plausibly have a contralto in the lead, it seemed perfect. Apparently there was a production of it at the Met a few years ago, but it was modernised version that got booed. There's an amazing Youtube video of the second sleepwalking scene from that where Amina's singing on a sort of extended plank above the pit. But I thought something more 19th century might suit Renée.

Just posted the final section. Happy Christmas!

[kalypso_v]

I knew of it, because I have Kobbé's Complete Opera Book and have read most of the summaries at one time or another*, though I don't think I've ever heard the music...

I do love the idea of Rodolfo singing "an entire aria explaining the theory of sleepwalking".

* If you ever want a really preposterous tragic plot, try La Wally, whose title is an apt description of the contents of the tin, but which does include the very well-known aria used (though fortunately shorn of context) in the film Diva, if you remember that.