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Silly addition: obviously demons work on the Roger Rabbit principle: you can ONLY summon them against their will when it's FUNNY.

Somewhat more serious addition: the scene with Robin suggests that even if you do manage to summon Mephistopheles against his will, it doesn't mean you have actual power over him! He can just turn you into a dog or an ape and fuck back off. While Faustus is able to bind Mephistopheles to his service, he does so in a specifically human manner, by making a contract--their relationship is not the magical servitude of Ariel to Prospero, but more of an employer-employee thing, albeit a fairly drastic set of working conditions. (Mephistopheles does say "I will wait on thee and be thy slave" but it doesn't seem to accurately describe his servitude, which seems to be voluntary and submitted to in pursuit of the long-term goal of fucking that indeterminately-aged man ensnaring another soul.)

Additional (also serious) wrinkle: Mephistopheles seemingly doesn't have the authority to make the contract on his own! He has to ask his boss first. This, again, presupposes Mephistopheles is a reliable source, but it's a very common attribute of demons that they don't so much lie as tell the truth in a deceptive manner. Additionally, the question of free will is one that hangs over the play: does Faustus have it? Can he repent, or is he a reprobate, destined from before his birth to be damned by the whims of a terrifyingly inscrutable God? Consequently, I think the text supports the reading that Mephistopheles, at least, does not have free will; he may not actually want to damn Faustus (and thus sincerely warns him about the stupidity of his course of action), but it's out of his hands. But the person with real power over him isn't Faustus, but Lucifer.

Silly conclusion: we can, therefore, assume that Lucifer, the literal boss from hell, dispatched Mephistopheles to the clowns just to be a dick. Because it was funny!

Appendix: the 1662 C-text (a substantial rewrite of the original for Restoration-era tastes which is only labeled "C-text" because DF's textual history is already a giant mess) has Mephistopheles say explicitly that ceremonial magic doesn't work and that standing in a magic circle accomplishes absolutely fuck-all in terms of protecting you. Not really pertinent since it's a later rewrite, just thought I'd throw it out there in the interests of pointing out elucidations of the subtext. I think it completely scraps the Robin stuff for a different comic plot though.

am very interested in the in play logic of what it takes to summon mephistopheles. because when faustus tries to do it, mephistopheles tells his it wasn’t his magic that summoned him, he just decided to show up because faustus was denouncing god. but then robin the clown says a bunch of nonsense and name drops mephistopheles and when he appears, he’s pretty pissed about it which implies to me he didn’t chose to show up, and maybe was summoned?!? so like is robin the clown a better magician or am i going crazy here

#just jumping in on a three-year-old conversation #hey i literally just saw it #doctor faustus #hot faust summer #rebecca lemon makes the also very good point that faustus reacts to the knowledge that he didn't technically summon mephistopheles #by doubling down in his dedication to his magical study #another piece i read a while back points out that the comic relief scenes basically function as a sort of subconscious depiction #of faustus' class anxiety (his humble origins are established clearly in the opening chorus) and internalized homophobia #so they have sort of an existence outside of the main plot and never really intersect with it #except at one brief point #which does say a lot about the inconsistency in a doylist sense #what does seem consistent is that you can't really command demons to do anything beyond showing up

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from ml.books

#house goals #i hope this isn't already in my queue

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The Dipòsit de les Aigües Library, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Catalonia.

This library is set up in a 19th-century water reservoir located in the heart of Barcelona. After 100 years of different uses -old people’s home, storage for the fire brigade, car park for the local police department, archive for the Court of Justice- it became property of the Pompeu Fabra University in 1992. Since then, it’s the university’s library.

Photos by Arq Foto, Burçin Yildirim on Flickr, and The ISA Journal.

#librarian goals #i hope this isn't already in my queue

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Also, if you ever find yourself in the position of needing to collect fun facts about people, one of my professors in library school used to use "tell us a boring fact about yourself" as an icebreaker. I've adopted it myself and it actually works really well because people actually say interesting things that tell the listener something about their life and personality when they're not feeling pressure to Be Interesting.

#people's random shit is usually interesting and illuminating

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It's that magical time before any concert or performance where I need to find somewhere to hide so that I don't have to listen to my fellow chorus members bitching about how everything everyone around them is doing is terrible

#also the soprano soloist is great? idek #choir stuff #i know classical music has a strong tradition of haters but still #i am easily psyched out #and already worried about my e5

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found this in the notes app while looking for something else and ok it is from february but it needs to go in ye olde tumblr dream journal also

#i relate very strongly to this fish #although the thing that makes me sad is being OUT of bed #i just want to sleep until it's rehearsal time

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i do think it’s a really fun feature that operas have birthdays. i know that everything can have a birthday if you know how to look at things but i love that every march 6 i see people saying happy birthday la traviata!! and every october 29 i see jokes about how of course don giovanni the opera is a scorpio (although i think don giovanni the character should have been born in may). there’s something so kind about it

#nice! #i have the same birthday as the britten midsummer #this pleases me greatly #i love britten

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Golden Fields, Amber Brunsden — 2023 Oil on canvas

#stunning #i hope this isn't already in my queue

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Details from The Coronation of the Blessed Virgin — Harry Clarke (1923)

#harry clarke batting for team celestial! #i hope this isn't already in my queue

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made some post-rehearsal pancakes, was all ready to go to bed, then remembered how the people next to me started muttering at one point about how the alto IIs needed to drop out at the high Es on "Tuba mirum" like they all had (and I very definitely had not), because it was too screechy. Next time say it to my face 😒

#i always sing it because that's actually the color maestro wants #and i can do it #so i kinda felt passive-aggressively targeted #choir stuff

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also when you are very tired from rehearsing the Verdi Requiem and then on the drive home your itunes gives you the last part of the Mefistofele prologue it kinda does a number on your emotions

#too many feelings #choir stuff #mefistofele #i think i need to eat something

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Rehearsal was so good tonight but work is gonna suck so much tomorrow 😮‍💨

#choir stuff #maestro was very pleased #also our soloists are AMAZING #i think the mezzo is my fave #she's brilliant #sadly i will probably not get to ask her if she's ever sung bluebeard's castle and if so: #is it weird to sing if your actual name is judit #i bet it would be really weird #she'd crush it though

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fandom sucks now I never see PSAs for writers about what can and cannot be used as lube

#violin rosin #i just made a noise #i am at an orchestra rehearsal right now #there are fortunately no violinists near me #but anyway this is why generic historical fiction oil is so useful

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was listening to the long version of the Walpurgisnacht scene from the Gounod Faust on the way in to work this morning and it always makes me a little sad when productions don't do it that way (although it does require dropping the ballet. But the McVicar ROH version did such a good ballet it's hard to imagine a version that is as good in a way that doesn't just rip it off)

#gounod faust #hot faust summer #i have the 1994 recording with hadley/ramey/gasdia #which while mostly the standard version i think is doing the 1859 material for that scene #it also has the marguerite & sièbel besties scene and i love that for it #the textual history of gounod faust is complicated #and i definitely do not know exactly what got revised when #marlowe 🤝 gounod <- everyone doing the good-bits faust editions #anyway the long version of walpurgisnacht has so much more choral music and it slaps

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A performance of Doctor Faustus where Mephistopheles appears as a different gender in every scene

#YES #and they're all the same actor #doctor faustus #hot faust summer #challenge mode: do this for the operas

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The BBC Proms schedule was released today and I was scrolling through looking for names of people I've performed with, because even in two seasons with a Major Metropolitan Symphony I've had the chance to perform with so many amazing people--and then there was Maestro! Conducting at the Proms! Doing a program very close to the one we sang with him a few weeks ago! And I love that for him.

#so cool 🤩 #choir stuff #it was a really good program #i am guessing the royal albert hall does not have a seven-second acoustic delay so good for them #(the cathedral is a beautiful venue but singing in there is TERRIFYING)

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A woodcut of an onion from Hortus Sanitatis.

#i would seriously consider getting a tattoo of this #if i did not have insanely sensitive skin and were not afraid of needles #because it is just that delightful #i hope this isn't already in my queue