Boy, do I feel smug...

[badgerpup]

So it's about 3:30 in the ay-em...got the Classic Arts channel on TV where I'm working cos
A). it's way better than all the ZOMFG BUY THIS AMAZING STUFF IT'S INCREDIBLE IT'LL SHRINK YOUR ASS EXTEND YOUR PENIS INCREASE YOUR BOOBS REGROW YOUR HAIR CLEAN YOUR FLOOR TRAIN YOUR DOG SLICE*N*DICE VEGETABLES!!11eleventy "Paid Programming" that's just about all that's on...
and B). I really do enjoy it.
F'rinstance, caught a 1970's thing with "Baryshnikov At The Wolftrap"...Le Spectre de la Rose. Those incredible leaps...I'll swear that man had an 'arrangement' with gravity...
"You pay no attention to me, and I'll pay no attention to you. 'K fine?"




ANYWAY...Why I Feel Smug...
Was doing something in the other room, heard singing, thought "Oh! Opera...wonder which one."
I've seen a few, but am IN NO WAY any kind of expert on this sort of thing.

Setting: There's a woman in sort of Elizabethan-type costuming- stylized, way simplified...
and it's all RED. She's holding- no, make that clutching a cross, and singing about forgiveness and heaven...and she's surrounded by a bunch of people in black and white, who are also singing about forgiveness and heaven.

First thought: "Bet this is from Donizetti's Maria Stuarda (and I've never seen this opera, nor heard any of the music excerpted from it before this).

Tipoff (historical note): At her execution, Mary Stuart (aka Mary, Queen of Scots) wore her customary black satin outer dress...which she then removed to reveal a scarlet camisole and crimson petticoat before submitting to the headsman (who did a piss-poor job, but that's neither here nor there).

Camera pans upstage, and sure enough, there's a guy with an axe and a headsman's block silhouetted in an elevated position upstage center.
Lady In Red finishes her aria, scene freezes and the credit comes on. Yup...it was indeed 'The Final Prayer' from Maria Stuarda.

Was just rather pleased with meself that I'd placed it just from the setting and staging...
and that I knew enough of this particular bit of history to be able to do so.

So I feel smug today. Wanna join me?
What do YOU feel smug about?

[Iggo]

1. Yer one o' them librul elites, aintcha.

(Good call, by the way.)

[badgerpup]

2. Damn straight!

I'll take my little "Hey, I got that right!" victories where I can get 'em...

[ogneopasno]

3. I feel smug when I get my recycling done. They don't have pickup here, you have to take it in,

and when I drive away from the recycling center I am insufferable.

[dixiegrrrrl]

4. Getting the right answer when Mr. D. gets stuck on his crossword

is a great smug, because he is a crossword champion of all time, and very very intelligent.
Usually his stuck points are around obscure and usually British authors,British terms, sometimes places, and I have an enormous collection of esoteric crap stuffed in my brain from 50 years of reading anything that crosses in front of my eyes.
and a photographic memory.

Right now you get an extra free smug because you can watch Classic Arts channel and I don't have it on our lineup.
used to have it elsewhere and loved it.