I find myself wondering: to what point will I have understood this whole shindig when I get to the end? The answer is far from clear at this time. I realize that I didn't even link to it last time, or note that it's a co-production of Boston Lyric and Long Beach Operas. In a sense it's unnecessary; you could easily google it if you cared. But in a sense, none of this is necessary! Is it necessary that I should have blogs? Well, I DO. And you can't stop me, probably. So let's go.
Episode Three, "Someday you'll know...they're calling to you too"
Ellen Reid and Vijay Iyer
As indicated above, I am working hard to suss out what is happening here. We have this older guy, Derek, at the inn. It soon transpires that he's there not for a romantic partner, but for his son: to keep him alive. Ion is unclear about what's happening, what's going on, but the Cass tells him that he must "let the old man die." Either him, or Rufus. Choose! Is "letting someone die" the same as killing them? Unsure. But there's a ritual of some sort on the beach around a firepit with dancing (Cass dressed as a witch, which somehow seems a bit on-the-nose), and he dies, seemingly. It is not clear to me what Ion actually had to do with this, or why he had to do something like this if he did. You can say, oh, a sacrifice to keep things going, but I thought the point was that everyone was PAYING to be here. Why do we need this other thing? But! What IS clear to me is that I really, really like the music. Really getting into it, especially this really great torch song (that's the part by Vijay Iyer) sung by the trans woman known only as "the lounge singer" (Justin Vivian Bond). Sounds like a Marc Almond song, sort of. Would be worth the price of admission alone, but it's not alone. Whether or not I understand this, I definitely like it.
Episode Four, "A Single Man"
Emma O'Halloran
It opens with Sunny angry at Cass over Derek's death: he was family, she says. Cass disagrees. Federico looks on ambiguously. He and Ion meet; "I was impressed that you tried to save his life," he remarks, and I am SUPER not certain how. Also according to Federico. Derek wasn't really even close to his son: they had been estranged, and this whole thing was based on fabricated memories. Which certainly raises questions about everyone else. He suggests that Ion could begin to forget Rufus, and then their relationship would become similar--it wouldn't be based on their actual lives. But it may actually end sooner than that, as the episode ends with Ion and Federico hooking up, as sinisterly watched by Cass on the CC TV. What of poor Rufus? Well, I guess we'll find out, but the main thing is probably that he's dead. It's hard not to think of this in terms of Freud's idea of melancholia: when you lose a loved one, you need to be able to process your grief so that you can eventually move forward. But some people get stuck in a melancholic state, where they just relive the grief over and over in an unproductive way. That certainly seems to be what the Desert Inn is facilitating. How will it all shake out? No idea, but I'm super-keen to find out.
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