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Majora's Mask Opera


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#1 Berlioz

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Posted 21 December 2011 - 12:51 AM

Hi. I'm M. Bulteau (Berlioz, around here). I'm a composer/writer, and I have my work online:

www.mbulteau.com

Far from being here to spam you, take that as a portfolio for your reference towards what I would like an opinion on from the community.

I have long delved into the depths of Majora's Mask dramatic possibilities, and being a composer/writer I am currently considering (after having enough material to start) creating a stage work of Majora's Mask, something big, serious (as in, professional), powerful and with one or two modifications that I assure change nothing of the story's core concepts at all. In fact they bring out the drama in full and allow for a stable adaptation to stage, instead of the many flaws that arise from taking a game structure into a dramatic set without the necessary reconstruction.

Musically speaking it would also avoid reducing itself to medley form. I would try my best to develop on every theme, taking them as bases to be grown on and to make a complete and organic work, instead of a patched-up musical track.

I would need to gather up all the available resources to write a score that would please me and all the other Zelda fans.

The hardest part would obviously be, afterwards, attempting to contact the actual composer, showing the product, and asking for his approval, perhaps his support, in having the work built and brought to life, for we all know an artist trying to climb always needs help from above, especially if they are using the work of those above as a vital basis. It is always a win-win situation, since artistic reinterpretations of any established medium always validate its existence further (a.k.a. mutual advertisement et al.).

I have my original work, both writings and compositions, as evidence of what I can do, and I am usually not one to make these kinds of adapted projects, but Zelda is something that has always fascinated me, and Majora's Mask is the one that always dug deepest.

I would like to know if the community would be interested in seeing such a project built.

Cheers,

M. Bulteau

#2 TheAvengerLever

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Posted 21 December 2011 - 01:22 AM

Named after Hector Berlioz, I imagine? Hell of a composer. His Symphonie Fantastique inspired me to take up music composition myself.

#3 Showsni

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Posted 22 December 2011 - 04:52 PM

Certainly sounds interesting, and I wish you success in finding the support you need!

Shifting the story to Kafei and Anju's viewpoint instead of using Link seems a totally sensible decision to me, and I don't think you need to be worried about flames from the community - most fans are pretty well behaved unless you start challenging their timeline theories ;). If you need to hear minutiae about the game, I'm sure a lot of people here have memorised chunks of the text dump. (Notable scenes in the Kafei and Anju sidequest that sometimes get skipped include Anju's mother trying to convince her Kafei's better off with Cremia, and some of the reactions to wearing Kafei's mask around - I think it's Mutoh who says "Lookee here! Don't be in'erfer'in with my dear Anju!!! You 'fraid o' my fists? Don' go findin' that Kafei!" for instance.) I assume you have the soundtrack CDs, or access to them?

I'm not sure how you'd go about contacting Koji Kondo and Toru Minegishi, but good luck!


#4 Kwicky Koala

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Posted 22 December 2011 - 08:15 PM

I'd love to see this. Majora's Mask is the one videogame I'd like to force intellectuals to play to make them see that games can be art, and I think it would be well suited to a medium like opera. The music is so rich for one. And the Carnival of Time - wow, that would look amazing on stage. A project like this has got to happen eventually - I wish you the best of luck.

#5 Berlioz

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Posted 22 December 2011 - 09:49 PM

Thank you for the comments so far.

Showsni, I mentioned flames because although the modifications involved in the setting of the work to stage do not change the story's core concepts at all, as I said, they do alter something quite important for those who take refuge on the heroic deed of a single individual (Link).

*prepares for the flame*

I have put enough thought on this (took me a while), and there is a difference people have to understand exists between media.

A book is a book. A movie is a movie. A game is a game. A stage drama/opera is a stage drama/opera.

The intensity of a stage drama comes from the concentration of the attention in a specific character or group of characters and the things that affect them. They can be related to something bigger, obviously, but it still has to restrict itself to a group that is small enough to build up the amount of weight it needs.

The reason a game like Zelda can't be adapted to stage at 100% in every single aspect is because a game is built as an interactive medium. A game like Zelda lives on diversity and exploration.

I chose Majora's Mask for a reason: In all of its diversity, Majora's Mask has the ability to captivate through the personal anguishes of the inhabitants of a dying world. Now, turning it into a never-ending list of equally important woes would be static and unimportant, and here is the key issue: So would turning a mute heroic character into a chore-handler for a world with living, thinking and feeling individuals.

For what I suggest, I ask for understanding from the part of the community in that I am convinced that I can heighten the theatrical power of such a world and what it is experiencing through this simple yet key modification:

Link is absent.

It is a what-if cautionary tale to the world of the audience (like Ikana was to the rest of Termina) telling of Termina's fate without the intervention of a savior, a Deux Ex Machina in Hylian form.

The core concepts remain the same, as I've said. The story revolves around promises, the whole world's mechanic and sense is exactly the same.

But this little big change allows me to make a humanistic injection of character build-up in the largest and best known side-quest of all Zelda games: Kafei and Anju.

By centering the story on Kafei and Anju, I can make it that Kafei's quest for the retrieval of the Sun Mask and the fulfillment of his promise comes out of his own accord, his own effort, and provide a fluid narrative of his tracking of Sakon and his treasure. The struggle of a last promise in a world fated to be destroyed.

Don't think Skull Kid and the mask Salesman will be undermined, on the contrary, I expect the Salesman to be a very important guide to the events in Termina and cross paths with Kafei later on, as he is the responsible for taking the mask to avoid disaster and then having Skull Kid steal it from him.

As I said above, a game is a game, and a game's diversity is made for interaction. In an opera, that diversity becomes harmful. It becomes dispersion. My aim is to make a big, serious and most of all effective work out of Majora's Mask, and you can take my word on the respect I have for canon. So much that instead of modifying or harmfully cutting Link's diverse actions to adapt the work, I would rather make it keep its sense simply by letting Termina exist nearly unchanged.

I understand and humbly accept all the flaming that might erupt from the canon-centered community, but I am sure of my abilities to make a bittersweet cautionary tale out of Majora's Mask for our own world to see. Zelda fans or not. And if it wishes, to compare to our own dangerously decreasing sense of trust and faith in people.

I ask of you the same sort of trust: What concerns me in this project will not disappoint.

Edited by Berlioz, 20 March 2012 - 05:58 PM.


#6 Egann

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Posted 24 December 2011 - 10:14 PM

I understand and humbly accept all the flaming that might erupt from the canon-centered community, but I am sure of my abilities to make a bittersweet cautionary tale out of Majora's Mask for our own world to see. Zelda fans or not. And if it wishes, to compare to our own dangerously decreasing sense of trust and faith in people.




Quite the opposite, really. If you aren't familiar with it, Hero of Time was the live action movie adaptation of Ocarina of Time, and it was one of the worst movies I have ever seen because it didn't take sufficient liberties. The natural tendency when doing an adaptation is to do too little, when in fact the looser the adaptation the better the end result. Well, not always but you get my point.


As a Zelda player, I really don't care if what comes out in the end is unrecognizable as originally being Zelda so long as it is good. The Sun's Mask quest is definitely a strong starting point, but I think that even narrowing down the focus and getting rid of Link as the viewpoint character won't make a great play; I can't help but think of the Sun's Mask quest as a complete package. A bit too complete to tamper with, perhaps. Indulge me for a second.




The Sun's Mask Quest is all about a story on one scale mirroring another, greater scale. From Kafie's point of view, he's had a horrible fate thrust upon him, is incapable of doing what he needs to in the time he has left, and the people around him don't believe he will show, think he's abandoned Anju for Cremia, or don't know what to think.


Yes, it's a beautiful setup on its own, but in Majora's Mask it also reflects Link's position. Kafie is a reminder of who Link is. Remember that the first time you see Kafie is only a few moments after entering Termina proper, when you see a little boy in a mask dropping a letter into a mailbox. Little boy? Mask?! Tell me that wasn't deliberate. From there, saving Termina, the schism between people who believe the moon will fall, won't fall, don't know what to think, just feel frightened, repeating the same time over and over again because he can't do everything he needs to quickly enough...It's the Sun's Mask quest on a larger scale. It's just the reverse; while Link's quest is about saving life, Kafie's is about creating it through his marriage.


What I'm getting at is that I think cutting Link out of the quest kind of destroys a part of its meaning, even if every name and plot twist were changed until it was unrecognizable as from Zelda, even if Link is only a silent sidekick until an ending twist.

#7 Berlioz

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Posted 26 December 2011 - 01:15 AM

Egann: I understand what you say and I have thought of exactly that for quite a while, but personally I think it would be a greater "stab" to make a twist for the worst with Link's presence. Termina is doomed because Link isn't there. The Sun Mask's Quest is a big chunk of the story, yes, but we have the Mask Salesman who, feeling the last three days on his skin actually tries to find out if he can do anything about Majora's Mask. I won't say more for now, but the HMS and Kafei do meet to give a point to that parallel you say is missing, and the key notions are trust and promises.

Promises are the recurring theme in Majora's Mask, and the lack of commitment to those promises or faith in people is Termina's downfall, propagated to its fullest by Skull Kid's trickeries.

I wish to make this hypothetical Terminan eventuality to be able to be interpreted as a cautionary tale for the real world, like Ikana was to the rest of Termina ("Haven’t you begun to understand? The kingdom being ruined and us left in this state… Isn’t it petty, little battles like this that have caused it? Believing in your friends and embracing that belief by forgiving failure… These feelings have vanished from our hearts" --- Igos du Ikana), without becoming a nagging moralistic story or an utopian world where good always triumphs through the hand of a hero, instead of the rest who inhabit the world.

By omitting Link and showing that there is such a thing as too late, irreversible situations and actual doom, while at the same time showing Kafei's resilience to keep his promise despite his knowing that everything will indeed end, I avoid both of these thoughts: "Someone else better than me will find a solution," and "If it's going to end, nothing means anything anymore and we're all worthless."

The Happy Mask Salesman, being the only one who can escape Termina, will serve as the one who clarifies the message. He will be the one who has lived through seeing the ultimate consequences befalling a people without faith in their brethren or the ability to forgive and understand each other, much like Skull Kid refused to understand why the giants had to leave, sticking to his own childish and selfish needs and becoming bait for Majora, Termina's coup de grace already prepared by the Goddesses for Termina since the initial demonstration of hostility by the ancients (if you don't know what I'm talking about, there's an awesome article on ZeldaInformer I'll be glad to link you to once it comes back up...).

Link has always been considered as that mute character who is so for the inclusion of the player in the game. You can always name Link something else. He is the link between you and that universe. You in the game are the player. You in an opera are the audience. In a dramatic stage work there is no active involvement of the audience with the story being enacted. There is, however, the passive action of observation, appreciation and thought. The active role of a player in a game would be, in a stage adaptation, turned into the observational role of the public. The latter then takes the following position, which is common to every work of art, from games to books, to movies, to operas, etc: They will process what they have seen and choose whatever approach they want to focus on to remember the work they were exposed to. The public is always part of the work of art, because without them there would be no need for art at all.

I believe that, to avoid the two overreached conclusions between inverted commas I mentioned three paragraphs above, the best place for Link, the representation of the target of the work of art, is in what he has always been: Us.

#8 Berlioz

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Posted 26 December 2011 - 01:16 AM

Sorry about the double post, but I only noticed your post now and I chose to answer you in a separate one.

And now, Merry Christmas, people!

I come to show signs of activity and inform you that I have completed the first half-hour of the opera, and that you should expect samples with actual vocals somewhere in January.

For now, I give you instrumental samples from several parts of the still unfinished Act I.

Keep in mind that they're mostly just orchestrations of original themes because the real development usually happens with the singers (which is usually where I cut between the themes here, because there is no actual voice sound but a digital instrument emulating it, and we all know how those suck).

The only thing mildly "developed" in this sample is the superimposition of a modified Kafei and Anju's marriage theme (will be used as the leitmotif for their hope) on the Astral Observatory theme, along with some quotes from the Song of Healing (leitmotif for promisekeeping and obviously the Happy Mask Salesman).





By the way, for those who enjoyed my website's music, I only recently noticed my media players in the site's Works section were all down. I've put in new ones and there's much more music to listen to in that section than the 9 sample tracks on the home page.

#9 Berlioz

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Posted 02 January 2012 - 01:58 AM

Here's an instrumental for a dance sequence. It's a battle that happens between the Deku and Odolwa. It might sound strange, yes, but all I can say so far is that in the story it is a consequence of giving Kafei a boost in his search for the Sun Mask.



#10 Berlioz

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Posted 09 January 2012 - 09:56 PM

Here's an instrumental for the short celebration after Odolwa falls to the Deku, interrupted by the appearance of the Giant that is freed as a consequence.

Everything that follows is the background instrumental for the Giant's aria, so pardon the repetitiveness, since there are words to be sung over it.

It develops into other harmonies past the middle.



#11 Berlioz

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Posted 30 January 2012 - 07:27 PM

Just informing that the vocal samples will be late. I had said they would appear somewhere in January.

Well, it seems the date we managed to set up for ONE (hopefully two) of the recordings is two Sundays from now.

So... sorry about the wrong prediction.

#12 Berlioz

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Posted 12 February 2012 - 07:34 PM

Just to let you know, the Clock Town choir vocal sample was recorded today. I will probably only have access to the WAVs on Wednesday.

The choir is split in half by Kafei's recitativo, which, along with the Mayor's Council Room fugato, is intended to be recorded in two weeks.

I'm rehearsing the latter tomorrow morning.

#13 Berlioz

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Posted 20 March 2012 - 09:26 AM

To the explanation-mobile!

As you remember, samples were promised some time ago. Well, they were recorded. It was the Clock Town Choir. There were some setbacks that made the recordings unusable, so other methods had to be used (live and learn).

It became faster to skip ahead to the next sample while the first was being redone, so here it is:



This is a demo, and as such the singers who kindly helped with its making are not professional opera singers. If you like what you hear, imagine what a real opera could do with it!

Other demos will follow. Faster, this time. Stay tuned. I will soon open a blog to organize all of this.

P.S: Mind the accents. xD

Edited by Berlioz, 20 March 2012 - 09:31 AM.


#14 Kwicky Koala

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Posted 20 March 2012 - 10:38 AM

I like, a lot! :D

#15 Hana-Nezumi

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Posted 20 March 2012 - 04:35 PM

That's so awesome!

#16 zeldadolphin

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Posted 23 March 2012 - 07:12 AM

Love it.

#17 Berlioz

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Posted 24 March 2012 - 03:22 PM

Alright people, I've set up a blog and a facebook page. Like and share to the four winds!

https://www.facebook.com/majoraopera

http://majoraopera.wordpress.com/

#18 Berlioz

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Posted 23 April 2012 - 09:45 PM

Demo #2 is up!



#19 Berlioz

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Posted 02 May 2012 - 05:46 PM

Stone Tower instrumental test

#20 Showsni

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Posted 03 May 2012 - 02:59 PM

Ah, you've got to love Stone Tower's theme...

Great work so far! Looking forward to the finished result!


#21 Berlioz

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Posted 07 May 2012 - 09:41 PM

Demo #3 is up!


Edited by Berlioz, 07 May 2012 - 09:47 PM.


#22 Berlioz

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Posted 27 May 2012 - 10:55 AM

Song of Storms Poll:

Please read the top post and vote! Posted Image

http://majoraopera.wordpress.com/

#23 Berlioz

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Posted 03 June 2012 - 08:21 PM

Demo #4 is up!



#24 Showsni

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Posted 05 June 2012 - 07:04 PM

That poor monkey...

Another nice one. Though it was pretty annoying trying to sneak in if you kept falling down, hearing this didn't get old...


#25 Berlioz

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Posted 17 June 2012 - 10:25 PM



#26 Berlioz

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Posted 23 July 2012 - 08:50 AM

I hope you've been following the blog as all updates, all major news articles and interviews about this project have been posted (and linked to from) there. I am currently out of time to update every Zelda forum manually.

#27 Berlioz

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Posted 25 July 2012 - 08:35 PM

In 30 minutes, at 7 PM PST (3 AM GMT), you can hear me being interviewed about the opera at the Windmill Hut Spinning Stream!

Just click here and choose a player: http://s7.viastreaming.net/7030/

If you cannot connect, try Radio Hyrule: http://listen.radioh...8000/listen.m3u

#28 Kwicky Koala

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Posted 26 July 2012 - 06:48 AM

That was a fun interview. Wish there'd been more questions about the actual music, but still, very informative.

#29 Berlioz

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Posted 30 July 2012 - 06:43 PM

You can always ask any questions you wish at the blog in the form of comments, or mail me some. :)

#30 Berlioz

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Posted 31 July 2012 - 10:32 PM

Demo #5 is up!






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