The Forge Archives

One of my non-gaming interests is opera, and I went last weekend to the Seattle Opera's performance of "Tales of Hoffman" and had a very weird experience.  While watching and listening, I found myself watching an operatic My Life with Master game!

For those of you who haven't seen it, "Tales" is inspired by the stories of ETA Hoffman.  It is made up of a brief framing story, and three episodes from Hoffman's unlucky love life:

• He falls in love with Olympia, the singing and dancing doll, only to see her destroyed by one of her creator's co-workers over a dispute about payment.
• He falls in love with a consumptive young singer, who is forced to literally sing herself to death by a diabolical doctor.
• He falls in love with a courtesan, who steals his shadow under orders from her sinister marionette-wielding master and then manipulates Hoffman into killing his rival, before fleeing with the master and his creepy butler.
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It's all a lot more elegant and beautiful than this bare-bones recounting suggests, but all three of the antagonists (usually sung by the same Bass) were unmistakably Masters in the MLWM sense of the word.  The first of the stories is particularly Master-like, if one considers Hoffman, the doll, the enraged coworker (who is a master of optics), and a doll-like servant of the Master to be Minions.  

For the classically inclined, watching this (four shows left, if you're in Seattle), or getting it on DVD would be a fine way to get in the mood for a game of MLWM.

Here's a page from the Seattle Opera website with pictures of the Minions:
http://www.seattleopera.com/operas/2004-2005/hoffmann/photos.aspx

Wow...that really is MLwM. And now I can't rest until I've incorporated "being forced to sing to death" in my game...