After countless engagements not only at the Deutsche Oper Berlin but also many other opera houses worldwide, the amazing and noble Noel Bouley rises up to the challenge to sing the famous Ethiopian warrior king, Amonasro. Joining him was the fine Spanish dramatic tenor with an incisive voice, Señor Jorge de Leon, who was the handsome, dashing, and strong Radames, and even Robert Watson in the small role of the Messenger, who is celebrating his very special day and this review is also dedicated to him. Enjoy the review and let me know your opinions as well.
Antoni Garcia
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Two gentlemen making their Deutsche Oper Berlin debuts, two artists making their role debuts, one thrilling opera guaranteed to sweep you off your feet, what more can anyone ask for? Enjoy the review and let me know your opinions as well.
Pretty Yende shows a lot of elegance and magnificent musical prowess as the tragic heroine, Lucia, and René Barbera makes his successful Deutsche Oper Berlin debut as her dashing yet doomed lover, Edgardo. Enjoy the review and let me know your opinions as well.
Hey, everybody! Antoni, here, with another fanfic recommendation. For those of you who watched my of Jigoku Shoujo or Hell Girl will know that I also recommended this as a really good read. That’s right it’s Jigoku Shoujo Season 1: Aftermath written by Celestialfae back on January 25, 2012, and it was completed on June 16 of this year. It’s rated T, it’s in English, and it has 26 chapters. Even though there are several moments where Ai Enma is the focal point of the story, this belongs to the victims of Season 1 and of course Hajime and Tsugumi Shibata, so each of their stories are stand-alone, yet nonetheless, are linked to Ai Enma. It should be no surprise that I am a major fan of Hell Girl and if ever I find the time to do the next top 15 favorite anime of all time or even bump it up to the next 25, Hell Girl will be placed on that list alongside Now and Then Here and There and Fantastic Children, which I regretted placing as honorable mentions. My history with this work by Celestialfae dates back four years ago when I first read a few chapters and I wanted so much more. I’m really happy this fanfic was completed because it was a fascinating read and here’s why. The chapters follow the show’s 26 episodes order to a T. There are some chapters in which the perspective is in the third-person form, while others like Chapters 5, 7, 11, 13, and 20 are in the first-person form to get a more in-depth look as to how the characters fared after their covenant with Ai Enma, and even a poem in Chapter 17 from the point of view of Nina’s father. For the most part, the characters ranging from Mayumi Hashimoto from Episode 1 all the way up to Goro Ishizu from Episode 22 do their very best to live their lives even though eternal damnation awaits them. It is really interesting to witness what they are doing with their lives after everything they have endured before, during, and after encountering Ai Enma. Some are very successful and have different personalities from their show’s counterparts to show that just because they have made it big does not mean that they can forget the pain caused to them by their tormentors, who are now six feet under. Others are deeply traumatized by what happened or are trying to pick the pieces back up in order to shape their lives in spite of their eternal damnation. Others turn to the cold, ambiguous side, as they will have to carry the burden they must live with. And of course Chapters 24-26 focus on Sentarou, Ai Enma, and Hajime and Tsugumi Shibata respectively. And in Chapter 23, a character is brought back to the mortal world and it’s worth the read. If you’ve watched the show and the episode, you know who it is. I’ll give you a guess. She’s a sweet and innocent nurse who was unfairly sent to Hell by a depraved drug-addict. So, I am not going to mince words here, the stories found in each chapter were well-thought out and were overall well-done. There were chapters I really loved from this fanfic mostly because since I watched the episodes there were ones that stuck out really well and in turn, the chapters were of emotional interest. Forgiving the Faultless, which is Chapter 6, has Haruka Yasuda, whose shining moment in this fic was when she spoke up against her father and after a few moments of hesitation and trying to bury resentment formed a new friendship with Yuria Todaka. Raise your Voice, which is Chapter 7, gives more development to Kaoruko Kurushima and her exploits when encountering Midori Kurenai, Ayaka, the two thugs who gave her that voice-damaging tonic, and of course Ai Enma because in the show, she did not really have that much to say nor do as Cracked Mask was sort of meant to be a sort of an episode full of surprises and of course focuses on Ayaka’s unraveling of her true, petty, and nasty personality. Worth It, which is Chapter 13, has Fukumoto who is contemplating his experience with Ai Enma and what lead him to pull the scarlet thread, yet live with agony until his old age. No One Mourns the Wicked, which is Chapter 16, focuses on Yumi now a young adult, more different than her poor, victimized younger self, and now an ambitious 23-year-old. Kikuri/The Lord of Hell even appears in this chapter and as they venture to Hell, the reader is then treated to such nightmarish, kind of graphic images that it’s hard to purge them away. Papa’s Angel, which is Chapter 17, does have Nina, but the focus is on her father, as he recites a poem that though short is rather heart-wrenching. You will have to read Chapter 23 in order to know who I’m talking about and I’m sure you will feel a lot of satisfaction after doing so. If I were to list more highlights from this fanfic, I would be here all day. Sufficed to say that the characters from each of the chapters have something unique to offer and their journeys after meeting Ai Enma are quite fascinating. Despite my immense love of this story, there were a few issues I had, but they did not detract my enjoyment of this fanfic. There were some punctuation errors, misspelled words, and a few grammatical errors. A good number of these were an oversight as I am sure that Celestialfae had a lot of things with to deal with in real life. And a minor detail that I found out was Haruka’s father is not named Toshi, but rather Hideo, but that’s just a minor gripe. I don’t know if Celestialfae will come back to fix up the errors, but if she does, it would be great. Still, the errors…
Hey, everybody! Antoni, here, with another fanfic recommendation. And this time it’s Salvation, a Soul Calibur fanfic written by DarkStar56 on February 11, 2012. It’s rated T, it’s in English, it has 16 chapters, but it is unfortunately unfinished, more on that later, and the main pairing is Siegfried and Cassandra. Other characters involved in this fanfic are Sophitia, Mitsurugi, Maxi, Rock, Hwang, Ivy, Hilde, Aeon Calcos, Cervantes, Astaroth, Tira, and Nightmare. On top of that, the story takes place during the events in Soul Calibur 4. Let’s get this started, shall we? I first caught this fanfic about four years ago and I found it really intriguing. Those same sentiments held up really well and this is coming from someone who loved playing Soul Edge, Soul Calibur, Soul Calibur II, and Soul Calibur 3 ever since I was a kid and has been proud to call himself a fan of the series. What I truly about this fanfic is that is a character-driven story, meaning the characters move the plot along and do so in a way that I am completely invested in their journey. It is a great mixture of action, drama, comedy, romance, and of course, fantasy and the supernatural, the latter two plus a great deal of action being really great components of the Soul series. There was not a moment in the story which was neither boring nor dragged on for too long. It was well-paced with great interest, great build up in certain moments, and a very enjoyable experience. There were times I imagined the characters from the game living these moments and it is pure awesomeness. However, the story has been left incomplete for five years, which is a major shame because I wanted so much more. I wanted to see how it was going to build up further, more epic fight scenes, more character development, and hopefully a solid conclusion. I am very sure that DarkStar56 has a lot to deal with in his real life and I do understand and empathize with what he might be going through completely, but if he were to come back to this story, I would love to have a lot more exciting moments and a solid conclusion to wrap it up. So, DarkStar56, I do hope you finish the story because I enjoy it so far and I would love to see how it’s going to add up. What’s a great story without great characters? Fortunately, the main five of Siegfried, Cassandra, Sophitia, Maxi, and Mitsurugi were excellently characterized. They have amazing chemistry with each other and it makes me wish that they would’ve had their own show and have a lot of adventures together. I’m sure that any fan of the games will know that Mitsurugi is usually the stern and serious type. However, in this fanfic, he’s a lot friendlier and more open as a person, which might be a bit out of character, but it’s a welcome treat to make Mitsurugi more diverse. I also like the moment when Siegfried and Mitsurugi make an oath to be blood brothers, which I found rather sweet. Yet when it comes to the character relationships that steal the show, they have to be Siegfried and Cassandra, Siegfried and Sophitia, Sophitia and Cassandra, and Mitsurugi and Maxi. Siegfried and Cassandra are absolutely great as a couple, even though their relationship is not canon in the games. Despite that, I can sense their budding relationship with each other, as Siegfried is always willing to protect Cassandra, and as a Soul Calibur fan, I just love these two together as their personalities blend really well. With Siegfried and Sophitia, it should be no surprise that I used to believe that there was the potential for them to become a couple, but it was never meant to be when Sophitia married Rothion and had two kids of her own. Heck, I used to root for them to become a couple. There is one moment between them in which they confessed of how they used to like each other, and I thought it was done in a sincere and endearing fashion. One can tell there was something going on between Sophitia and Siegfried, but fate stepped in and Sophitia married Rothion and Siegfried will very well end up with Cassandra. It should also be noted that Siegfried was voiced by Nobuyuki Hiyama and Sophitia was voiced by Michiko Neya until Soul Calibur 3 before she was replaced by Chie Nakamura in Soul Calibur Legends in the Japanese dub. I can never go wrong with Hiyama-san and Neya-san when it comes to the characters they voice and a good amount of them have pretty good chemistry, not just as Siegfried and Sophitia, but also as Viral and Adiane from Gurren Lagann. Sophitia and Cassandra have great sisterly moments and each of them can be touching, humorous, and genuine. One can tell that they do care for each other and are practically like best friends. Mitsurugi and Maxi steal the show for me. I mean, come on! Mitsurugi and Maxi being best buds is an excellent idea. On top of that, I do love their backstory with Taki and Setsuka, which you have to read for yourself, it’s really intriguing. Seriously, there should be a show about them kicking butt, testing each others’ strength, and all the while being the best of pals and having a nice drink of sake to chill out. That would be an amazing concept! Their shining moment was in the combat scene before Sophitia interrupted their brawl and gave them a beating. Also worth mentioning is that Mitsurugi was voiced by Toshiyuki Morikawa and Maxi was voiced by Nobutoshi Canna until Soul Calibur 3 before he was replaced by Kenjiro Tsuda in Soul Calibur 4 and Shigeo Kiyama in Soul Calibur 5, but personally Canna-san is always going to be Maxi. Morikawa-san and Canna-san have done a major list of works together mostly as friends and/or rivals…
Hey, everybody! As you can tell I’m really happy to be on LinkedIn, where I can connect with many fabulous professionals in the fields of the arts, entertainment, music, and of course reviewing. I invite you all to connect with me and join me on my journey as an ever-growing reviewer who loves to take every opportunity with open arms. Stay awesome and blessed be. 🙂 https://www.linkedin.com/in/antoni-matteo-garcia-0580a5142/
Hey, everybody! Antoni, here, and I do apologize that I have not been active with my video blog-style reviews as of late, because of all the academic priorities and many other things I have especially a new role in the form of an adaptation of Goethe’s The Sorrows of Young Werther. So, I thought it would be nice to recommend a fanfic and I’ll be talking about an Inuyasha fanfic, What Hurts the Most written InuYasha’sReincarnation. It’s rated, T, it’s in English, it was published on FanFiction.net on September 26, 2008, and the pairing is Inuyasha and Ayame, with a hint of Kouga and Kagome. Before I start, I would like to state that I am not a fan of Inuyasha and Kagome or Inuyasha and Kikyo as a couple even when I was very young, but that is just my personal taste. One thing I have to give credit when it comes to Inuyasha’s and Kagome’s relationship in both the show and the manga is how it developed and grew despite their constant bickering, her constant use of the command, “Sit, boy!” with the beads of subjugation, and Inuyasha’s on-and-off relationship with Kikyo. When it came to his time with Kikyo especially in the two-part episode, The Tragic Love Song of Destiny, it was nonetheless fascinating to see how his relationship with Kikyo started out and what lead them to go against each other. I seemed to have preferred Inuyasha and Ayame paired up together and Kagome and Sesshoumaru as a couple, as the latter two might have ended up being Rin’s and Shippou’s adoptive parents if they would have hooked up. Regardless of taste and interest, Inuyasha is still a show I kind of enjoy and I hope to make an anime review of With that said, let’s get on to what I thought about this fanfic. Overall, I found it to be well-done. The basic plot involves Kagome leaving Inuyasha for Kouga because she feels slightly closer to him and she hopes to be on friendly terms with Inuyasha. He gets annoyed with her decision and encounters Ayame, who was banished by her tribe and now lives alone. It is a rough start with the both of them, but Inuyasha comforts Ayame and decides to get together with her. This is a very interesting what if scenario if Kagome decided to hook up with Kouga, and Inuyasha decided to hook up with Ayame. The characters were in-character with Inuyasha’s stubborn and hot-headed nature still intact, Kagome’s plucky, sweet, and Tsundere-edge still present, and Kouga’s cocky yet suave persona being totally well-established. The clear highlight when it came to the characters was without a doubt, Inuyasha and Ayame. Say what you will, but I really like these two together. They have pretty good chemistry, which was not present in the main show, but when you have stuff like this where their relationship seems to bloom, then you cannot go wrong. It would have been fascinating to have Inuyasha’s brash attitude mix well with Ayame’s fierce and independent persona in the main show and they would have hooked up really well. And of course, the final scene with Kouga and Kagome, which I dare not spoil, is a combination of sweet and hilarious. Another positive I can give this fanfic is that the layout is really good, for the most part. I, as the reader, can follow through easily, and that is a good sign. However, there were some minor qualms I had about this and it was mostly technical. They came in the form of misused words, missing punctuations, and wrong grammar only in some areas. For example, “your right” should’ve been spelled with “you’re right” and “could’nt” should’ve been “couldn’t”. Yes, those errors were rather conspicuous, but they did not detract my overall enjoyment. In conclusion, this was a solid read. I know this fanfic is going to be nine years old in a few weeks, and I’m pretty sure InuYasha’sReincarnation probably has real life and other pieces of fan fiction to focus, but if he does get back to this fanfic, I would like it if he were to look through the mistakes and correct them, which would be great. Despite all that, it was an enjoyable read and I had fun when all was said and done. I would recommend it to anyone who is a fan of non-traditional or non-canon pairings, anyone who likes Inuyasha and Ayame as a couple, and anyone who is a major fan of Inuyasha. If I were to give it a grade, I would give it B+. It was a really good effort overall, but the grammatical and spelling errors were a bit of a dent to my reading enjoyment and the errors do need to be fixed up. Still, I enjoyed it and that’s all that mattered. Well, that’s all for now. I’m no fan fiction critic, but, hey, it was fun looking at a fanfic I know I was going to enjoy and I kind of wanted to recommend. So, until then, see you all later and have a great week ahead of you. https://www.fanfiction.net/s/4558878/1/What-Hurts-the-Most
Hello, everybody! You can now find me on MyAnimeList.net. As a major anime fan, I’m very thankful to be on this site, where I can connect with fellow anime fans and to some extent express what anime we love and what we don’t like. So far, I am enjoying my time here and I’m sure there will be a lot to look out for. https://myanimelist.net/profile/antonianimemusic
Hey, guys! Due to me doing the best I can to not only make long-lasting connections with my fellow online reviewers and in general online entertainers on social media and of course Skype, I decided to make a Discord account. You can find me as AntoniGarciaTheMusicMan, which is my server name, and I do hope to be connected with all of you from here too. Until then, have a great day. 🙂 P.S. My Skype name is antonianimationfan, if ever you want to have a conversation with me. https://discord.gg/hDvuHAd And please do not forget to support me on Patreon to see what rewards I have to offer you, in which one of them is a Skype or Discord chat. Thank you so much. https://www.patreon.com/antonireviewsoperaandmanyotherstuff
All right, Mesdames et Messieurs, let’s all raise a glass to not only Ekaterina Bakanova as the tragic heroine, Violetta Valery, who lead a fabulous cast of international singers, but also to the great and beautiful city of Dresden, for simply being one of the greatest holiday destinations to go to.