Author | Lightnews

Kristin Franseen @kmfranseen.bsky.social · 18d

What concerns me is how much this is clearly affecting how hiring and research funding are happening now. How many of us will continue to be pushed out of academia before this bubble bursts? How many tenure lines and how much research funding will be used for university admin to promote AI hype?

Kevin Gannon (now a Moo Deng fan account) @thetattooedprof.bsky.social · 19d

Collecting the best examples (pejorative) of this genre to pull back out in a few years when the bubble has burst

Vlad K. @porcupunk.bsky.social · 19d

Wow. Just wow.

"Students pay premium prices for information that AI now delivers instantly and for free. A business student can ask ChatGPT to explain supply chain optimization or generate market analysis in seconds. The traditional lecture-and-test model faces its Blockbuster moment."

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Kristin Franseen @kmfranseen.bsky.social · 18d

It seems to me like the new series has the potential to do that, being a work of historical fiction while commenting on the accumulated stories most of us know from other media. But then again, I do have something of a vested interest in the odd stories we can't stop telling about Salieri. 8/8

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Kristin Franseen @kmfranseen.bsky.social · 18d

While looking at the productions, adaptations, and even parodies that came out after the film, I've noticed that Shaffer and others knew that audiences were coming to the story with some ideas about Salieri and Mozart. After seeing the film, they still wanted this fiction, but in different ways. 7/8

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Kristin Franseen @kmfranseen.bsky.social · 18d

Also, much as I love the film, there are things that a series has the potential to expand upon or address differently. I'm very curious how it will depict the decades after Mozart's death and Constanze's role in the emergence of Mozart mythmaking (something shown only briefly in the play). 6/8

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Kristin Franseen @kmfranseen.bsky.social · 18d

Several post-2016 productions go further in their uses of costuming, music, and technology to comment on the play's use of rumor and depictions of celebrity culture. I'd love to see that explored in the television medium! 5/8

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Kristin Franseen @kmfranseen.bsky.social · 18d

One of Shaffer's last professional communications was approving the casting of Lucian Msamati as Salieri for the National Theatre revival. If you haven't seen this revival, check it out! The use of music is impressive--and not at all what Shaffer originally envisioned for the premiere run. 4/8

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Kristin Franseen @kmfranseen.bsky.social · 18d

One thing that became apparent going through Shaffer's papers is that he never stopped rewriting Amadeus. And it wasn't just the script itself going through drafts. He reworked it for new theaters, radio adaptations, publications, translations, and seemingly just because he felt like it. 3/8

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Kristin Franseen @kmfranseen.bsky.social · 18d

I get being tired of remakes! But you know who rewrote Amadeus constantly to suit new contexts, media formats, and actors? Sir Peter Levin Shaffer. In letters after receiving the Oscar, Shaffer admits to ambivalence about the film, mostly because it required him to actually finish something. 2/8

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Kristin Franseen @kmfranseen.bsky.social · 18d

Since the trailer for the limited series adaptation for Amadeus launched, I've seen a lot of opinions, some of which suggest this is an affront to the 1984 film adaptation. While I have zero time for those being racist about Will Sharpe, I do have some thoughts about remaking Amadeus now. 1/8

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Kristin Franseen @kmfranseen.bsky.social · 20d

Definitely looking forward to this!

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Reposted by Kristin Franseen

Joe Barton @joebarton.bsky.social · 20d

I wrote this. As part of our promotion we are going to destroy every single copy of the 1984 original movie in existence and there’s absolutely nothing you can do about it

Film Updates @thefilmupdates.bsky.social · 20d

The teaser trailer for ‘AMADEUS’ starring Will Sharpe and Paul Bettany has been released.

Premieres in December on Sky.

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Kristin Franseen @kmfranseen.bsky.social · 27d

Do you know Frederick Reece at the University of Washington (as a former Wisconsinite, I just can't call it "UW")? I've seen him present some work on music and spiritualism, although I don't think he's included it in his publications on compositional forgery.

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Kristin Franseen @kmfranseen.bsky.social · Aug 30

Weird mystery novels about music academia are a thing, but the depiction of research often focuses on the sorts of shocking biographical questions most of us don't actually do. My favorite fictional depiction of musicology--Donna Leon's The Jewels of Paradise--isn't a murder mystery.

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Kristin Franseen @kmfranseen.bsky.social · Aug 28

Relatable (as someone who winds up quoting a fair amount of both 1990s queer theory and 1890s music criticism).

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Kristin Franseen @kmfranseen.bsky.social · Aug 26

The thing that surprised me about them in Montréal was how much they seemed to be obviously catering to tourists and/or people who didn't know just how many places there are where you can go hear classical music for free or cheap.

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Kristin Franseen @kmfranseen.bsky.social · Aug 20

Only in this version, Adams is very definitely not forgotten (as he fears in that line)! Who else is going to fight those snakes?

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Kristin Franseen @kmfranseen.bsky.social · Aug 20

Reminds me of that bit from 1776: "Franklin smote the ground, and out sprang George Washington, fully grown and on his horse. Franklin then electrified him with his miraculous lightning rod, and the three of them—Franklin, Washington, and the horse—conducted the entire Revolution all by themselves."

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Kristin Franseen @kmfranseen.bsky.social · Aug 20

A good piece that's increasingly getting a fair number of student performances. And also useful imo to include more chamber music beyond string quartets.

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Kristin Franseen @kmfranseen.bsky.social · Aug 20

I always like teaching his clarinet quintet in music history.

Mark Anthony Neal (@NewBlackMan on X) @markanthonyneal.bsky.social · Aug 20

150 years of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, overlooked icon of Black classical music
www.npr.org/2025/08/14/n...

150 years of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, overlooked icon of Black classical music

The British composer was a generational success story before his death at 37 — yet keeping that legacy in view has always been a challenge, even during his lifetime.

www.npr.org

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Kristin Franseen @kmfranseen.bsky.social · Aug 19

It is not at all the most important thing to happen today, but it is (going by the current date where I am) the 275th anniversary of Salieri's birth. Whatever one thinks of musical commemorations, it seems like a good excuse to put on a meta-opera and eat some marzipan.

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Kristin Franseen @kmfranseen.bsky.social · Aug 17

It's super effective!

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Kristin Franseen @kmfranseen.bsky.social · Aug 17

It is always mildly amusing to be reminded that there is someone out there who is weirder about metronomes than Maelzel himself was.

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Reposted by Kristin Franseen

dr worldwide™️ @imanimosley.bsky.social · Aug 13

musicological conspiracy theories eschewed by non-musicologists are so fascinating to me (& random!)

and as a musicologist, the answer to the question is: no. (sorry! 🤣)

Defector @defector.com · Aug 13

Are we playing it all wrong? defector.com/are-we-playi...

Are We Playing It All Wrong? | Defector

At some point in the thick of the pandemic, I became briefly obsessed with a silly-seeming online controversy over what is known as the double-beat theory. The argument concerns classical music, which...

defector.com

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Kristin Franseen @kmfranseen.bsky.social · Aug 17

I think a lot of this kind of thing comes from people not understanding what musicologists (and other humanities people) actually do and/or realizing they can get a lot of attention with grand claims that seem vaguely scientific or historically plausible without actual evidence.

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Kristin Franseen @kmfranseen.bsky.social · Aug 15

@owlwithachainsaw.bsky.social has at several times expressed the opinion that there should be a lavish adaptation of "The Old Chapel-Master," George Walter Thornbury's Victorian Christmas ghost story take on the Mozart and Salieri legends, and I completely agree.

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