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Internet Opera or, The Waves of Cyberspace Home
Disclaimers Words and Music Website Copyright © 2003-2005
u.13Jul03 |
Some dialogue and action is based on public Usenet sources. Prior versions of some lyrics published as verse on various internet newsgroups and mp3.com, all Copyright © 2000-2004 Flying Tadpole (TJ Fatchen). Apparent resemblances to posting personas on Usenet newsgroups may be intentional, for satirical purposes. The action satirises a long-running battle of wills for control of a particular newsgroup. Such a struggle did actually take place, approximately as given in Act 1, but was never resolved, and the opera is an even more unreliable and misleading guide to it than the Internet itself. In the opera, some principals' names match Internet names. In such cases, names have been used with their originators' written permission, although characters tend to be composite satires of Usenet posters and do not necessarily reflect their reality. Who knows what or who or how is real? What is truth? Also in the opera, the newsgroup has the full name of On-sailing'Net-today. No such group exists or existed, to the best of my knowledge. Further, no Internet newsgroup I know has yet formed a black hole due to the actions of its participants. Such behaviour remains purely a function of dot.com companies, and the finances of some larger Australian corporations. A respectful tip of the hat is given to the roles of "Gilligan's Island" and "The Wizard of Oz" in modern global folklore, and to Arthur Sullivan and Papa Haydn whose music gets quoted in a couple of places. And an apology is offered to Sir Henry Newbolt's ghost for what's been done to his magnificent poem "The Fighting Temeraire". The excuse is that it was irresistible at the time; and the final justification, that the music is in fact a great setting for that poem, as well as for Capt Creel's theme. |
