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Talentdämmerung: Difference between revisions
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There is some controversy about its provenance: some point to the self-interested work of {{Buchstein}}’s life-long antagonist {{jerrold}}, anxious to boost his consultancy fees. | There is some controversy about its provenance: some point to the self-interested work of {{Buchstein}}’s life-long antagonist {{jerrold}}, anxious to boost his consultancy fees. | ||
===Synopsis=== | ===Synopsis=== | ||
The Queen’s inner circle comprises: [[Complicatio]], who is responsible for the | ==== Act I ==== | ||
It is Venice in the 1890s. The mercantile markets are in disarray: there are brigands on the Silk Road, pirates around the Barbary Coast, and the arrival of venal bankers from the New World is threatening the profitability of the Venetian families. | |||
[[Provocatoria Presuntuosa|Provocatoria]], a minor Venetian noble and head of the Presuntuosa family, summons a council of her closest advisors to plan the firm’s survival. Our supply of gold ducats, once the envy of the world, is dwindling. I shall hand it over to those of you who can demonstrate their strategy for adapting to the new environment. | |||
The Queen’s inner circle comprises: [[Complicatio]], who is responsible for [[Operations|workings of the firm]]; [[Ingraziatore]], who looks after the firm’s best [[senior relationship manager|clients]], [[Index.php?title=Regolamento|Regolamento]], who is in charge of compliance, and the hapless [[Triago]], who is [[general counsel]]. Also present is [[Jeremiah Nuncle|Nuncle]], the Queen’s diminutive special advisor. | |||
Ingraziatore complains that there are insufficient people to build client relationships. Bands of roving mercenaries are picking off the firm’s most lucrative trade routes and diverting traditional riches to the Americans. There is but one thing for it: we must pay these roving mercenaries to bring the trade back to our firm! | |||
Complicatio immediately announces a programme to relocate the firm’s operations to [[Proverbial school-leaver from Bucharest|Bucharest]], to outsource those than cannot be transplanted to [[Don Inago Montega]], a local [[celery peddler]] who supplies cheap labour under water-tight [[service level agreement]]<nowiki/>s. This, he assures the Queen, will instantly save thousands of ducats. The Queen claps excitedly. [[Jeremiah Nuncle|Nuncle]] makes cynical asides throughout, but the Queen pays them no attention. | |||
Regolamenti has acquired a “homunculus” machine to surveil and ensure compliance with rules and procedures at a fraction of the cost, and with far greater speed and accuracy than humans can do. <ref>There are many aspects of the plot that, in passing, borrow from {{Buchstein}}’s other works, notably ''[[La Vittoria della Forma sulla Sostanza]]'', which featured a similar “Homunculus”.</ref> | |||
==== Act II ==== | |||
No sooner has Ingraziatore wasted all the firm’s resources on useless investment bankers, he returns to the Queen. Now our own staff are furious. These new fancy-pants are lording their great riches over everyone, but they have not brought in any new business. In fact they are making it hard for us to keep the business we already have. and now our own loyal staff are leaving. We must | |||
===Highlights=== | ===Highlights=== | ||
Most famous rousing aria, accompanied by the string section playing “piccolini” — literally, “tiny violins”; shortened violin-type instruments specially-designed by {{buchstein}} for this opera<ref>An idea later taken up by, among others, Wagner, who invented his own “[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wagner_tuba Wagner Tuba]” for the Ring.</ref> — comes when Prepostero, senior managing partner of [[magic circle law firm|Magic Circle]] firm ''Slaughter Cowards Later'' stands upon a white cliff overlooking jagged rocks of the tempestuous ocean between Albion and the New World, shaking his fists and wailing into the chasm: | Most famous rousing aria, accompanied by the string section playing “piccolini” — literally, “tiny violins”; shortened violin-type instruments specially-designed by {{buchstein}} for this opera<ref>An idea later taken up by, among others, Wagner, who invented his own “[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wagner_tuba Wagner Tuba]” for the Ring.</ref> — comes when Prepostero, senior managing partner of [[magic circle law firm|Magic Circle]] firm ''Slaughter Cowards Later'' stands upon a white cliff overlooking jagged rocks of the tempestuous ocean between Albion and the New World, shaking his fists and wailing into the chasm: | ||