{"id":1791,"date":"2025-05-28T14:29:50","date_gmt":"2025-05-28T21:29:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/morganrichter.net\/blog\/?p=1791"},"modified":"2025-05-31T16:04:35","modified_gmt":"2025-05-31T23:04:35","slug":"the-understudy-the-playlist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/morganrichter.net\/blog\/the-understudy-the-playlist\/","title":{"rendered":"THE UNDERSTUDY: The Playlist"},"content":{"rendered":"
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My novel THE UNDERSTUDY will be in bookstores on August 5th, 2025<\/a>. A thriller set in the New York City opera world, THE UNDERSTUDY centers on the increasingly volatile rivalry between a pair of dueling divas locked in a mortal battle for the lead role in a new opera based on the 1967 sci-fi cult film Barbarella<\/em>: Kit, who is a driven perfectionist, and her charismatic understudy Yolanda, who is a homicidal time bomb.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What I\u2019ve prepared here isn\u2019t so much a playlist of songs to listen to while reading THE UNDERSTUDY–though if that\u2019s your thing, by all means go for it!–as it is a glimpse into my thought processes as they relate to the book. In other words, if you’re interested in reading THE UNDERSTUDY, this list might give you a sense of what you might be getting yourself into. Some of these songs are there because they bridge the gap between classical opera and contemporary music (sometimes this is done with impeccable style, as when En Vogue whips out a sleek-yet-cheeky riff on Carmen<\/em>, and sometimes this is done in the most chaotically unhinged manner possible, as when Malcolm McLaren hurls his entire bag of tricks at Madame Butterfly<\/em>), while other songs are simply meant to invoke the atmosphere of my book, which, in addition to being about the opera world, concerns itself with crime, sex, buried secrets, betrayal, vengeance, and murder. All the plot twists near and dear to classic opera, in other words.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also there\u2019s some Duran Duran on the list, because… well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s the master Spotify playlist; the hyperlinked titles within the post go to individual YouTube videos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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