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| caption =
| author = Terry Pratchett
| central theme = Opera as art vs. opera as entertainment vs. opera as business
| elevator pitch = A spoof of ''[[The Phantom of the Opera]]'', with the Lancre witches as the viewpoint characters
| genre = Fantasy
| franchise = Discworld
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| publication date = 1995
}}
The 18th [[Discworld]] novel, and the fourth or fifth in the 'witches' theme. Its purpose within the theme is to bridge ''[[
With the loss of Magrat to her royal calling, Nanny Ogg and Granny Weatherwax find themselves with a coven of two. Their eye falls on the expansive Agnes Nitt, who prefers calling herself Perdita X Dream (or, as the women of Lancre say, "that girl who calls herself Perditax"). Agnes, though, has no interest in witches, and wants to be an opera singer. Stealing away to Ankh-Morpork, she soon finds herself (and her amazing voice) as a vocal understudy to the skinnier but much dumber and less melodious Christine.
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* [[Arbitrary Skepticism]]: Throughout the book, Granny criticizes people for ''not'' being this, assuming that she uses magic to {{spoiler|block a sword}} when she may well have had a bit of metal in her palm. As it happens, she ''did'' use magic (though she only used magic to delay it. The sword still hurt her, but not at such a critical time, both practically and for appearances), but that's not the point. Another example is a man assuming she used magic to know it was him at the door (which in fact she had) when she had a window.
* [[Arc Words]]: Granny asking people the question "If your house was on fire, what would you take out?" She finds out that {{spoiler|Walter Plinge}} thinks in an unusual, but not evil, manner when he replies: "{{spoiler|The fire!}}"
* [[Ascended Extra]]: Agnes briefly appeared in ''[[
* [[Asymmetric Dilemma]]: Done brilliantly by Nanny Ogg.
{{quote|"Has anyone got an opener for a bottle of beer? ... Has anyone got something to drink a bottle of beer out of? ... Good. Now, has anyone got a bottle of beer?}}
* [[Awesome McCoolname]]: Former [[Trope Namer]]
* [[Balancing Death's Books]]: While the witches are staying with a farming family, both their son and one of their cows fall ill. Destiny says the child should die and the cow should live, but Granny plays Death at poker for the chance to make it the other way around.
* {{spoiler|[[Barehanded Blade Block]]}}: Granny pulls this at the very end {{spoiler|when she blocks Salzella's sword, but it carries a price - she has to allow the hand to become injured afterward}}.
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** There's also the fact that {{spoiler|he says that his hand was a pair of "ones." As in aces.}}
* [[Contest Winner Cameo]]: Collette.
* [[Continuity Nod]]: Obscure, but Mr. Bucket's remark about "a dreadful bend in the road" might be referring to Dead Man's Curve, where Susan's parents and
** Also, several to ''[[
* [[Born in the Wrong Century]]: It's said that Agnes was born 20 years to late, back when your voice mattered more than your looks and everyone had a build like her, were every one of the greats had names that were puns for how fat they were.
* [[Contrived Coincidence]]: Played for laughs when someone's long-lost love shows up at the very end, with no real impact on the plot. Hey, that's how opera works.
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* [[Good Is Not Dumb]]: Agnes.
* [[Head-Tiltingly Kinky]]: The Joy of Snackes.
* [[Humanity Ensues]]: The human-form Greebo the cat from ''[[
* [[Hurricane of Puns]]: In the grand tradition of [[
* [[Hypocritical Humor]]: The villain gives a long [[Final Speech]] about how ridiculous opera conventions like the long [[Final Speech]] are. This comes not long after he claims to be the [[Only Sane Man]], using multiple exclamation marks (a sure sign of madness).
* [[I Just Want to Be Normal]]: Agnes
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** Granny [[Predator|ain't got time to bleed]], or at least, not until later.
** Also, all the opera names. ''La Triviata'' for ''[[La Traviata]]'', ''The Ring of the Nibelungingung'' for ''[[Richard Wagner|The Ring of the Nibelung]]'', ''Il Truccatore'' for ''Il Trovatore'' and so on.
** Later, {{spoiler|Walter}} invents the modern musical and Nanny sees some of his ideas, such as [[Andrew Lloyd Webber|an opera about cats]], ''[[Les Misérables (theatre)|Miserable Les]]'' and ''[[Seven Brides for Seven Brothers|Seven Dwarfs For Seven Other Dwarfs]]''.
* [[This Is My Name on Foreign]]: Henry Slugg becomes Enrico Basilica.
* [[True Beauty Is on the Inside]]: ''painfully'' subverted. In the end, despite the fact that Christine is just [[Brainless Beauty|very pretty]], [[Giftedly Bad|has no voice, and has absolutely no talent whatsoever]], [[So Beautiful It's a Curse|everyone in the opera still fawns over her]] and chooses ''her'' over Agnes, who is [[Magic Music|incredibly talented]] and who has been signing Christine's songs the entire time (something that is made very clear by the end that everyone knows).
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* [[Stealth Pun]]: When Agnes finishes one last yell, going from one side of the audible spectrum to the other, Nanny Ogg remarks "''Now'' it's over". [[Don't Explain the Joke|Agnes is very large, and they're in an opera.]]
* [[Undercover Cop Reveal]]
* [[Wanton Cruelty to the Common Comma]]: Played with incessantly. An earlier statement in ''[[
* [[Wham! Line]]: Granny's {{spoiler|"Who's to say there's only one Ghost?"}}
** And shortly before that, André's [[The Reveal]]:
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{{reflist}}
{{Discworld novels}}
[[Category:
[[Category:Discworld]]
[[Category:Witch Works]]
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