 |
|
Zürich 1916 - 1998
Opera Production
All photos by
Don Lee. Click
on images to view larger.
Overture and Scene 1
Zurich. Just before dawn on the street called
Spiegelgasse. Emmy Hennings comes home after the cabaret,
now closed for the night, where she has been singing.
| libretto
EMMY:
Cabaret shuts and I come home by dawn's first
light.
The clock strikes five.
The sky is pale.
A lamp burns slow.
In my window burning still.
Cabaret shuts and I come home.
Children hide in shadowed alleys.
Trucks come rumbling to market.
An old woman hears the bells ringing in cold dawn
air.
Ringing in dawn air still.
Cabaret shuts and I come home.
A whore with frowsy hair.
Wandering sleepless cold.
The sky is pale.
A lamp burns low.
In my window glowing still.
Cabaret shuts and I come home by dawn's first
light.
The clock strikes five.
The sky is pale.
A lamp burns slow.
In my window glowing still.
|
EMMY &
HUGO: Cabaret shuts and I come home.
The sky is pale.
A lamp burns slow in my window glowing still. |
Stacie Robinson as
Emmy Hennings.
<Return to Top>
Scene 2
Emmy continues singing her song about the night streets,
while Hugo reads a letter of the sort exiles often send
home to parents and friends; reassuring, with the pain
left out; then joins Emmy in her song to night and its
people.
| libretto
HUGO: A
letter home.
Dear everybody.
Dear mom.
Since my arrival in Zurich.
Have been free as a bird.
Makes me jumpier all the time.
Since my arrival in Zurich.
A free breeze whistles through my mind.
Scaring me.
Making me do strange things.
Like what I don't know.
Like this I guess.
Since arriving in Zurich.
I have been jotting down things quickly.
(HB): About how things are.
Or about how my mind is turning.
Turned by the stress of my art.
And memories.
Or revolt of flight and hiding.
Savage police at border crossings.
Stacked people baggage stuff in the airport.
I was lucky I guess.
Anyway now I am here.
Got a good job.
What are you doing.
Give my love to Ruth and Uncle Dave.
Give my love to Fanny and Chip.
|
Michael
Colvin as Hugo Ball and
Stacie Robinson as Emmy Hennings.
|
| Give
my love to Stew and Stan. |
EMMY:
Cabaret shuts and I come home. |
| |
By
dawn's first light.
The clock strikes five.
The sky is pale. |
| HUGO:
This is part of it I guess. |
This
is part of it I guess. |
This
is part of it.
How it goes
One.
Two.
Three.
Four.
Five.
Take it.
EMMY: One point creaks to.
Two black dong beats three no God five rock.
Four sky palled in pale.
Five five rock dong gonging.
Wake it up
HUGO: This is another part.
How it goes.
Six.
Seven.
Eight.
Nine.
Ten.
EMMY: Six holes speed for.
Seven seed beats five burn.
Eight ungod un there sowing.
Nine paled sky in white.
Ten five rock dong gonging.
HUGO: And this is another part.
(EH):It goes.
Eleven.
Twelve.
Thirteen.
HUGO: Fourteen.
That's all. |
|
| Take
it. |
EMMY:
Eleven black street movings. |
| |
Twelve
unstop unstopping.
Thirteen colours undoing all white tiding.
Fourteen timing so white tiding in the war.
They have sealed the border. |
HUGO:
Black moves in street are namings.
Numbering unstops wars colours. |
Break
it up.
Cabaret shuts and I come home |
| Undoing. |
|
EMMY:
In a slow low part I come naming.
Numbering coming in any street.
Naming that op'ning. |
HUGO:
All white tiding.
They have sealed the border.
A scene at the end of night. |
| Fourteen
five rock gonging. |
|
| HUGO:
Now take it. |
EMMY:
Shake it out. |
Number
fourteen is one such naming.
Picture show.
Take it. |
|
HUGO &
EMMY: Cabaret shuts and I come home.
Going in low parts going.
Street mirrors slow queens spangling.
Black boys in slow leather losing.
Whore with tousl'd hair so wand'ring.
Lenin in white linens sleeping.
And bells gong five in dark dawn air.
Dong dada bells doing all holy down.
Number fourteen is one such naming.
Take it.
Picture shows.
EMMY: Cabaret shuts and I come home.
I go slow so slow coming.
In slow low part going.
Slow queens lean in alleys.
Cigarettes the boys in leather flash.
Red tips glow in leaning dark.
Shadow cross cat scattering.
Spangle peel so spangling quick.
I go slow in street so slow coming.
Any street anywhere and this is going anywhere
cat scurry.
Lean bells dada ringing in the leaning.
(EH): Bells gong five down blue street
calling.
Silent gonging and the bright child hearing.
Raising bright face hears the bells.
Raising bright eyes to the donging clang.
Five dong black against the white white sky.
HUGO: Number one is one such naming.
Take it shake it out.
HUGO & EMMY: Black whore with frowsy
hair.
Hurries cold leaving in shadow slant.
Shadowing after spangling hears the bells.
Five clang spangling dada list'ning.
Bright black whore black glowing child.
Rising to clang dong white sky downing.
The whore and glowing child hear bells.
Press faces to sky and bright glow clanging.
Shoulder off white sheets loosening.
Scattering whiteness all white failing.
Rising black rising holy to the gonging.
Coming up from linens to the donging gongs.
Against the white sky folding down.
The black whore holy frowsy and the child.
And the boys and queens rising holy black.
Rising spies rising exiles black and holy.
Rising listens under neon flicker twist of number
one or number nine is bright red.
Under blue is glowing flicker twist and black.
Black and black in black'ning alley they turn
down.
Coming up boys coming up queens coming up.
The glowing child raises holy face.
To dada bells going dada in the white white
night.
Between number fourteen whiteness and the war. |
<Return to Top>
Scene 3
La Troupe Flamingo joins Hugo and Emmy on the street. As
though reading from a tourist phrase-book, they recite
the everyday words and phrases strangers must learn when
dwelling among a strange people. The recitation is
interrupted again and again by Hugo's attempts of
suicide.
| libretto
RANOVALLA:
Dear everybody.
Dear mom.
This is part of it.
How it goes.
The street I mean.
Can you show me the way to the post office.
KORITSKY: Do you speak the local dialect.
RAN: Do you not think she is very pretty.
How do you use the shower.
MARIE: You jot and there is no toilet
paper.
Justice.
The taps here turn the wrong way.
STROMBOLI: Like this and jot.
Since arriving in Zurich.
I jot and drop and jot.
I do not want anything.
What a pleasant language.
I now do strange things.
ONZALI: Do not tell him anything.
Please find a doctor and why not.
I jot and so and do.
What is there to talk about.
RAN: I go to the theatre often.
He never knows anything.
You know that I am a foreigner.
He is not angry.
You can go tomorrow.
Never mind next time.
KOR: She does not want to go anywhere.
I sleep very poorly not jot.
Stockings are very dear.
Gargle three times daily.
|
La Troupe
Flaming.
|
| Why
do you say that. |
ONZ:
They never say where they are going. |
| |
Another bed a jot would be better.
I do not understand. |
| RAN:
No one knows how to get to the post office. |
What
is there to talk about. |
| Eyes
ears throat nose chest. |
|
| MARIE:
I have not been anywhere yet. |
RAN:
What is all this for. |
You
have fever and jot.
I feel like jotting.
I know that. |
|
| RAN:
I do not know anything. |
MARIE:
What is the matter. |
He
does not want to do anything.
Do not tell him anything.
I do not need anything.
They never say where they are going.
I have not been anywhere.
I do not love anyone.
I am a foreigner.
I do not know anything.
KOR: I do not know where they were
yesterday.
A laxative is called for.
A bed and the post office. |
|
| RAN:
Jot and I do not know. |
KOR:
How does it get there. |
| I
never know any thing. |
ONZ:
She has not been anywhere yet. |
| |
I
do not have a pencil. |
| MAR:
I am a foreigner. |
(ONZ):
What a pretty language this is. |
| I
know nothing about this town. |
Which
way out. |
Do
you have my book.
STROM: I cannot eat anything.
Thanks a lot and jot a lot.
There is no more compote.
Do I have to stay in bed. |
|
| RAN:
You do not like to be late. |
STROM:
Where may I buy toiletries. |
Yes
definitely.
They will not bring my laundry.
From whom did you get a letter.
STROM: I have not received one letter.
He cannot walk upstairs.
She does not have any vitamins. |
|
| Did
she lose her way. |
MAR:
He does not want anything. |
| |
It
is easy to find an jot. |
| STROM:
I feel like going some place. |
Will
somebody come. |
I do not know
if stores are open.
She wants to know when the busses run.
What is playing at the theatre today.
KOR/RAN/STROM/ONZ: I like this city very
much. |
I
do not like this street.
It is colder today than yesterday.
I do not like this restaurant.
The place there is better.
Let us go where.
What delicious coffee.
Coffee without milk.
It tastes better.
Please pass me.
The sugar salt spoon knife fork bread.
When does the train leave.
It is now twelve noon.
One o'clock in the afternoon.
Ten minutes after four.
Without a quarter of six.
Ten o'clock in the morning.
Seven o'clock in the evening.
Noon.
Midnight.
Half past twelve.
Half past one.
A quarter after two.
My watch is slow.
My watch is fast.
My watch is stopped. |
KOR:
You are an amazing fellow.
RAN: We do not love anyone.
HUGO: Quite an amazing fellow.
He does not know anything.
EMMY: You have to go three stops.
They never say where they are going.
It goes in and out.
He does not want to do anything.
Where is the post office.
Can you please tell me where it is. |
In the
Background, Hugo attempts suicide.
|
<Return to Top>
Scene 4
A scene of pure movement and music in which the ominous,
dark street is transfigured into the radiant and vivid
interior of Cabaret Voltaire, at Number 1 Spiegelgasse.
La Troupe Flaming.
<Return to Top>
Scene 5
V. I. Lenin, then living at Number 14 Spiegelgasse,
complains about Cabaret Voltaire's spontaneous music and
joy, which he correctly takes to be a vision of the
unfolding twentieth century very different from his own.
| libretto
LENIN:
The knowing is gnawing now.
Gnawing in me knowing.
The nattering knowing is gnawing.
And that is writing.
Is knowing the nattering.
Is knowing and writing
The train is leaving.
Gnawing in me knowing writing.
The stitching is knowing me.
The knowing is nattering.
The nattering knowing is stitching.
The nattering pinning is gnawing.
The train is leaving writing.
Between the nattering and the knowing.
Is writing a project for an op'ra.
An op'ra gnawing and knowing now.
The gnawing in Lenin is knowing dada.
The knowing dada is nattering.
The nattering knowing is dada gnawing.
The dada knowing is gnawing in Lenin now.
The nattering writing is stitching.
The train is leaving.
And that is the beginning.
An opera of the twentieth century.
|
Lenin
descends over the people of Russia.
|
<Return to Top>
Scene 6
Alice More and Emmy recite two letters by Lenin,
objecting to the freedom and music of the avant-garde.
One goes to Herr Ephraim, proprietor of the bar at Number
1 Spiegelgasse and landlord of the Dada poets and
artists. The other is sent into the future, to the Soviet
commissar of culture, reprimanding him for printing
anarchist, politically incorrect poems by the
experimental writer Vladimir Mayakovsky.
EMMY: A
letter from V.I. Lenin.
ALICE: At least two letters white letters
neatly written. |
|
| EMMY: A
letter a white letter. |
ALICE: A
letter and a lit'ral letter littering. |
| |
Un letting
littering from lit'ral Lenin.
Between white linens lit'rally writing.
How unsurprising. |
EMMY:
A letter a white letter lit'rally.
ALICE: A letter and a letter.
Litt'ring from lit'ral Lenin.
Between white linens lit'rally writing.
How unsurprising.
EMMY: A white letter and a letter
lit'rally.
To Herr Ephraim.
Owner.
Cabaret Voltaire.
Formerly the Meierei.
Number One Spiegelgasse.
Zurich.
ALICE: A letter a letter and a lit'ral
letter.
At least two lit'ral letters. |
| How
unsurprising. |
EMMY: A letter
litter from V.I. Lenin. |
| |
Says. |
| ALICE: From
Herr Lenin Number Fourteen Spiegelgasse. |
I am not
surprised. |
To Herr
Ephraim.
Owner of Cabaret Voltaire. |
|
| EMMY:
Formerly the Meierei. |
ALICE:
Formerly the Meierei. |
Herr
Ephraim I shake you very warmly by the hand.
We walked often to your café often not going.
Taking tea not going very quiet.
In the very quiet dusk falling.
No Mayakovsky no maying queering then stop.
ALICE: I am not surprised in May.
A letter from V.I. Lenin.
To Anatoly Vasilyevich Lunacharsky.
People's commissar for education.
I shake you very warmly by the hand.
A letter.
May six nineteen twenty one.
Comrade.
You should hate yourself.
For voting to print five thousand copies of poems
by Mayakovsky.
(AM): In nine thousand copies here and
there.
Eighteen thousand copies.
And twenty two thousand and six thousand.
And one or two thousand and eighty.
Comrade.
I shake you very warmly by the hand.
Thirty three thousand.
Six thousand and twelve thousand.
You shake it warming it by the hand.
You handle Mayakovsky very warmly.
Ninety nine thousand and one thousand.
And eighty nine thousand and nine thousand.
I am not surprised.
Another letter.
From Herr Lenin.
Number Fourteen Spiegelgasse.
To Herr Ephraim.
Owner of Cabaret Voltaire
EMMY: I am not surprised. |
| Formerly the
Meierei. |
ALICE:
Formerly the Meirei. |
Herr
Ephraim.
I shake you very warmly by the hand.
Two thousand and eighty six thousand.
May no Mayakovsky in Meierei no coming.
In the very quiet dusk falling.
No Mayakovsky no maying no queering then.
Stop.
A letter a letter littering.
Lettering a letter and a letter.
To Anatoly Vasilyevich Lunacharsky.
Comrade.
Weld steel revolutionary fist.
No double dyed nonsense.
Mayakovsky stop shaking sheets.
Hole of Mayakovsky is clock.
Sweep tongue sweeping no stop.
Rim bang Africa bing bang doing.
No double dyed nonsense signed Lenin.
The Kremlin.
Stop.
Signed Lenin.
ALICE: P.S.
As for Lunacharsky.
He should be flogged.
(AL): For his futurism.
Signed.
EMMY: Signed |
ALICE:
Lenin
The Kremlin.
Stop. |
EMMY:
Lenin.
The Kremlin.
Stop. |
ALICE &
EMMY: At least two letters.
To Herr Ephraim.
Proprietor of Cabaret Voltaire.
Formerly the Meierei.
And we are not surprised.
EMMY: A letter from Vladimir Ilyich Lenin.
To the Revolutionary Culture Committee.
Re Mayakovsky.
Pending the arrival of.
A special commission.
Of pins from Moscow.
Pending pins to pin holes shut a Cabaret
Voltaire.
Pending pins to pin Emmy Hennings shut with pins.
Emmy Hennings is coming unshut.
Pin with pins.
Hugo Ball and Tristan Tzara in Zurich.
Coming unshut pin with pins.
Mayakovsky is coming unshut.
Unshut coming coming unshut.
Seeding coming speeding unshut at last.
Is unshut coming at last speeding.
Pin with pins.
Pin shut.
A letter.
From V.I. Lenin pinning.
Pinning in linen is V.I. Lenin.
At number Fourteen. |
<Return to Top>
Scene 7
Lenin at Cabaret Voltaire. He stops the wildly spinning
joy in the club, assumes the direction of the Dada poets
and painters and La Troupe Flamingo, and prepares them to
enact his version of the twentieth century, which he
envisions as an opera in three acts.
LENIN: A quite didactic
prelude to ev'rything.
You will understand anything.
At first I had it in mind seriously.
A quite unhurrying speaking and singing.
On time and that is all there is.
And there is opera quite close to a book closing.
A book closing now.
And that is op'ra and history.
And that is what there is.
(LEN): Was it an opera quite new at least.
Was it not hurrying but being close to a book.
Was it.
Is that what it was.
An opera of the twentieth cent'ry.
Was it that.
MAR, KOR, RAN, STROM, ONZ: We wish to go
on the record.
LENIN: Yes a book is what it was.
Yes an op'ra unspeeding only for one.
And that is time and all there is.
And writing is that time and closing.
And you are only going somewhere seriously.
Following writing and that is time.
And that is dad to be and time.
All of it being what I was taught well by the
opera.
An op'ra being a body stopping.
And that is something I have learned recently.
Something recently stopped at last.
MAR, KOR, RAN, STROM, ONZ: Bodies
seriously ungoing tit for tat.
Ungoing dit for dat.
Stopped.
No dada dating the body now dated.
Closing finding books another project.
For the Twentieth century learned recently.
Finding serious tit and tat is finding seriously.
Is a serious project all white for everybody.
LENIN: An op'ra is learning to be serious.
And that is hist'ry.
This opera of the century.
Is being dads dads and dads serious stopping
ev'rything.
Timing space and stopping.
MAR, KOR, RAN, STROM, ONZ: But Lenin doing
electrically stop.
LENIN: The sweep electric hand was
invented in nineteen sixteen.
Sweeping no stop untelling old time of one only.
And that moving is telling holy turning.
And that is spacing and holy children.
Space and holy children op'ning stopped.
MAR, KOR, RAN, STROM, ONZ: We wish to go
on the record.
LENIN: An op'ra that is time no space no
holy children.
Three acts all time no space. No op'ning of ev'ry
body in ev'rybody.
Act act act perhaps act and all point.
Act nothing going ev'rything ending.
And that is history and time.
And that is acts no acts no space.
(LEN): All space turning time time time no
dada.
MAR, KOR, RAN, STROM, ONZ: Project for an
other op'ra of the twentieth century.
Another project and this is act one of that one. |
Michael
Maniaci as VI Lenin. |
Michael
Maniaci as VI Lenin
addresses the people of
Russia.
|
<Return to Top>
Scene 8
Lenin's Project for an opera of the twentieth century,
Act One. The February Revolution in Russia. Now deposed
and powerless, the toppled Imperial Family exchange
banal, bored words, that fall meaningless at their feet.
KOR,
RAN: Tango in February making a scene.
The royal families of Europe.
Go on holidays.
Project for an op'ra of the twentieth century act
one.
TZAR: Nothing to do in February. And this
is any February.
Anyone will do.
And we are happy.
We do not think about the past.
We shall go to Monsalvat to ski and be and ski
and not to take the waters or have some tea in
Washington.
Thank you. Is it time to rest now.
We are so bourgeois in Boston.
S'INA: And we shall go to Monsalvat to ski
and be and be and be not do or have some tea in
Washinton.
We do not worry because we do not go.
VICH: And not to take the waters on
Monsalvat.
Or to be on Monsalvat.
To ski and have our tea.
We shall not watch a picture show.
TZAR: I am the deposed head.
Of the landed aristocracy. We shall all speak
perfect French.
S'INA: Thank you very much.
To ski and be on Monsalvat.
And we shall not watch a picture show.
And hear our music.
And hear our op'ra on Monsalvat.
Thank you.
We shall all speak perfect French.
So bourgeois in February.
And taking tea in Washington.
VICH: "The Revolution of February
succeeded quickly as a result of an extremely
unique historical situation."
This is not a picture show.
And we see and ski on Monsalvat.
And see no picture shows in Zurich.
The workers have holes I think.
They move like picture shows.
That is the problem I think.
A body is fast picture shows I think.
And sees the picture show.
(VICH): And that is Africa going bing
bang.
In the picture show.
Do not be and do not ski.
On Monsalvat I think.
TZAR: How would I know in February.I ski
and ski on Monsalvat.
Moving pictures in the hole do.
We shall speak perfect French.
And that is thing by thing.
The workers take the waters in Zurich.In the
black moving hole of pictures.
S'INA: I am so young alas I think.
If we watch the picture show.
Then we shall watch the picture show.
And the picture show is knowing black.
Moving in black hole of picture show.
Is undoing and that is the end of it.
VICH: And will we watch the picture show.
Or go to Zurich to take the waters.
TZAR: Thank you.
"The Revolution succeeded quickly.
Because of a unique historical situation.
Involving.
The sudden and utterly unprecedented convergence.
Of absolutely dissimilar currents."
S'INA: Are saying on the telephone.
Is that what you say.
Electric wires wiring holes out.
Electric wires wiring holes out.
Holes bang Africa binging.
Film clips.
Thank you.
VICH: You are most welcome.
A revolver revolving black hole going.
Is bodies banging I think the workers.
The picture show is knowing.
Is cutting filming and that is working.
A quite new writing.
We shall be and we shall ski on Monsalvat.
And not take the waters.
Or have some tea in Washington.
TZAR: Ski and be.
We shall not watch a picture show.
We shall not take the waters in Zurich.
Or the waters on Monsalvat.
Our opera and that is Europe.
(TZAR): We shall not watch a picture show.
Thank you very much.
And that is all there is.
And that is all about it.
S'INA, KOR, RAN, VICH: And that is
February if it is February.
Any February now and then and any when.
An end of Act One of project for an op'ra.
Of the twentieth century. |
The imperial family going to ski in Monsalvat.
|
<Return to Top>
Scene 9
Project for an opera of the twentieth century, Act
Two. The October Revolution in Russia is presented as the
totalitarian reorganization of state power, which Lenin
understands it to be. Gradually, however, the Dada
singers steal the script, and rewrite the Revolution as
they long for it to be: a liberation of desire, erotic
and social. Lenin repeatedly cries, 'Stop!' and is
ignored.
BARKER/EMMY:
"Project for an Opera of the Twentieth
Century."
BARKER/HUGO: "Project for an Opera of
the Twentieth Century: Act Two."
Script.
Vladimir Ilyich Lenin addresses the workers.
Workers of the world and anywhere.
You have performed miracles or proletarian
heroism.
In the war anywhere now and then.
In the war is everywhere.
And there is one war.
It is ev'rywhere.
And the war is anywhere ev'rywhere. And that is
where you are.
EMMY: Script.
Lenin continues.
You must now perform miracles of organisation.
Organisation of the proletariat and anybody.
To prepare the way for victory.
In the second stage of the revolution.
HUGO: Script.
Lenin continues. Workers soldiers peasants.
EMMY: Script.
Lenin continues.
Artists.
Actors.
Writers.
Sweep hand turning time over upending.
Round rim new sweeping.
New doing blackly.
HUGO: But ev'rybody says.
October Octobering spangling.
October going and that is pleasing.
Ohm calls Ohm and ev'rybody on the telephone to
soon Faraday.
October.
Ohm and Ohm and telephone.
Fast on telephone spending in October.
(HB): On holes are spangling so soon
talking.
LENIN: No.
Not in the script.
EMMY: Ev'rybody says.
Tits telling time talk Ohm to Ohm.
To Volta, vaulting new time.
Tits up and pointing.
Time's tack beyond time.
Tats taut.
Cabaret Voltaire in October anywhere is tits taut
tats pointing.
LENIN: No.
Not in the script.
HUGO: October thinking tats taut.
October freely thinking tits.
Tats talking freely dirty tits.
Dirty talking tats tacking October.
October dirty knowing.
Dirty Octob'ring is knowing.
October is dada doing.
And that is dirty knowing.
EMMY: Ev'rybody say October.
Is dirty wires so soon and wiring anywhere.
Is dada cabaret wiring holes no father.
No dad new dirty body wiring holes October.
Wanting dirty holes fast dirty time tats October.
LENIN: No.
HUGO: Everybody says. So nothing quite
nat'rally miracle.
Doing anything quite nat'rally miracle October.
Zinging wires anywhere.
Tits soon telegraphing zinging tits singing.
So soon singing wires October.
EMMY: Doing anything quite nat'rally
miracle October.
Zinging wires ev'rywhere.
Tits soon telegraphing zinging tits singing.
So soon singing wires October.
HUGO: Ev'rybody says.
Tats taut tense tits telegraphing anywhere.
So soon singing Tatlin zinging.
Tatlin is October tats up taut gliding.
Tats up taut gliding zinging.
And this is what we are thinking anywhere Tatlin
zinging wires and coming.
Tatlin going.
EMMY: You will ski on Monsalvat.
HUGO: Ev'rybody says.
EMMY: Script.
EMMY: A letter from V.I. Lenin.
You will not take the waters in Zurich.
Or go to the picture show.
You will ski and you will be.
And ski and be on Monsalvat.
HUGO: Taut tat up torque toward sky.
Tatlin taut and this is anywhere.
And tatlin is anybody anywhere.
And tatlin zinging coming wires.
And this is anybody ev'rywhere.
EMMY: Lenin says not yet.
Lenin says we shall all speak perfect French and
ski and ski on Monsalvat.
HUGO: Tower light spurts wording on
clouds.
On clouded Monsalvat heads turning.
LENIN: No.
EMMY: Wording seed.
Of turning zinging ev'rywhere.
HUGO: Dirty children turning
EMMY: And Monsalvat singing.
LENIN: No.
HUGO: Brightly seeding blackly turning
faces of dirty children singing Tatlin's tower.
LENIN: No.
EMMY:Telling anybody ev'rywhere so
brightly darkly.
LENIN: No.
HUGO: Sky is going dirty children looking
singing.
LENIN: No.
EMMY: And this is zinging lifting children
everywhere.
Zinging wires gliding torque toward sky.
Children having holes and singing blackly.
Wording spurting everybody seeing.
LENIN: No.
HUGO: And young ones wiring quite new holy
singing.
EMMY: Script.
Lenin says.
Not yet.
You will ski and that is history.
You will ski stop.
Stopping movies and you will ski.
And that is the happy ending of an opera of the
twentieth century. |
Michael Colvin
(Mayakovsky),
Michael Maniaci (Lenin) and
Stacie Robinson (Emmy Hennings).
|
<Return to Top>
Scene 10
Project for an opera of the twentieth century, Act
Three. Lenin and Stalin recapture the script and
consolidation the Revolution as a reign of death - of
electric chairs to still the movement of artistic
liberty; of terror to silence the music unleashed by the
century's creative avant-gardes; of pompous kitsch to
deaden the freshness of the century's dawn song. Thomas
Edison, inventor of the electric chair, descends with his
gift of terror to Stalin.
LENIN: Project for an opera
of the twentieth century Act Three.
Stalin oh Stalin alas Joseph Stalin.
They do not want to ski on Monsalvat.
They want to look at picture shows.
STALIN: It has been so vague there must be
third act.
So many scenes to get here a nice third act.
But not too late for Lenin.
Too late for Lenin but you are woe we want.
Masses listen in Asia.
Horrors listen in Europe readying.
Powers listen in America readying for you.
Stop.
EDISON: Prepare ye the peoples.
Make way for twentieth century wonder.
STALIN: One horror thou shalt make
possible.
ED: Sing oh ye peoples.
Powers of terror going.
To hold all one time.
Police rejoice.
STALIN: Oh come thou long sought one.
Oh thou humanism of general man.
Thy bewing'd thoughts speed earthward.
Apollo's swift fire bedeck thy brow.
Make classical speed no time in glory.
Beplumed ideals feather thy descent.
Our fresh cheeks rejoiced by ruddy glow of
flashing thoughts winging usward.
In eternal verities of column'd truth hope
glimmers aloft in songs to thee.
Oh thou reason, Edison, of noble minds slipping
skyward as the skylark's darting flight is
summon'd thouward in perfection's harmonious
glow, thou wizard of Menlo Park.
Who hast caught Echo in thy net and fast clasped
Mercury to thy bosom.
Who struggling fast sang forth his secrets to
thee, alone, fair sage of reason's wing'd flight
towards glory of socialist man and all unfoldings
of science in this.
Hail to thee, great Edison, tumult of Aurora's
lifting flight of song, and of Apollo's lyre.
ED: Dear Stalin, all blessings flow from
thy lips.
Do flow in profusion not to me.
Ah no no, not to me.
But to the creature moving invisible yet winged
as the light to do my bidding in effluvia of
rapture at reason's call.
And thou, reason's pow'r shall call the powers
and hymns for ever the veil of Apollonian light
that shall lie lightly upon thy bosom of this
fair Union.
Rejoice ye Tatars rude.
Rejoice Turkmenia.
And ye fierce horsemen of Uzbekistan rejoice I
say.
And ye who suckle Russia's proud sons rejoice at
the All Union Electrification Scheme.
(ED): Ukraine gives thanks.
Armenia sings praise.
Songs to thee, dear Stalin, wing their way from
ev'ry hearth and home, from every mother's chair
by home fires watching.
The mines rejoice, and the forests do give
thanks.
The All Union Electrification Scheme doth ev'ry
heart fill with all joy and giveth poets fair
winged words to sing thy storied fame, oh Stalin.
STALIN: But what of those, great Edison,
who grasp not the end of our great task.
Who choose instead to succumb to infantile
leftism.
Trotskyist revisionism.
STALIN: Or rightist deviationism.
ED: Thou sage of reason, calm.
Thou shalt be the first of all who rule to call
electricity thy truest friend. |
Daniel May as Stalin. |
Eric Shaw as Thomas Edison. |
<Return to Top>
Scene 11
Two stories about Lenin; a postlude to his operatic
vision of the century - devoid of the random and
accidental, emptied of movement and music - leading to
the suicide of the artist.
VLAD: Project for an op'ra
of the twentieth century.
The end.
This actually happened.
Not in Cabaret Voltaire.
It happened in a music hall in London.
There were clowns and Lenin.
On the front rows Lenin and Maxim Gorky.
This is in the war.
Maxim Gorky laughs laughs.
Then the clowns go away.
The stage of the music hall.
A logging camp in British Columbia.
Two muscular young men chop down trees.
Chopping away nothing left but chips.
Sweep up fast.
But Gorky asks chop what.
Lenin says chips.
Anarchy of production under capitalism makes
chips.
Chips wasted in the hole.
A clowning chopping is clowning chipping.
Chipping clowning.
ALICE: Lenin writes this.
"A music hall
sequence of this op'ra based on the experiences
of British Columbia forestry workers showed a
sort of satirical or sceptical attitude to the
commonly accepted. A striving to turn it inside
out. To distort it slightly. And thus to
demonstrate the illogicality of the commonplace.
Intricate but interesting."
VLAD: This also actually happened.
During a Red Army concert in Moscow.
The actress Gzovskaya got up to say lines of
Mayakovsky.
EMMY & ALICE: "Speed is our body.
The drum our heart."
VLAD: Lenin got up from where he sat.
On the first row.
And said I can no longer restrain myself.
And said this must be stopped.
VLAD: The actress Gzovskaya is to be
stopped.
Dirty mouth in Red Army concert.
Vowel shifts.
EMMY & ALICE: "Speed is our body.
The drum our heart."
ALICE: Lenin wrote.
The actress Gzovskaya must be stopped.
Why turn the back on the truly beautiful.
EMMY: Lenin wrote.
Stop Mayakovsky.
The organs of the human body are linked up.
And.
Form a complicated whole.
Stop.
ALICE: Stop. Signed.
EMMY: Stop.
ALICE: Stop. Signed.
EMMY: Stop.
ALICE: Stop. Signed.
EMMY: Stop.
ALICE: Stop. Signed. Stop. Signed.
EMMY: Stop.
ALICE: Stop. Signed.
EMMY: Stop.
ALICE: Stop. Signed.
EMMY: Stop.
ALICE: Stop.
(AM): Signed. Stop. Signed.
EMMY: Stop.
ALICE: Stop. Signed.
EMMY: Stop.
ALICE: Stop. Signed.
EMMY: Stop.
ALICE: Stop. Signed. Stop. Signed.
EMMY: Stop.
ALICE: Stop. Signed.
EMMY: Stop.
ALICE: Stop. Signed.
EMMY: Stop.
ALICE: Stop. Signed. Stop. Signed.
EMMY: Stop.
ALICE: Stop. Signed.
EMMY: Stop.
ALICE: Stop. Signed.
EMMY: Stop. Signed. Stop. Signed. Stop.
Signed. Stop. Signed. Stop. Signed. Stop. Signed.
Stop.
(EH): Signed. Stop. Signed. Stop. Signed.
Stop. Signed. Stop. Signed.
EMMY: Stop. Signed. Stop. Signed. Stop.
Signed. Stop. Signed. Stop. Signed. Stop. Signed.
Stop. Signed.
ALICE: Signed. |
The Suicide of
the Artist (Micheal Colvin).
|
The Suicide of the Artist (Michael Colvin)
|
<Return to Top>
Scene 12
Vladimir Mayakovsky's long hymn to the radical beauty and
resistance of the avant-garde - crushed or domesticated
by twentieth century power, Communist and capitalist -
its energies to subvert, depleted; its strategies of
transcendence, reduced to harmless irony.
VLAD: This is a
part.
One.
Two.
Three.
Four five.
Six seven.
Eight.
Nine.
Ten.
And.
Eleven.
Twelve.
Thirteen.
Fourteen.
This is another part that goes.
This is in that.
And that is in this.
And this is in one.
(VLAD): And one is in that.
And ev'rything is in this.
And that is in ev'rything.
And ev'rything is in the war.
Ev'rything that is anything.
Is ev'rything in the war.
And there is the war.
And ev'rything is in the war.
That is in this desiring.
And this is in that.
And this is in one.
And one is in two.
And ev'rything is in two.
And that is ev'rything.
And ev'rything is in the war.
Ev'rything that is any thing.
Is ev'rything in the war.
And two is ev'rything.
That is in the war.
And that is in this.
And this is in that.
And that is in two.
And two is in that.
And ev'rything is in this two.
And two is in ev'rything.
And two is in the war.
And two is ev'rything.
Ev'rything that is anything.
Is two in the war.
At least two in the war.
One in one and that is two.
And that is the beginning.
In the war that is.
And this is in the war for two.
Funny.
I piano I do not know.
I know coming.
I piano in low parts going.
I piano street doing.
I piano black boys knowing.
I piano black queens preening.
I know losing piano.
I piano I know going.
I piano slow knowing coming I know piano piano
going.
(VLAD): I so know piano doing.
I go so piano knowing.
Funny.
Number ten low stroking piano Holy child coming
so sowing speeding.
Number six loosening piano no go.
Holy child holy throw into bright no.
Number two no go piano into one.
Holy child into black into bright five.
Number eleven so long knowing piano.
Holy child doing song into bright songing.
Number eight so probing no piano.
Holy child longing into spangling.
Number four piano holy ringing.
Holy child into three piano or no go.
Number twelve holy no go piano.
Holy child coming poem into longing.
Number seven dong doing piano.
Holy child holy whore into bright four.
Number three hurry burning no piano.
Holy child no doing in piano.
Number six loos'ning piano no go.
Holy child holy throw into bright no.
Number nine cold glow piano Holy child glowing
into piano spelling.
Number five unfolding go piano.
Funny.
Number one and holy ev'rything.
Holy child is ringing in white night and in the
war.
Holy child turns time speeding sowing.
Holy child spangling seed unfath'ring.
Holy child going going no war.
Holy child waking up the sleeping loosing holes.
Holy child turning time to sparing.
Holy child turning time to space speeding.
And that is holy going turning at number one.
Ding drum dong black at number one.
Going drum dong bing bang at number one.
Going drum dong bang black at number one.
And holy child turning time to sparing.
Turning to time to space speeding.
No more time and that is holy.
Space and that is holy holy going at number one. |
Blooded and
defeated the artist
(Micheal Colvin) sings
to the new century.
|
<Return to Top>
Scene 13
Hugo Ball, the most powerful visionary among the Dadaists
- or Mayakovsky, or any other avant-gardist reduced to
impotence by the powers of reaction - lies exhausted and
dying. Miss Ranovalla, player in La Troupe Flamingo,
listens and comforts.
VLAD:
It hurts.
But it was not like that.
It was you know.
It was like.
You know.
It was not.
It hurts.
RAN: I know.
VLAD: It.
It hurts.
VLAD: It.
That is.
I.
It was.
This was what.
It was like.
It was like this.
RAN: Go on.
VLAD: I am trying.
It hurts.
You know.
It.
It was.
This.
This is what.
It was like.
Why am I here.
RAN: Tell me.
I don't know.
VLAD: I.
You know what it was like.
You.
This is.
It was like.
It is a dream that comes.
Yes.
There is a room.
With art of some kind.
Perhaps paintings.
I don't know.
I.
I suppose they are paintings.
There.
(VLAD): There were paintings.
They had to be.
And windows.
Paintings on windows.
I don't know.
And the pictures.
Is that it.
It was.
I don't know.
It hurts.
That is all I know.
I am not going to talk about it.
It hurts.
There is a room.
And paintings.
I don't know.
You.
I am here that's it.
I am here so what.
So what am I talking about.
I don't know.
You could see it.
I.
I get up.
I make breakfast.
I eat it.
I look out the window.
I get up.
Every morning.
I get up.
Then I make breakfast.
And eat it.
The same every morning.
I get up.
It's the same breakfast.
Every day.
That is it.
I get up.
And then I make breakfast.
And look out the window.
Every day.
I.
I.
You should.
(VLAD): I.
This is it.
Every day.
That is every day.
It hurts.
RAN: The room with the paintings.
VLAD: It was not paintings.
It was.
It was paintings.
Or windows I.
And I guess a piano.
VLAD: Maybe I don't know.
It was not paintings.
Or windows I.
And I guess a piano.
Maybe I don't know.
A piano.
I don't know.
RAN: That is right.
VLAD: So I am here.
Get up and make breakfast.
Every day.
Get up and get out of bed.
Make breakfast.
Look out the window.
The same window.
And then it's the same.
Get up and make breakfast.
Every day.
Get up and get out of bed.
Make breakfast.
Look out the window.
The same window.
Look out.
And then it's the same.
Get up and make breakfast.
The same breakfast.
Every day.
Get up and get out of bed.
Make breakfast.
The same breakfast.
Look out the window.
The same window.
Look out.
(VLAD): And then it's the same.
RAN: I know.
VLAD: There is a room.
The room with the paintings.
Paintings and windows.
Maybe a piano.
RAN: And you are here.
VLAD: And.
RAN: And you are here.
VLAD: Correct.
RAN: You are here.
VLAD: It hurts.
RAN: I know.
VLAD: I am here and.
Get up and make breakfast.
The same breakfast.
Every day.
Get up and get out of bed.
Make breakfast.
The same breakfast.
Look out the window.
The same window.
Look out.
And then it's the same.
RAN: And you are here.
VLAD: Correct.
And.
RAN: You are here.
VLAD: Correct.
RAN: You are here.
And that is what there is.
VLAD: It hurts.
RAN: It hurts.
I know.
VLAD: It hurts.
RAN: I know. 
Miss Ranovalla of Singapore
(Shaunaid Amette) comforts the Artist (Micheal
Colvin).
FIN
|
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: Theatre: History: Opera: Zurich 1916 - 1998
Production
