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Dramatis person
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joins in, admonishing "take warning now, at midnight thou shalt die."
Nekrotsar claims he will destroy the earth with a comet God will send to him
at Midnight. A lone metronome whose regular tempo ignores that of the rest
of the orchestra serves as an ironic reference to time. Nekrotsar, making
frenzied, zealous proclamations, dons his gruesome gear and calls for a
horse, accompanied by ever more chaotic orchestra, women's choir, and a
bass trombone hidden on a balcony, his characteristic instrument. He insists
that Piet must be his horse, and Piet's only protest is to give his final cry,
"cock-a-doodle-doo!" As they ride off on their inane quest, the lovers emerge
and sing another oddly lovely duet, vowing to ignore the end of time
completely and enjoy each other's company.
A second car horn prelude announces a scene change to the silly household
of the court astronomer, Astradamors, and his sadistic wife, Mescalina. "One!
Two! Three! Five!" exclaims Mescalina, beating her husband with a whip to
the rhythm of shifting, coloristic chords, in an unexpected opening to the new
scene. She repeatedly yells "Hopla!" and beats Astradamors, dressed in drag,
as he unenthusiastically begs for more. She forces him to lift his skirt, and
deals him a blow with a spit. Convinced she has killed him, she begins to
mourn, a spirited contralto voice injecting harsh irony into a sincere dirge:
"Oh pain! Who'll rinse dishes? do the washing? who the mending? wiping?
sweeping? Who now will make the beds; who will darn the stockings?" But
she suddenly becomes suspicious, wondering if he's "really dead?" She
summons a spider, apparently her pet, accompanied by a surprisingly
terrifying duo: harpsichord and organ - Regal stops. Astradamors arises,
protesting that "spiders always give [him] nausea." As punishment for
attempting to fake death, she forces him to take part in an apparent
household ritual, which she terms "the Gallopade." This awful rhythmic dance
ends with the astromoner kissing her behind, singing "Sweetest Sunday" in
falsetto as an incredible color chord builds behind him.
Mescalina orders her husband to his telescope. "Observe the stars, left, right.
What do you see up there? By the way, can you see the planets? Are they all
still there, in the right order?" She drinks wine and addresses Venus with an
impassioned plea for a better man, the rare oboe d'amour adding color. As
she falls asleep, Astradamors complains quietly, claiming he would happily
"plunge the whole universe into damnation, if only to be rid of her!" Right on
cue, Nekrotsar arrives, announced by his trombone, as Venus speaks to
Mescalina. Venus's incredible soprano part is both jarring and wickedly
beautiful, especially when assisted by her "echo," a women's choir. Venus
informs her that she has sent "two men," but Mescalina claims to have
"made cuckolds out of them, daily, hourly, quarter-hourly." Nekrotsar steps
forward, claiming to be the "well-hung" man Mescalina has requested. They
perform a very chaotic, stylized lovemaking, as Venus screeches her
approval and Piet and Astradamors, old friends add their commentary.
Nekrotsar suddenly bites Mescalina's neck, killing her, and insists that Piet
and his new servant "move this thing [her corpse] out of the way." Driving
triplets launch into the trio's humorous rant, "fire and death I bring, burning
true Macabre is approaching. The politicians try to play it off as alarmism, but
promptly flee the stage when a solitary figure approaches from the direction
of the city gate. An overjoyed Go-go proclaims that he is "master in [his]
own house" and calls on "legendary might, hallmark of Go-gos" for the tough
times ahead. Gepopo frantically warns the prince to call a guard (in her usual
hacked "code" style), but it is only Astradamors, who rushes to greet the
prince. The two dance and sing a pseudo show-ending "Huzzah! For all is
now in order!" number, ignoring the people's frantic shouts to save them.
Go-go finally gives his attention to the people, saying "what do you want,
dear people?" after Astradamors explains that he is wearing a "funeral kind
of mantilla, ready for the dies illa." (Astradamors occasionally switches to
Catholic Latin.) But a siren wails and a bass trombone announces the danger.
Go-go is ordered to go "under the bed, quick!" Nekrotsar wordlessly rides in
on the back of Piet as "all Hell follows behind." The awful processional
consists of a repeating pattern in timpani and low strings, a scordatura violin,
bassoon, Sopranino Clarinet and piccolo marching with the procession, and
slowly building material in the orchestra.
"Woe!" exclaims Nekrotsar, a demonic demagogue on the royal balcony.
"Woe! Woe!" respond the terrified people. He presents death prophesies best
described as "off," such as "the bodies of men will be singed, and all will be
turned into charr'd corpses, and shrink like shriveled heads!" His bass
trombone has been joined on the balcony by a little brass ensemble, which
punctuates him with two new motifs. The people, several of whom have been
disguised the whole time as audience members in opera clothes, beg for
mercy. Piet and Astradamors, who have been looking for an excuse to drink,
ask the prince of death to eat Go-go's feast with them, a "right royal-looking
restaurant." Piet suggests "before we start to dine, I recommend a drop of
wine." The pair, who, as his servants, are unafraid of Nekrotsar, dance
around playfully insulting him and encouraging him to drink wine. He does
so, intoning "may these, the pressed out juices of my victims, serve to
strengthen and sustain me before my necessary deed." The three dissolve
into a grotesque dialogue, the timpani and orchestra hammering inscrutable
off-beats. Nekrotsar says only "Up!" over and over again as he guzzles wine.
Finished drinking and utterly incapacitated, he rants and raves about his
achievements. "Demolished great kings and queens in scores / no one could
escape my claws / Socrates a a poison chalice / Nero a knife in his palace."
The curiously pathetic string music that played while he killed Mescalina is
reiterated. Midnight draws near, but Nekrotsar can't stand up. Go-go
emerges from hiding, is introduced to "Tsar Nekro" as "Tsar Go-go," and the
four perform stripped down comedy sketches accompanied by stripped-down
music. Nekrotsar tries to mount the rocking horse, commanding "in the name
of the Almighty, I smite the world to pieces." He retains only a shred of his
former terrifyingness, but the end of the world is represented by a rough
threnody in strings followed by swelling crescendos and decrescendos in the
winds. The comet glows brightly and Saturn falls out of its ring on the stage's
brightly lit sky.
Calming chords and low string harmonics are accompanied by truly hideous
harmonica playing, setting the scene for the post-cataclysmic landscape. Piet
and Astradamors, believing they are ghosts, float away into the sky. Go-go
emerges and believes he is the only person left alive, but "three soldiers,
risen from the grave to plunder, loot, and pillage all the good God gave"
emerge. They order the "civilian" to halt, and refuse to believe Go-go's claim
that he is the prince and he will give them "high decorations, silver and gold,
and relieve [them] of official duties." Nekrotsar emerges, disgruntled, from
an upturned cart, but his annoyance and confusion that some people seem to
have survived is quickly replaced with terror as Mescalina emerges from the
tomb. Rough tone clusters in woodwinds and percussion set off their slapstick
chase scene, which is joined by Go-go, the soldiers, and the politicians,
dragged in by one of the soldiers on a rope. They proclaim their innocence,
but Mescalina accuses them of all kinds of atrocities, and they sling mud back
at her. "But who invented the military coup?" "Yes, and who invented mass
graves?" There is a massive fast-paced fight, and all collapse. Astradamors
and Piet float by, and Go-go invites them for a drink of wine. "We have a
thirst, so we are living!" they realize as they sink back to earth. Nekrotsar is
defeated; they have all survived. In a very curious "mirror canon" for strings,
he shrinks until he is infinitesimally small and disappears. The Finale features
all tonal chords arranged in an unpredictable order that surprises and
delights the listener at every turn. The lovers emerge from the tomb,
boasting about what good they did. The entire cast encourages the audience:
"Fear not to die, good people all. No-one knows when his hour will fall.
Farewell in cheerfulness, farewell!"
Listing
Act I
1. Car Horn Prelude
2. Scene One: Dies Irae
3. Away, you swag-pot!
4. Shut up!
5. Oh...! - Amanda! Can do no more!
6. Ha-ha-ha-ha! Hey! Give me my requisites, slave
7. Melting snow is thy breast
8. Second Car Horn Prelude
9. Scene Two: One! Two! Three! Five!
10. Shapely and attractive figure
11. Venus! Venus!
12. Stop! - Sh!... Quiet, for heaven's sake!
13. Who's there? A Man? - A Man!
14. Finale: Fire and death I bring
Act II
1. Scene Three: Door Bell Prelude
2. Arse licker, arse-kisser!
3. Posture exercises!
4. Tsk... - Pssst! Ha! Head of my Secret Service
5. Ahh! ...Secret cypher!
6. Hurray, hurray! My wife is dead, hurray!
7. Nekrotzar's Entrance
8. Woe! Ooh! For the day of wrath
9. There's no need to fear
10. Up! - Drink! - Up!
11. Galimatias: Hmm! It's delicious
12. Where am I? What time is it?
13. Interlude
14. Scene Four: Ghost Astradamors, are you dead?
15. Mirror Canon
16. Finale. Passacaglia: Ah, it was good