Suggestions for Act 1, Scene 1
Suggestions that are used as premises in the following scenario for an opening scene:
1) use Gabriel as God’s Representative on the stage, rather than having God be a person. This way we could use gender-neutral terms when referring to God (and avoid some costuming clichés too!)
2) Although the suggestions below rely on individual singers playing the roles of the 4 angel guides in Act 1 Scene 1, each could perhaps have a unique choral accompaniment. Then when the subsequent scenes on earth take place, the guides could perhaps be present solely in the form of their choral voices-- ‘god shots’ that sound out on occasion to help the earthly geniuses along the correct path. The 4 singers would then be free to take on different assignments in the subsequent scenes.
Act 1, Scene 1
Curtain opens with Gabriel (as God’s Representative) standing stage right, facing the stage wings (no pun intended…). Behind Gabriel a group of other angels are gathered, including Uriel/Creativity, Perpetiel/Dream, Josphiel/Illumination, Gazardiel/New Beginning, and the novice Bastianel. All face the right stage wing, looking slightly upwards, mesmerized as they watch and listen, some of them clearly aghast.
Bright bursts of light emanate from offstage where they are watching, the flashes accompanied alternately by terrifying sounds of battle, piteous cries of starving children, the agitated honking of car horns at what sounds like crowds of beggars, painful coughing and moans of agony. The lights and sounds slowly fade.
Gabriel turns to the group behind him
Gabriel:
God has a new calling for you
We know of your many angelic deeds—
A guiding hand,
A flash of insight,
Watching over as children sleep
But…
God believes there is more you can do
You see their actions and hear their thoughts (gesturing over to stage wing on the right):
“God is dead” or
at least far away
No one is listening when God talks
Yet—
Even the most of unholy of them
Will call on an angel now and again
So your God is now asking you
To beat your wings with a greater span
Awaken them!
Your turn—save them!
You’re charged with creating The Plan
Put your halo’d heads together
Ideas, yee angels, bring us your best ideas!
The future of earth resides in your hands.
(Much bustling, pondering, creating of lists and hand-waving amongst our angels. Almost eagerly, Gazardiel steps forward)
* Gazardiel:*
Think how wonderfully
A soul on earth transforms
When told of ‘incurable’ disease
Life becomes precious
Small things…cherished
Vision…unclutters
Think how wonderful
To ‘inflict’ all with this
manner of gift
A plague, perhaps?
Swiftly rising flood?
Gabriel pause, then speaks thoughtfully
Gabriel:
Too indirect
Often…misinterpreted as punishment
‘wrath’ of God nonsense
Fear is the opposite of the feeling we want
(Uriel and Perpetiel raise their hands together, then at a nod from Gabriel speak rapidly)
* Uriel, Perpetiel:*
Let us manipulate their dreams
You know it’s been done…
Let us plant visions of humanity
Show scenes from their lives
Played out with integrity
Really…you know it’s been done!
Gabriel:
Free Will, good friends, Free Will
This borders on tampering
With that sacred tenant
Besides—those there on earth
Think a ‘dream’ is something
That can never be attained
Josphiel then steps forward
* Josphiel:*
We should send a new Messiah!
It’s been too long
The message has grown stale
Now their methods can spread
The word faster, more purely
A Great One who will answer all questions
Answer for all to hear together
No riddles or parables or whatever they were
A Prophet who dies happily
…I like ‘happily’
Gabriel:
Yikes.
This didn’t work as God planned last time.
Peopled divided instead of united.
Hell, it’s still getting worse day by day!
Really makes God look bad.
No, I’m afraid we can’t risk it.
(Following Gabriel’s response, confused, agitated conversation takes place amongst the angels. The novice Bastianel raises a hand. )
* Bastianel:*
Instead of more messengers
Who never fit in
by sheer definition
of their outcast natures
We could send leaders
Who, instead of rejecting money and power
Adapt them, use them as the tools they are
To change big things, in bigger ways
Creative minds, GENIUS souls--
Think of what we have on hand
Those washed pure again,
lulled in limbo—
Mozart! (etc.)
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Comments
Nancy and I, we are amending a bit the text of the first scene supported by a musical idea and we are confident we might present our job by the end of the next week.
Hello all --Here are some revisions attempting to incorporate the suggestion to make God the shareholder, and Gabriel nervous about losing his job as CEO
Act 1, Scene 1
1)Overture ... music commenting on videoclips and pictures showing mankind's suffering projected on a screen... God's musical voice slowly emerging (as a kind of main theme) and then, at the climax of the overture, awfully thundering with no underlying music ...
2) Sudden darkness and absolute silence fall on stage (few seconds)
3) Lights turn on the Angels Board of Directors meeting, several angels seated round a conference table. An administrative assistant, Bastianel, stands quietly aside when not engaged in passing out copies of documents, refilling cups, or fetching supplies.
*Gabriel, trance-like, eyes closed and arms raised, channels God’s thoughts in a kind of stream-of-consciousness:*
Bleak, blind, murky earth
Doubting, doomed, desolate souls
Violent, malignant, warring spirits
withering wretched wasteland
reclaim…or REVOKE!
*Gabriel’s meditative state ends. He opens his eyes and lowers his hands to his side. Picking up a tablet from the table, Gabriel uneasily flips pages back and forth, scanning his notes. Assuming a direct and very serious manner, he tensely addresses the collective of angels.*
As your CEA
I’ve called this emergency session
At God’s request
And with specific directions (or “and with God’s ultimatum”?)
As these images demonstrate
Heaven has failed to connect
Failed to connect
with our audience on earth
Our attempts at bailout
very quickly dried out
Famine and Fear
Terror and Greed
Their ‘milestone’ of a new century
Did nothing
To keep their eyes on eternity
And our merger with Globalism
Still nets a gain in devastations
The present administration
Has been given an ultimatum
The new directive is “Judgment Day” (or: “You could call it a ‘Judgment Day’)
God, our primary shareholder
is troubled, God is in torment
The Free Will Project
That we know and tend as ‘Earth’
Has not met projections
Not met God’s expectations
Angel leaders
our Great Shareholder
has tasked us with a restructuring
So deep and
so far reaching as to be earth changing
The Free Will Project must be reclaimed
And souls collectively rearranged
The present administration
Has been given an ultimatum
The new directive is “Judgment Day” (or: “You could call it a ‘Judgment Day’)
God is firm
The direction is clear
The deadline is now
We must act
Use our insight
And our influence
To help fix this creation
So I open the floor
To your propositions
Hi!
The composers are eager to start composing, so I'll make a summary of Nancy's writings and our discussions. That way the composing can start next week.
Good job, Nancy! It's great that you have been so active. I think you're heading to the right direction especially if we make the conversation after Gabriel's aria light and witty. The modern language makes the message grimmer and more convincing.
I think it's a good idea to free the actors of the angels to other roles in II and III act. Right now there's so much characters and I'm not sure what the real, active role of the angels would be on Earth. I have one suggestion though, what if Bastianel was sent to Earth with the Genius to help them and keep them on the right track? After all it's his idea, and the audience could identify with his stress when things won't go exactly as planned
I also have one suggestion about God. It doesn't have to be decided yet, but what if we would see a glimpse of him/her/it in the end? It's a matter of taste, but I tend to like plots with some kind of secret or surprise.
Graziano's coaching is very helpful! Here's a 'shot' at a reworking of the first part of Scene One. Let me know if this is closer to the correct mood of the piece.
Act 1, Scene 1
1)Overture ... music commenting on videoclips and pictures showing mankind's suffering projected on a screen... God's musical voice slowly emerging (as a kind of main theme) and then, at the climax of the overture, awfully thundering with no underlying music ...
2) Sudden darkness and absolute silence fall on stage (few seconds)
3) Lights turn on the Angels Board of Directors meeting, several angels seated round a conference table. An administrative assistant, Bastianel, stands quietly aside when not engaged in passing out copies of documents, refilling cups, or fetching supplies.
Gabriel, trance-like, eyes closed and arms raised, channels God’s thoughts in a kind of stream-of-consciousness:
Bleak, blind, murky earth
Doubing, doomed, desolate souls
Violent, malignant, warring spirits
withering wretched wasteland
distress…distress
Gabriel’s meditative state ends. He opens his eyes and lowers his hands to his side. Picking up a tablet from the table, Gabriel assumes a direct and very serious manner, scanning his notes then addressing the collective of angels.
As your CEA
I’ve called this emergency session
At God’s request
And with specific directions
As these images demonstrate
Heaven has failed to connect
Failed to connect
with our audience on earth
Our attempts at bailout
very quickly dried out
Famine and Fear
Terror and Greed
Their ‘milestone’ of a new century
Did nothing
To keep their eyes on eternity
And our merger with Globalism
Still nets a gain in devastations
Angel leaders, earth shareholders
God is troubled, God’s in torment
The Free Will Project
That we know and tend as ‘Earth’
Has not met projections
Not met God’s expectations
Angel leaders
Earth shareholders
God has tasked us with a restructuring
So deep and
so far reaching as to be earth changing
The Free Will Project must be reclaimed
And souls collectively rearranged
God is in agony
We must act
Use our insight
And our influence
To help fix this creation
So I open the floor
To your propositions
Yep Lida you got it!
I'd prefer giving Nancy time to rework the draft and then moving to a definitive fine tuning with a more direct cooperation (I mean I could then suggest modifications and Nancy could amend and improve them). I'm sure we'll close the opening scene gross draft by the end of August (I talk of a gross draft because in my experience writing a Libretto is always kind of iterative process ... so, as you move ahead, you often need to go back to previous scenes and apply some light changes here and there ... it's unavoidable ... you find the perfect balance - or something next to it - only when the writing is over ...)
I think it's a good idea to keep the language modern. I.e: "What about new Messiah?" "Look what happened to the last one"
Graziano, what about writing the changes yourself?
Iida
Nancy said: "The portrayal of earth’s suffering could even take the form of an overture to the work, maybe, that morphs into the opening scene?"
Yes I think so, in my opinion it would work fine.
I don't remember the singing squid in the movie “The Fifth Element” (Luc Besson, right?), but once we accept Seppo's basic idea to give God only a musical shape, then I guess the problem is solved and we might save one singer ...
Nancy said: "For the opening scene, Graziano’s ‘Angel Board of Directors’ could be a very amusing presentation. My first impulse was to sway most of the sarcasm and wit towards Lucifer’s camp, with God’s team more dead-pan/’straight man’ stuff. Better to keep that tone in this opening scene too, however? It would mesh better with a Board of Director’s setting".
I think Nancy hit the bull's-eye. Devils are a real disaster, they are all awfully feckless bunglers fated to failure, Lucifer himslef is kind of a hysterical effeminate Narcissus ... so needless to say that I agree on Nancy's idea of devoting the largest part of sarcasm to the devil's camp. Nevertheless as to the opening scene I would welcome here and there some witty exchange of cues commenting those weird ideas of a new flooding or of some other kind of plagues ... (maybe with references to more recent events) ... and with Gabriel (acting as a real CEO) trying to draw back the discussion to a more serious tone ... The setting might be that of a Board of directors of a Corp and Bastianel could behave as a sort of waiter pouring water into the glasses of the "senior" angels attending the meeting in their capacity of Directors ...
As to the 4 angel guides ... yes Nancy's concern about time constraints is well founded. I'm aware of the problem and I think that we need to reduce their number to 2 (same measure to be taken as to the devils by the way ... I suppose angel guides and devils' role might be played by the same singers ...).
Now ... back to the opening ... I wonder if it might be structured in the following way:
1) Ouverture ... music commenting on videoclips and pictures showing mankind's suffering projected on a screen (I'd personally prefer only music without any singing part) ... God's musical voice slowly emerging (as a kind of main theme) and then, at the climax of the ouverture, awfully thundering with no underlying music ...
2) Sudden darkness and absolute silence fall on stage (few seconds)
3) Lights turn on on the Angels Board of Directors meeting, Gabriel sings out God's theme pronouncing dreadful words (like in a sort of temporary state of trance ...) ... then the meeting begins
4) Opening Statemnet by Gabriel
5) Discussion (proposals might be attributed to the 4 angel guides already identified, 2 of them might be choir singers). Some choir singers might also make sarcastic comments on the proposals ... A choir refrains should be added soon after every proposal and comment have been done ... If we imagine Bastianel as a waiter moving around the table we can also introduce a kind of counterpoint here and there while the "senior angels" are arguing ...
6) Bastianel's proposal (sarcastically commented at first by the Senior Angels abruptely hushed up by Gabriel who encourages Bastianel to fully expose his plan)
7) Final decision
Some final remarks as a composer ...
If we follow the idea of the ouverture as above summarized, I suppose the opening musical colour will be intensely dramatic and dark, so soon after Gabriel has sung out his opening sentence, the scene of the meeting has to be the opposite ... sparkling, frizzy, faster ... verbal counterpoints may help a lot with short sentences and the choir role is important as well: we need to find an effective refrain ... I think the introductory speech by Gabriel shoud be kind of an Aria and then as the other Senior Angels start proposing their plans music change to a faster and more fragmented rhythm and melodic structure, broken here and there by counterpoints (Choir and Bastianel). When Bastianel takes the floor (that might happen as by accident) we listen once again to a short lied interrupted by the laughters of the Senoir Angels and by the harsh intervention by Gabriel in Bastianel's defence.
Last point (I swear): in my opinion language has to be kept modern (maybe some exceptions might sound good if they are useful to characterize one or two of the Angels attending the meeting).
I wonder if Nancy would rework a bit her first drafting of the opening scene before moving to the next one ... Nancy, I suggest that you close your eyes and try to see all the scene from the beginning to the end like a movie ... and figure out all the emotions the characters on the stage would raise in you by their actions and words ...
Graziano
Also we might not be able to get 4 singers to play the roles of the angel guides especially if we have 4 genious.
Great ideas everybody! Maybe the other angels could be presented in a more sarcastic tone, but God and Bastianel would represent the more serious tone of the story?
It is fun to have things rolling! I really like Seppo’s ideas about using music as God’s voice. The portrayal of earth’s suffering could even take the form of an overture to the work, maybe, that morphs into the opening scene?
Lida raises a nice challenge about finding an unconventional portrayal of God on the stage, possibly something that is not at all ‘human’ in form could pair with the music? The image that comes to my mind (it’s okay—go ahead and laugh) is the singing squid in the movie “The Fifth Element”, performing an unearthly soprano part from the opera Lucia di Lammermoor. The notes are so high the words are unintelligible, but still transformative.
For the opening scene, Graziano’s ‘Angel Board of Directors’ could be a very amusing presentation. My first impulse was to sway most of the sarcasm and wit towards Lucifer’s camp, with God’s team more dead-pan/’straight man’ stuff. Better to keep that tone in this opening scene too, however? It would mesh better with a Board of Director’s setting.
I agree completely with Graziano that incorporating the 4 angel guide roles into the opening scene is unnecessary, and possibly restrictive on their roles in terms of the subsequent Acts. I’m wondering about time constraints, however. If it takes roughly 3 times as long to sing something as to speak it, and if the ideal length for an opera is about 2 hours, can we fit in 3-4 geniuses and the development of their world-changing concepts? Or do we stop with 2 geniuses, or use all 4 but apply them from different angles to the same conceptual goal?
Bright pure light may be the representative for god, perhaps the god talking is only music playing and variation in light, colouring of it for example. And then after the divine god talking, the melody is over, Gabriel starts as a resitative his interpretation of divine messages.
Great Job Nancy!
Avoiding clichés is a must, I agree. As to God leaving the character out of the stage might be a solution though not the only one. I thought God as a woman and that might help. In any case I like Gabriel's portrait as God representative. I also like Seppo's idea of assigning to music the task of giving voice to God and at the same time to mankind's suffering.
I'm not so sure about the general mood of the scene ... I thought about something brilliant and humorous ... maybe by adding some sarcastic comments on the first ideas emerged from the discussion ...
I also thought that the meeting should resemble more a board of directors meeting of a large corporation ...
And though I see the point in giving the four angel guides the role of exposing the first ideas, I feel not comfortable with such a decision, depending on the way I think they should be characterized in the following stages of the plot (just to give you the idea ... in my mind all the angel guides are women ... the one attending Mozart should be kind of a jazz singer ...)
Did I give u food for thought? I hope so ...
Great job, Nancy! I also think that presenting the suffering of the world by music is a good idea. Maybe it could be presented by the choir, different voices "complaining" about all kinds of terrible destinies. You've done a good job with the dialogue also. I just think we should still try to show God somehow because it could be a great challenge trying to find a way that isn't such a cliché.
Iida
Could it be presented so, that god's voice is music, playing the same musical phrase first loud that Gabriel afterwards sings out, thus interpreting the message? Or is it too much of a cliche?
I like the idea of yours that is presenting the suffering of the world, in the way of different sounds and lights playing there describing the state of nowadays hectic life.