A rather sketchy rendition of Stan Rogers beautiful lament for the bygone cod fisheries of New England.
Tag: opera
The Damnation of Drumph
Act 1, scene 1–Video projection screen shows a newscaster.
Newscaster: We go now to Bedminster cemetery, old site of the Reality Theme Park and final resting place of the ancient Drumph line, where a meeting of the Executors of Fate are gathered for their annual rites.
The screen lifts to show a rocky, wooded landscape. In the center is a small stone building from which emerges the sounds of the chorus.
Chorus: We bearers of the sacred flame lift our praise to the blessed real and true.
Two cemetery groundskeepers enter and sit down for lunch under Malignia’s tomb.
Juan: As a boy I came to the Theme Park. I got lost in the Deep State Labyrinth, saw the radioactive Butoh Trolls, and rode Mister Moglievich’s Wild Ride. Those were the days.
Rosalita: We had crossed jungles, trod the scorched highways of Mexico, only to be caged by ICE–all for our share of reality.
Chorus: Caged by Ice and detained.
Juan: But then came the fall of Drumph’s brand, and now these weathered stones are fallen; haunted only by wraiths and the ambiguous birds of augury.
Chorus: The ambiguous birds.
The Entombment of Drumph–Storyboard continued. Malignia’s lament echoes over the Bedminster Cemetary, haunting the gravedigger’s toil. Manuel sings of the old days when the tremendous tomb of Drumph was being raised high above the 18th green, and the townsfolk grieved under the oppressors yoke to produce the ultimate reality show–Death. But who can emerge unscathed from the Plutonic realm?
Russia, if you’re listening–
A song with chorus by Margaret Lily, inspired by one of Drumph’s most ambiguous statements. Whatever could it mean?
Teresias as a woman led by youth.
The Tomb of Drumph
The Tomb of Drumph–
Storm at Mar-a-Lago
Act 3–A tsunami engulfs Maralago’s marbled halls.
Storyboard for an opera–Dead from Maralago
Breaking news–The ocean currents off Maralago’s splendid shore are treacherous in their circuitously dissembling convolutions.
Belshazzar at Mar-a-Lago–Storyboard for an opera
1. The first panel shows ocean currents sweeping along Florida’s eastern shore.
2. The Prime Minister of Japan arrives by limo and sits down to a sumptuous feast.
3-4. The exotic guests drink from the sacred vessels.
5. The Japanese PM gazes upon the splendors of Mar a lago.
6. Belshazzar beholds a cryptic Cypher writ large upon the wall. What does it mean?
Storyboard for an opera
I have begun work on an opera–Belshazzar at Mar-a-Lago.
A View from the Wheelhouse 